Profile

Born in London, Eiko has spent more than half of her life abroad, such as Romania, South Africa, Austria, Australia, US and Cuba. After finishing high school in Vienna, she continued her studies at Sophia University, UC Berekely and received a Master`s degree from LSE (The London School of Economics and Political Science ) In 1998 she went to Cuba for the first time and fell in love with the culture and people who were born dancers and musicians. After enrolling in the dance school of the world famous "Tropicana" nightclub, she not only received the highest mark in the improvisation exam and earned a diploma, but also became the first Japanese to dance on stage.Eiko also studied black and white photography under Raul Corrales, one of the most respected and renowned photographer in Cuba.She spent extensive amount of time photographing the dancers at the backstage of Tropicana and was lucky enough to capture images during the making of the movie "Un Paraiso bajo las Estrellas ( Paradise under the Stars) in which Tropicana was filmed. Many of her photos were used for the film pamphlet when the movie premiered in Japan. She had a photo exhibition at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Japan which was a great success, and also appeared in a NHK radio interview. After returning to Japan, Eiko began teaching salsa dance. She then went on to choreographing and created her own showdance group "eikotropicana dancers" and performed in various salsa events, including the Japan Salsa Congress, West Coast(LA) Salsa Congress and Cuba-Japan Festival.