"Bon Bons From Some Emerging Choreographers"
by Jenifer Dunning, New York Times, May 7, 2005
Kiyoko Kashiwagi began the evening on a charmingly antic note in "Metamorphosis." She was transformed from a curious little dark-hooded creature with large eyeglasses and unruly limbs into a pretty but much less interesting young woman. The solo, a mix of mime, hip-hop and modern dance, was set to well-chosen music by Shuichiro Nakamura, Takeo Yamashita and Filippa Giordano, with video by Kazuhiro Soda.
"The return of the son in cartoon version"
Un Soir Ou Un Autre, Danse Theatre Sons Partis Pris Mots Buto Amnésies, 22 march, 2007
"The A.W.A.R.D. Show! finals"
by Ilona Wall, ExploreDance.com, May 24, 2007
All four works throughout the evening had an air of eager ambition about them. Each short piece, whether charming, humorous, or intense, was performed with refreshing dedication to the work... The final performance started on a light note with Anime Dance Theatre's "Romeo the Thief and Juliet the Guard" choreographed by Kiyoko Kashiwagi. Using sections of the Prokofiev Suite from Romeo and Juliet, Ms. Kashiwagi and Vincent McCloskey cleverly took us from the heist of the Mona Lisa by a veiled Romeo to the passionate Juliet shedding her police guard uniform to seduce him. Juliet's opening jazzy patrol of the painting retreated as Romeo humorously scaled the wall in pursuit of his Rosalind, the Mona Lisa. When Juliet caught him and forced off his mask, love was in the air. Cue the Balcony scene music. Kashiwagi was clever enough to refer to both Shakespeare's lines and Ashton's trademark choreography complete with abandoned running, lifts, and the use of dance sneakers as pointe shoes for balances. In the end, of course, Romeo and the painting got away, and Juliet was left too love-struck to notice. The piece was charming and convincingly....
All four works throughout the evening had an air of eager ambition about them. Each short piece, whether charming, humorous, or intense, was performed with refreshing dedication to the work... The final performance started on a light note with Anime Dance Theatre's "Romeo the Thief and Juliet the Guard" choreographed by Kiyoko Kashiwagi. Using sections of the Prokofiev Suite from Romeo and Juliet, Ms. Kashiwagi and Vincent McCloskey cleverly took us from the heist of the Mona Lisa by a veiled Romeo to the passionate Juliet shedding her police guard uniform to seduce him. Juliet's opening jazzy patrol of the painting retreated as Romeo humorously scaled the wall in pursuit of his Rosalind, the Mona Lisa. When Juliet caught him and forced off his mask, love was in the air. Cue the Balcony scene music. Kashiwagi was clever enough to refer to both Shakespeare's lines and Ashton's trademark choreography complete with abandoned running, lifts, and the use of dance sneakers as pointe shoes for balances. In the end, of course, Romeo and the painting got away, and Juliet was left too love-struck to notice. The piece was charming and convincingly....
"If I had three thumbs, I'd put them all up!"
by David Neumann, 2005
...choreographer and dancer Kiyoko Kashiwagi, Japan-born and New York-based, has taken the animation process one step further in her Anime Dance Theater....
"Full of Humor"
by Akiko Nishimura, OCS NEWS, August 16, 2004
The dancer/ choreographer Kiyoko Kashiwagi, founder of ANIME DANCE THEATER, presented her new dance piece "X Kills Y, and Vice Versa" at HERE Arts Center in SoHo on August 16th, as a part of the 15th Annual American Living Room Festival. The piece was made, in part, during a residency program at White Oak sponsored by The Field, and is a fascinating dance comedy, which reveals Kashiwagi's charm throughout. The mad scientist, Dr. X (performed by Kashiwagi), is requested to invent a new weapon of mass destruction and creates a cyborg (performed by Susi Takahashi) who has gigantic breasts. As a result of some unexpected experimentation, Dr. X is transformed into a pretty girl (Y). Y falls in love with a hero (Vincent McCloskey) who is a believer in peace. Through the use of elements such as a superhero song from the Showa Period in Japan, and video images (by Kazuhiro Soda) of an explosion of nuclear weapons, Kashiwagi satirizes a world in which the wrong people have their way.
"...a lighthearted ditty with moments of poignancy..."
by Susan Yung, The DanceInsider, 2001
"Lone Ant," a largely solo endeavor by Kiyoko Kashiwagi, was a minimally produced, lighthearted ditty. In "Lone Ant," seen Wednesday, Kashiwagi played the title insect, apparently a sort of super-heroine reachable by cell phone. Ideas were conveyed through pantomime and dance, primarily bits of jazz mixed with martial arts, pageantry, and aerobics, to a pop music soundtrack. The ant was assisted by numerous inflatable animals, insects and the brief appearances of Monica Reyes. The hour-long show traced the ant's inexorable aging process, and her attempts to maintain shreds of her youthful pride and physical prowess. Kashiwagi has a rubbery face that rapidly contorts between emotions to hilarious effect, and a wiry facility to capably shape the physical caricatures. It was a small production with moments of poignancy.
"Relying Upon One's Own Antennas"
by Tomohiro Imura, OCS NEWS, October 12, 2001
A New York based dancer/choreographer, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, founder of ANIME DANCE THEATER, presented a solo dance piece "Lone Ant" at the Joyce SoHo in downtown NYC on October 12th, 13th and 14th. Kashiwagi performs as a comical "super ant." She fights against "the evil" all over the globe, but decides not to fight anymore after a tragic incident. With the accompaniment of a dramatic soundtrack that reminds you of 1970 Japanese animations, and through the use of humorous props, Kashiwagi expresses how the ant believes completely in justice in the beginning yet becomes skeptical about what justice is in the end. Kashiwagi says that she was often told that she looks like and moves like characters in Japanese animation. So that's how she started calling her dance style "anime dance." She also said that she started conceiving this piece when she read a book about ants and found an interesting similarity between ants and herself: ants work together as a group, but they also act individually by relying upon their own antennas, and that is the same way Kashiwagi says she operates in American society.
"You'll be glad you went"
By Antonio Sacre, Theatre Reviews Limited
Two super hero crime fighters dressed in sexy boots, white shirts, super hero emblems, and wild helmets fight crime in Kiyoko Kashiwagi's "New SunSun York," an Anime Dance style that utilizes movement, gestures, and facial expressions adapted from those of characters in Japanese animation films and comics. The result is humorous, sexy, and provocative, as the crime-fighters kick ass all over the city. It's worth the price of admission just to see our crime fighters at home, watching TV, putting on makeup, or hilariously giving each other a massage. At one point, an evil mind control woman, ClinkClink carried on the shoulders of Barbarin, manipulates unsuspecting citizens to set a trap for our crime fighters, and they ultimately fall in combat, their emblems ripped off their chests and velcroed onto the next batch of crime fighters, who will do the evil ClinkClink's bidding at the expense of us noble, poor tax payers. This piece of wonderful choreography is carefully executed by all of the dancers to a skillful sound score that serves as narrator and sound scape at the same time. You'll be glad you went.
"Purely Entertaining. Great for the kids"
By Shannon Murphy, Propaganda Reviews
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