About
Mission & Vision:
My mission as an artist is to use traditional techniques that live through the ages and invite you to a world in another dimension that no one has ever seen.
At the age of 26, I didn’t know what management was, but I never imagined at the time that this K-BALLET, which I had launched and led by myself without public support, would grow to its current form.
Since then, a quarter of a century has been able to foster the current solid and stable environment through the management of a ballet company by Japan’s only corporation that develops large-scale performance activities, the repertoire structure centered on original works, the permanent partnership with TBS Holdings Co., Ltd. and Tokyu Bunka Village Co., Ltd., and above all, the support of more than 2.5 million spectators. I am deeply grateful and proud.
The next chapter will open with a new name: K-BALLET TOKYO.
I hope that this name, which contains the responsibility and pride of disseminating ballet from Tokyo as a place of Western art that Japan can be proud of, will inherit the universal value that connects the past and the future, and create a new history that can be proud of the history of ballet——。
K-BALLET TOKYO General Director
Tetsuya Kumagawa
Company Info:
In 1998, Tetsuya Kumagawa, who celebrated his 10th year with the Royal Ballet, left the company without resting on his feats and glory as the first Asian to become principal. In order to pursue his ideal ballet and performing arts, he established the K Ballet Company in 99. In September 2002, he set up a studio in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, which serves as the company’s base, and took this opportunity to start full-fledged activities as an orthodox classical ballet company, focusing on classical full-act works. Based on the philosophy of inheriting ballet, a comprehensive art form established in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in the correct style, Kumagawa has released a series of productions that incorporate his own thoughts on the classics as the “Kumagawa version”.
By attracting more than 100,000 visitors for more than 50 performances a year, the company presented its original form as a professional ballet company, such as its management independence as a private organization and the improvement of the treatment of its dancers, and its activities became a stone in the Japan ballet world.
The transformation extends to the field of ballet education and stage music. In 2005, with an eye on the development of the general arts, he launched the orchestra “Theater Orchestra Tokyo” with theater as its main place of activity, and became the only ballet company in Japan to have an orchestra under its umbrella.
Awards:
And in recent years, a notable activity is the presentation of new works by Kumagawa. The constant presentation of original full-act ballet works such as “Cleopatra”, “Carmina Burana”, and “Clarimondo: The Love of the Dead”, which are completely original ballets from the libretto, and “Madama Butterfly” and “Carmen”, which have been successfully adapted into operas, are creative activities that are unparalleled in the world and are attracting high attention. Since 2014, it has become the first official partner company of the Lausanne International Ballet Competition in Japan, and its quality has been evaluated worldwide, and it is evaluated as one of the top companies in Asia
Extra Information:
In 2012, Tetsuya Kumagawa became the first artistic director of Bunkamura Orchard Hall, and in November 2018, K Ballet Company signed a franchise agreement with Tokyu Bunka Village Co., Ltd. to realize continuous performance activities based on the theater that will be its home
