Starting ballet at the age of six, Ikuyo Kuroda moved to England in 1997 to learn contemporary dance. In 2002, she founded BATIK. Rooted in ballet techniques, her radical and dynamic choreography pushes the body to the limit and combines with the fundamental impulses of dance, and has attracted a wide following. In addition to her work with BATIK, Kuroda frequently collaborates with such other artists as Jo Kanamori of Noism05, Norimizu Ameya, Hideo Furukawa, Akira Kasai, and Hideki Noda.