Naomi Tanioka

Joined KCB in 2019

Naomi Tanioka, originally from Sapporo, Japan, started her training with Chida Toshiko Ballet Studio. Tanioka was accepted to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Canada, where she concluded her six years of professional ballet training, and one year of the Aspirant Program. In 2014, Tanioka joined Ballet Arizona, where she performed many Balanchine and Bournonville ballets. She joined Cincinnati Ballet in 2016, where she was pushed out of her box with a variety of repertoire performed there. Since joining Kansas City Ballet in 2019, she has been featured as Cinderella in Devon Carney’s Cinderella, Kitri in Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote, Alice in Septime Webre’s ALICE (in wonderland),  Nellie in Val Caniparoli’s Jekyll & Hyde, Lucy in Michael Pink’s Dracula, Wendy in Devon Carney’s Peter Pan, the pas couple in George Balanchine’s Rubies, and performed works by Adam Hougland, Alexander Ekman, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Edwaard Liang, Helen Pickett, Jiří Kylián, Lila York, Mark Morris, and William Forsythe.