Misa
Kuranaga

Benois de la Danse nominee

Misa Kuranaga began her training at the Jinushi Kaoru Ballet School and later continued at the School of American Ballet. In 2001 Kuranaga joined San Francisco Ballet as an apprentice after winning the professional scholarship award at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 2003 Kuranaga was offered a corps de ballet position at the Boston Ballet. She quickly rose through the ranks after performing the Sylph in August Bournonville's La Sylphide. She was promoted to Second Soloist in 2005, Soloist in 2007, and to Principal Dancer in 2009.

Kuranaga is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the gold medal in the junior division of the Ninth Moscow International Ballet Competition and the gold medal in the senior division of the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition.

In 1993Kuranaga performed in the Moscow Ballet Competition Gala at the Bolshoi Theater as a guest of Yuri Grigorovich. In 2009 she performed Serenade with New York City Ballet in Lincoln Center, and in 2012 she danced the roles of Odette and Odile at the Komaki Ballet in Tokyo, Japan. She is an annual guest artist at the Vail International Dance Festival, directed by Damien Woeztel.

Kuranaga has traveled all over the world performing in galas including the Youth American Grand Prix Gala in New York City, the Dance Open Gala in Helsinki, the Seventh International Ballet Star Gala in Taipei, the Prix de Lausanne Gala in Tokyo, the International Ballet Gala in Dortmund, and Alina Cojocaru& Friends in Sarasota, Florida.

Kuranaga’s repertoire includes Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote (Kitri); John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet (Juliet); Onegin (Tatiana); Maina Gielgud's production of Giselle (Giselle); Florence Clerc's La Bayadere (Nikiya); Les Sylphides (Prelude), Frederic Ashton's La fille mal gardée (Lise); Cinderella (Cinderella); Bournonville's La Sylphide (the Sylph); Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty (Princes Aurora, Princess Florine); Swan Lake (Odette/Odile); MikkoNissinen's The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Clara); Harald Lander's Etudes (the Ballerina); the lead role in George Balanchine's Coppélia (Swanhilda); leading roles in Theme and Variations, Diamonds, Rubies, Symphony in C, Serenade, Ballodella Regina, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Tarantella, A Midsummer Night Dream, Divertimento No.15, Who Cares?,Concerto Barocco, Symphony in Three Movements, Apollo; John Neumeier's Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler (Angel); Alexander Ekman's Cacti; JiříKylián's Petite Mort, Wings of Wax, Symphony of Psalms, and Sechs Tanze; William Forsythe's The Second Detail, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude; Christopher Wheeldon's Polyphonia; Jorma Elo's Slice to Sharp, Lost by Last, Bach Cello Suite; Wayne McGregor's Chroma and Peter Martin's Barber Violin Concerto.

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