BIO

Brett Ishida is a fourth generation Japanese American—Yonsei—raised in a typical valley town of Porterville, California. She grew up working and dancing in between trees on her grandparents’ citrus ranch...

Brett’s love for dance inspired her to move away from home at age fifteen when she received a full scholarship at the Kirov Academy and later at SAB. She danced professionally with several US ballet companies culminating with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montréal where she toured performing around the world; she collaborated in new creations with choreographers and performed principal and soloist roles in repertoire by Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin and Didy Veldman, among others.

Enchanted by wordplay, Brett received a BA from UCLA in English with emphasis in Creative Writing: Poetry and later a MA in Montessori Education from St. Mary’s College. She was an educator and administrator in Texas, California, and in Greece devoted to promoting and implementing experiential arts in education and advocating for children with special learning needs. Brett felt by combining those two worlds from her past, she could be a new voice in contemporary dance and started ISHIDA in 2019.

Already a sought-out choreographer for her work, Brett was commissioned by venerated ballerina and previous Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet and now Artistic Director of Houston Ballet, Julie Kent, to create a ballet for their NEXTsteps program held in June 2022. Pulitzer-prize winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman from The Washington Post deemed Brett Ishida’s piece homecoming which “tackled a deeply poignant, poetic theme” to be “remarkable.” The work was performed again at The Kennedy Center in November of 2022 and in the international 10,000 Dreams festival in June 2024, where it was reviewed in Ballet Herald as “the most memorable and effective piece in the program.” ISHIDA debuted her first commission for Houston Ballet in December 2024: what i was thinking while i was waltzing where the "audience was on its feet, roaring with approval,” wrote Adrienne Jones of PaperCity.

Brett 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. Her company, ISHIDA, creates 'memory houses' for audiences where themes and characters build relationships and familiarity in imitation of life’s enigma.