Elena Bzhola
Festival Director x Art Manager
About Elena
Elena was born in Ukraine and has been living in Japan for 10 years.
After graduating from the Japanese Language Department of Kiev National University, she worked at the Ukraine-Japan Center of JICA, where she was involved in the planning and implementation of events to introduce Japanese culture. In 2011, she participated in the Research Foreign Student Program of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and entered the Graduate School of Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment, Tokyo University of the Arts.
After graduating with a master's degree in 2015, she helped launch an international performing arts festival called Awaji Art Circus (AAC). Over the past seven years, the number of applicants has grown from 50 to 500, and AAC has become a world-renowned festival. She also established the Awaji Art Circus Executive Committee with Awaji City, Sumoto City, Minami-Awaji City, Awaji Prefectural Government, and the Awaji Island Kuniumi Association as members.
This year, she took on a new challenge and gathered selected artists from all over Japan to Awaji Island to perform a fascinating story of the three noble gods, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo from the "Kojiki" (Records of Ancient Matters), and the show was very popular with the residents and tourists.