Kenichi Ebina: Dancing to a Different Drummer
It’s a phenomenon, it’s pop culture, it’s being taught in main stream dance studios and small studios all over the world, it’s hip-hop!
Break-dancing, street dancing, hip-hop…it all began on the streets of New York and spread its wings far and wide. It reached Japan and opened a whole new world for a young high school student, Kenichi Ebina. He danced with friends, learned one step and did not know what the style was called. He watched videos and admired the pop culture. He saw a TV show about Las Vegas and thought “what is this place.” He also “wanted to ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on route 66” and so he had to come to the United States.
After high school his parents wanted him to continue his education and through family friends he enrolled on scholarship at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut to study English as a second language. It was at a freshman party that he joined in a dance circle and did some moves he learned in Japan. He was quite a hit with the college crowd. He says, “People loved my dancing and it made me feel good.” That was how it all started. There were a large percentage of international students at the university and they had festivals presenting performances and food styles from countries around the world. The Japanese students always won first prize. He watched videos and dancing in New York clubs and copied the style. Michael Jackson and the group Elite Force influenced his dancing style. Kenichi wanted to entertain a general audience and founded a dance group at the college.
Having no formal dance training didn’t stop him. Kenichi Ebina found a place for himself in the world of dance. His student following spread to a more general audience. “The energy received from the audience gave me a strong passion to continue,” he says. Now Kenichi is a one man show. His work is multi styled, part improvisation, part choreographed and involves lighting and costumes. He usually begins with the music: rock and jazz, and ethnic music; then he moves onto choreography, story line or theme. Sometimes he reverses the process.
Kenichi performs for high school and college students, corporate parties and clubs. His work is customized for each audience which varies in age from kids to 60’s and up. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theatre and Nippon Club and The Box, a late night club in New York which attracts many celebrities. His agents keep in on the road throughout America, and Europe. His popularity has spread by word of mouth and through his website: www.ebinaperformingarts.com.
Kenichi is an admirer of the Momix Dance Company and says he “is no longer narrow minded” and has broadened his horizons teaching hip-hop, street jazz and contemporary dance. He has taught for the Connecticut Ballet and Connecticut Conservatory of Dance.
In his spare time Kenichi likes to watch sports and play with his two year old daughter Linka. He met his wife Wakako through friends and made a duet for them but she no longer dances. For the future he would like to direct an Off-Broadway theater company using dance as multi-media entertainment. He considers himself very fortunate to have not had to take on additional jobs and to be able to work exclusively in the field of dance.
With ingenuity, Kenichi Ebina has made a place for himself and certainly moves to a different drummer. He never did get the Harley-Davidson; his passion turned to dance.