Denise Fujiwara

Early Years and Education

Denise Fujiwara began her movement career as a young athlete at her local high school in Scarborough where the Canadian Gymnastics Team trained. Fujiwara and her sister both received elite gymnastic training until an injury that made Denise switch to rhythmic gymnastics, while her sister became Junior National Champion. Fujiwara competed internationally for several years as a Canadian Rhythmic Gymnastics champion.

After competing at the international level, Fujiwara turned to dance. She completed an Honours BFA at York University's dance department, in which she practised classical ballet, modern and contemporary dance techniques, and was introduced to American post-modern improvisation methods.

In an interview with Stephen K. Levine, Fujiwara cites her mother, who performed in a modern dance company during Denise’s youth, as an inspiration for her career, stating that modern dance motivated her to “go beyond [her] gymnastic training, and use movement to be articulate and expressive and actually say something about the world we live in”.

Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise (TIDE)

In 1978 during the first National Choreographic Seminar, Denise Fujiwara decided with other choreographers to start the collective Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise (TIDE). Over its tumultuous eleven-year history, TIDE performed a diverse body of contemporary choreography, including Fujiwara's work, across Canada. Fujiwara describes the collective as a “hot-house for learning, experimenting, creating, critiquing and dancing”. The members worked alongside theatre director Anne Bogart and studied under dance artists such as Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson. Fujiwara also studied intensively with the all-male San Francisco dance company Mangrove.

Solo Projects

Denise Fujiwara created Fujiwara Dance Inventions in 1991 to continue her solo projects. Notably in 1993, she began studying butoh with master choreographer and performer Natsu Nakajima. Nakajima created her interpretation of Motomasa's 15th century Noh play, Sumida River, for Fujiwara. Her performance was named Best Dance Performance of 2000 by Toronto NOW Magazine. Sumida River established Fujiwara as a senior solo dance artist and butoh practitioner.

In 2005, Denise Fujiwara premiered her second major butoh work, Komachi by Yukio Waguri. Her other solo projects and commissions include Spontaneous Combustion, Vanishing Acts, Elle Laments, Brief Incarnations and Lost and Found. Fujiwara’s career brought her to tour in various festivals across the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. She also choreographed the acclaimed group works Conference of the Birds and No Exit.

Denise Fujiwara developed a multimedia adaptation of Canadian writer and Griffin Poetry Prize recipient Christian Bök’s Eunoia (Coach House Books, 2001). The show premiered in March 2014 at in Harbourfront Centre Theatre (formerly Enwave Theatre) in Toronto (see Harbourfront Centre). She was also behind the creation of Moving Parts, a “captivating piece featuring a moving choir and singing dancers”, and the award-winning short films Noppera-bo and Valley of Shadows while collaborating with acclaimed choreographer and director William Yong. Fujiwara has also worked closely with Canadian dance dramaturge Elizabeth Langley.

Other Endeavours

In 1997, Denise Fujiwara co-founded the CanAsian Dance Festival (now known as the CanAsian International Dance Festival) along with other members of Toronto’s Asian Heritage Month Festival’s Dance Committee. The festival aims to “[prioritize] the creativity of Asian diasporic dance artists and practitioners of Asian dance forms”. Fujiwara was artistic director until 2022.

Denise Fujiwara has taught workshops in Canada, the United States, India, Europe and South America. She has taught dance labs and workshops at the School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and the Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement in Toronto.

A CBC Television documentary about Fujiwara’s life and work, called Walls, won the 1995 Gemini Award for best performing arts program.

Honours

Denise Fujiwara was the 2013 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation's Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance. In 2025, she was awarded the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.