Japanese-born Kayoko Watanabe trained in classical jazz and contemporary dance in Japan and France. A versatile dancer, she began her career as a jazz dancer at the age of 20 in a creation by the Broadway Dance Center in Tokyo, Japan, and danced in France in creations by Jean Guizerix, Candice and Delphine Schoevaert, Sylviane Catherine, Philippe Fialho, Cécile Theil-Mourad and Patricia Castejon, among others. At the same time, she began training for a state diploma as a dance teacher, in the teaching section with Cathy Bisson, which opened the way to teaching in several international schools.
Kayoko has been living in Switzerland since March 2019, and has taught dance in various schools in the canton of Vaud. She has also been invited to give several workshops at the AFJD (dance-study programme), master classes and judge the International Coastal Competition in 2020.
A teacher with the French state diploma in jazz dance since 2007, she has also run her own Compagnie Fusion Ballet, C.F.B. since 2015, and her own academy, of which she is founder and director, Jazz Dance Academy Montreux, since November 2020, affiliated to the French Dance Federation since 2022. In 2023, she will create the Junior Jazz Ballet Montreux (JJBM), in the form of a junior jazz ballet company.
French-Swiss Marie-Hélène Rey Lescure has always had a passion for classical dance, having practised it assiduously from an early age, and she quickly developed a vocation for sharing this passion. It is with a great deal of kindness that she tries to pass on the taste for effort, rigour and perseverance, but also the joy and pleasure of dancing that one feels when practising this marvellous art.
Between 1995 and 2013, Marie-Hélène danced in a number of shows at the Théâtre de Vevey as part of Animai, as well as in shows put on by the "Les Sylphides" school in Montreux. Since 2015, she has been a teacher at the Igokat dance academy in Lausanne, and a dance instructor for "Jeunesse + Sport" in Switzerland (youth and children's section).
Photo © Gert Weigelt
For over 15 years, Ai Koyama has been teaching contemporary, classical and improvisational dance to professionals, adults, children and athletes in Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
As a professional dancer, Ai Koyama has been working for the Linga company (CH) since 2007, and has worked for Nicole Seiler (CH), Heddy Maalem (FR), United Cowboys (NL), as well as collaborating with numerous independent artists on international projects.
Photo © Gregory Batardon
Ai started jazz dance at the age of 4 and classical dance at the age of 5 by Tatsuo Kasuya in Mito, Japan. Obtained a Bachelor of Arts [B.A. Dance and Dance Education] from the Universitý Ochanomizu (Department of Performing Arts) in Tokyo, and a Bachelor of Art [B.A. Choreographer and Dancer] from the Universitý of the Arts Amsterdam (Theatre and Dance - SNDO-Choreography) in Amsterdam.
She is certified as a "Health Exercise Instructor" by the Japan Health Promotion & Fitness Foundation.