Ken Shiozawa
Guest artist

Ken Shiozawa was born in Japan and grew up in Irvine, California. He began his training at Ballet Pacifica at age seven and continued on at the Maple Conservatory of Dance, under the artistic direction of Charles Maple. He also trained at South Bay Ballet and spent his senior year of high school attending Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Full-Time Program. He has attended various summer programs including Washington Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and Oklahoma City Ballet, where he was offered a studio company position. In the summer of 2018, he toured and performed works in various cities throughout Eastern Europe. In May of 2020, he graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Psychology from Butler University. Ken also choreographs, creating works for Butler Ballet's Student Choreography Showcase for the past four years. In 2019, he attended Regional Dance America’s National Choreography Intensive as a Project Tier Choreographer. He has also won a grant from the Jordan College of the Arts to create works that were presented at the JCA Student Collaboration Showcase. Ken also teaches ballet and is qualified through level 6 of the RAD pedagogy.

Among his many performances, Ken's favorites include Isaac Sharratt’s South of the Blazer, Terrance S. Orr's Nutcracker, and Butler Ballet's Sleeping Beauty. His featured roles include the snow king in Karl von Rabenau’s Nutcracker Suite: A Duluth Tale, mechanical soldier in Butler Ballet's Nutcracker, Bluebird in Butler Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker Prince in Charles Maple's Nutcracker. This is Ken’s first season with the Minnesota Ballet as a company dancer.