Brett Ishida
Guest Artist
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, JiÅ™í 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. Brett 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 launched Ishida Dance Company in the Spring of 2019 in Austin, Texas bringing together her two worlds of experience.