Ayako Kato is an award-winning Japanese native and Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, improviser, teacher, and curator. Influenced by a Japanese view of nature and the philosophy of Tao, Ayako’s dance movement encourages to perceive the intangible, the beauty of being as it is, which affirms and nurtures the ephemeral nature and dignity of life.

In 2016, she received a 3Arts Award in Dance. She performed her works recently at venues/festivals such as 3Klang Tage, Switzerland; DOEK, Amsterdam, Holland; the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, CT; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; SpinOff Festival, Chicago Cultural Center. In Summer 2016, Ayako participated in the Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) of its National Dance Project (NDP) funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts with the Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF), and also performed blue fish -reveal- in Tabito Arts Meeting Festival in Fukushima, Japan.

Her recent group work The Incidents was selected for the Best of Dance 2014 in Chicago Tribune. Since 2010, Ayako has been an artist in residence at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater under Chicago Moving Company’s Dance Shelter Program.