Ms. Aoi

Ms. Aoi was originally from Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 3, she began dancing ballet at the Matsuyama Ballet company studio. At the age of 10, she joined and performed in many concerts and performances with the Matsuyama Ballet Company. Ms. Aoi also studied jazz, ballet, contemporary, tap, and musical theater at the Breath Performing Arts Studio in Japan. She performed in musicals such as Cats, A Chorus Line, Wicked, and Hairspray in her high school. 

Ms. Aoi came to the U.S. in 2015 to attend Orange Coast College (OCC) as a dance major and has taken many different styles of dance classes, such as Ballet, Modern, Hip-hop, choreography, tap, Jazz, Flamenco, Middle Eastern, and Latin. She has received several scholarships and awards from the OCC Dance department for 3 consecutive years. In 2018, she had the honor of performing with OCC in the American College Dance Association’s National Conference at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. In 2020, she received her BA in Dance from University of California, Irvine where she trained under Lar Lubovitch, Tong Wang, and Loretta Livingston, performing in many student and faculty dance concerts. Ms. Aoi has danced professionally with José Costas’s Contempo Ballet since 2016. She currently teaches mini ballet and creative movement at YDA.