Born in Beppu in 1992, Ayaka Nakama is a dancer based in Kobe. Nakama trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance (London) before becoming a scholarship student at dB Academy (Kobe) and receiving the Dancer Encouragement Award. She has worked with Mika Kurosawa, Reina Kimura, Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch) and contact Gonzo among others.
In 2019 Ayaka Nakama premiered her work Freeway Dance at ArtTheater dB Kobe, which went on to be presented at TPAM (Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama) in 2020, and then in 2021 at Kyoto Experiment, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Berliner Festspiele and Centre Pompidou.
Committed to the way the body is choreographed by someone or something, Ayaka pursues a phenomenon that she believes can only be called dance. She was an associate artist of Dance Box from 2018-2020.
Since 2022, Ayaka is a Fellow of the Saison Foundation (Tokyo / JP).