Member Profile

Brett Ishida

Website

Female / She/Her/Hers

Ishida is Japanese American and grew up on a citrus farm in California’s Central Valley. Her love for dance inspired her to move away from home at age fifteen when she received a full scholarship to Kirov Academy and later to School of American Ballet in NYC. She danced with Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, where she first choreographed, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens performing works by celebrated choreographers Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, and Ohad Naharin, among others. She later graduated from UCLA earning a BA in Literature with emphasis in Poetry. She felt by combining those two worlds from her past, she could become a new voice in contemporary dance and started her own company, ISHIDA, captivating audiences in Houston.
From the onset, ISHIDA’s work has been critically acclaimed: Broadway World described her work as “stunning and compelling…an incredible boon to the Houston art scene.” Dance Magazine named ISHIDA in the venerated ‘25 to Watch’ and The Washington Post’s Pulitzer-prize winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman deemed ISHIDA’s piece "home-coming" which “tackled a deeply poignant, poetic theme” to be “remarkable.” ISHIDA’s work was presented at the10,000 Dreams festival at The Kennedy Center in June 2024 featuring works by top Asian Choreographers around the world; Ballet Herald reviewed ISHIDA’s work as “the most memorable and effective piece in this program.” In 2024, ISHIDA debuted her first commission for Houston Ballet: "what i was thinking while i was waltzing"; Adrienne Jones of PaperCity stated, “it was unforgettable; the audience was on its feet, roaring with approval.”
ISHIDA’s work intertwines reflections of ancient timeless themes of Greek philosophy and poetry with subconscious memories which shape who we are and where we are going. ISHIDA creates 'memory houses' for audiences where themes and characters build relationships and familiarity that might pull at our heartstrings in imitation of life’s enigma.