Interview with Kaori Kawabuchi

Kaori Kawabuchi is an actress, a dancer and a motion actor in video games who specializes in Samurai Sword dancing and choreography. Her work as a motion actor has appeared in games such as “Final Fantasy 13″, “The 3rd Birthday”, “Dissidia 12 Final Fantasy” and more. She is a member of the sword performance team “IDEAL” which has performed in many movies and live events.

In addition to her performances as a Samurai sword dancer her band, “KAO=S” performs internationally. It features the playing of a Shamisen (a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi.), a katana (samurai sword) and acoustic guitar. The Band will played in SXSW in Texas in 2012 and will perform again in 2013.

Kaori, it is a pleasure to meet you. When you were young what did you want to grow up to be and were you always interested in the Arts?

Hi Tom!! It’s my pleasure to me you too! When I was young girl I wanted to be Indie Jones because I really liked movies, adventures and traveling and yes、I liked many kind of arts

For example manga, video games, musics and especially anime.

Can you tell us a little about how you became a dancer?

Sure. The first contact with dance was ballet. When I was 8 years old my mother took me to the Ballet school. At first I didn’t like it because there were many feminine girls. I was a girl look like boy so it was boring for me to be like typical ballet girl. After 2 years I quit the ballet and I started Kung-Fu.

I really like Jackie Chan!! and it was good for me to fight. When I was junior high school student, I won the 5th prime in Japan. Now I mix ballet and Kung-Fu. It is my original dance style.

How did you first begin to train in swordsmanship?

It was about 7 years ago. My first sword play was for a historical drama about Samurai. The encounter with Sword Katana was so important for me. I felt that this is my way to perform!

 

How did you come up with the concept for IDEAL?

I love manga and anime and, of course, video games like FINAL FANTASY. So I try to perform and fight as one of the characters, wearing costumes like characters and learning to move like them. It felt so nice.

Then I thought that performing with many people would be much more exciting so I started to find team members to perform and fight with me.

How hard is it to choreograph the dance/fight moves?

Not so hard because I love to make performances. It is even happiness if I have accident when I make art. I try to always do something new but stay true to traditional Samurai sword fighting.

When you do motion work for video games how do they track your motion?

I wear special costumes and the motion engineer puts small balls on my body to record my motion. It is great technique of CG and ways of tracking motion are improved every day.

You are very beautiful, do you model as well?

Oh,Thank you ! Yes ,I am a model too. I also take photos. I like photo arts very much!!

Tell us a little about your band “Kao=S”.

Ka0=S is my band. The style is….. I think Japanese traditional meets rock!  It’s Kao=S’s concept. Hard, Deep, Beautiful and Dramatic.

Where does the name come from?

Kao=S is formed with Tugaru-Shamisen, Katana, Guitar and Shakuhachi. So many sources are mixed. It is Chaos and my name is Kaori so I mixed it into Kao=S.

We performed at SXSW in 2012 and now in 2013 too! We will appear in Texas!!I can’t wait. I am so excited about my show in Austin again!!

What do you hope audiences think of your performance?

I hope they come and just feel our sound. Feel my motion and emotion. My sword dance is so tender and so hard.

What goals do you have for the future?

I have many goals. One of them is that many people see our performances and love our arts and I wanna make a good wave to make the world happy.

Where can we go to find out information about you and your projects?

Here is my information. You can find my pictures too. Check it out!!

☆Sword performance Team 偉伝或～IDEAL～

http://actionideal.blog133.fc2.com/

☆Kao=S

http://www.kaos-japan.com/

☆Kaori Kawabuchi Facebook

http://facebook.com/kaori.kawabuchi

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