Ayaka Taniguchi (dancer)

Ayaka was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She began her dance studies at the age of 5 with ballet, pointe, Jazz and Gyrokinesis. She began training privately with Luis Villanueva in ballet, pointe, and modern and in 2012 went on to study Lester Horton Technique under Mitsue Miyake. She trained on scholarship at the Ailey School 2013-2016. Ayaka has worked with Manuel Vignoulle, Matthew Rushing, Hope Boykin, Carlos Dos Santos, Saya Harada, Ronni Favors, Sean Aron Carmon and Elizabeth Roxas. She joined Saya Spring Dance Theater 2015, I KADA Contemporary Dance Company 2016-2017, Judah International Dance Theater 2016-2017, Grind Arts Company 2017 and New York Theatre Ballet 2017-2018