AYAKO KATO is a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer who hails from Yokohama, Japan. Since 1998,
she has been an artistic director of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AUH) and presented and
performed her works extensively in the United States, Japan, and Europe. In 2014, she received
Chicago-Lucerne Art Residency Grant from Swiss Benevolent Society and was also selected as an artist-in-residence at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign through Chicago’s Links Hall LinkUP with
Dance program. She presented an hour movement installation “The Incidents” at the Pivot Arts Festival 2014 supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and also presented “Incidents II” through the Engaging Dance Audiences program of Audience Architects, administered by Dance/USA with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She has been studying dance anatomy under Irene Dowd since 2007 through intensives. In addition to classical ballet and modern dance, she studied Tai Chi, Noh Theater, and Butoh with master Kazuo Ohno, one of the founders. On SeeChicagoDance, Sid Smith states about  her choreography for “Incidents II,” “the meaning behind Kato’s exploration is both as precise as molecular physics and expansive as the far reaches of multiple galaxies.”