Born in 1987 in Mie, Midori Kurata graduated with a degree in moving image and performing arts from Kyoto University of Art and Design (now, Kyoto University of the Arts). She trained in classical and modern ballet from the age of three. Based in Kyoto, she works as a director, choreographer, and dancer. In each work she creates, she engages with herself and others, using the performance structures to bring out the phenomena in the form of fiction, and explore the possibilities of dance. Since 2016, Kurata has served as the head of akakilike, a performance group comprising only herself and a team of technical crew, and aspiring to create an environment in which performers and crew members can engage in the company’s works on an equal footing. In 2023, Family Portrait, the best-known work of early akakilike, was invited to Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels and Le Festival d’Automne à Paris, touring abroad for the first time. Kurata received the Kyoto City Artistic New Comer Award 2023 and the 18th Japan Dance Forum Award. From April 2024, she serves as the Artistic Director for dance at Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre.

Producing mainly theatre work, the company akakilike comprises only technical crew and Midori Kurata. The group aspires to have an equal footing for both crew members and performers. Each member of the collaborators is considered as an autonomous individual and they gather to do what they have to do for the company’s works.