art.wikisort.org - Artist

Rikimaru Chikada (Kanji: 近田力丸) was born on 2 November 1993 in Hyōgo, Japan. As a Japanese dancer, choreographer and artist, he is known by the name Rikimaru.

Rikimaru Chikada
Born	近田力丸 (1993-11-02) 2 November 1993 (age 28) Hyōgo, Japan
Nationality	Japan
Education	Kyoto University of Foreign Studies Department of Brazilian and Portuguese Studies
Known for	Choreography, Dance

In 2019, he debuted as the leader of WARPs UP, a Japan-China boy group signed to AVEX Trax.[1]

In 2021, Rikimaru debuted as a member of INTO1, an international boy group under WAJJIWA Entertainment, after having finished in third place in the talent show Chuang 2021.[2][3]

Early life and family

Rikimaru was born on 2 November 1993 in Hyōgo, Japan. His mother is a jazz dancer and runs a dance studio. His father is a professional baseball player and coach. His younger sister, Chikada Yumeri, is also a dancer and choreographer.

He attended high school at Itami Kita High School and graduated from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, majoring in Portuguese (Department of Brazilian and Portuguese Studies).

Rikimaru started dancing at the age of 4, started teaching dance at the age of 13, and became a choreographer at the age of 19. Rikimaru's commercial choreography debut is BoA's LookBook (Dance Break) (2015).[4]

Career

1997–2011 (4–18 years old): Development in Japan

Rikimaru started learning dance at age 4. At age 9, he and his mother appeared and danced in the Japanese variety show named "Gakkō e Ikō". In 2007, Rikimaru and his sister Yumeri formed the dance group named Respect.[5]

From 2007 to 2008, Respect participated in many dance competitions in Japan and won awards such as 4th Dance Olympics Champion, MOVE MIX BEST G Class Champion, 9th COMBOX Champion, National Super Kids Dance Contest Kyushu Tournament Champion, 2nd K-palette cup Runner-up, Dance Attack Tokyo Tournament Runner-up, Shikoku Tournament Special prize, Kobe Rokko Island 1st Dance Championship Special prize, etc...[5]

In addition, Rikimaru also won some individual awards including KIDS MIX 2007 Best Dancer Award and ALL KANKUU Dance Contest Excellent Performance Award 2007.[5]

2012–2020 (19–27 years old): International exchanges and WARPs UP

From 2012 to 2015, Rikimaru went to Los Angeles (USA) to learn choreography, choreographing skills and interact with many dancers. During his time in LA, he joined ImmaBEAST, an America's champion teen dance group, one of the top hip-hop dance groups in the USA.

He began choreographing at 19, working on the team of renowned choreographer Rino Nakasone before earning his first credit on a project with BoA's "Look Book". He has choreographed for many artists such as BoA, SHINee, Taemin, Red Velvet, NCT127, etc.[6]

In 2016, Rikimaru was invited to be a judge of the Dance Vision contest in China. In 2018, Rikimaru and his sister Yumeri led the team and won Dance Vision Vol. 6. In the same year, his choreography won the runner-up award of the World Of Dance Junior (Osaka Station). From 2016 to 2018, Rikimaru was a dance choreographer and special guest coach at dance studio “1M Studio Dance”, Korea.[7]

In 2019, he made his debut as the leader of Japanese-Chinese boy group WARPs Up, under the Avex Trax record label. The name is an acronym for "Wave Assemble Radical People-syndicate." He also choreographed the group's dances.[1]

2021–present: Chuang 2021 and INTO1

In 2021, Rikimaru, as an Avex Trax trainee, participated in Produce Camp 2021 (Chuang season 4), a variety show of an international boy band formation produced by Tencent Video. He had managed to stay in Class A from the beginning to the end of the show.

His rankings after each episode were 8 – 8 – 4 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 4 – 4 – 3.

On 24 April, 2021, Rikimaru ranked third during the final episode with 16,591,943 votes, securing him a spot as an official member of the project boy group INTO1.[2]

Choreography

Personal Works

No	MV/Stage	Artist	Note	References
1	Famous	Taemin	MV, Taemin Arena Tour 2019	[8]
2	Eclipse		Taemin Arena Tour 2019	[9]
3	Into the Rhythm		Taemin Arena Tour 2019
4	One Shot Two Shot	BoA	MV	[10]
5	ABOAB	SHINee	Concert SHINee World 2017	[11]
6	Tell me your name
7	JOJO
8	Nothing to lose
9	Kitchen Beat	NCT127	NCT 127 Arena Tour NEO CITY: JAPAN	[4]
10	I wanna I wanna	Banana Lemon	3 versions	[12]
11	Girls gone wild
12	SugarBaby
13	Ever After	Tokyo Girl's Style		[13]
14	2016 Crazy World	Show Lo	R&B
15	Cloud9	WARPs UP		[14]
16	Supernova

Collaborative choreographies

No	MV/Stage	Artist	Note	Team	References
1	Lookbook	BoA	Dance Break		[15]
2	Mars	Taemin	Taemin Arena Tour 2019	Rino Nakasone	[16][9]
3	Slave		Taemin Arena Tour 2019	Rino Nakasone team
4	Tiger		Taemin Arena Tour 2019	Rino Nakasone team
5	Kiminoseide	SHINee	Concert SHINee World The Best 2018, Japan	Rino Nakasone	[17][18]
6	Evil		Concert SHINee World The Best 2018, Japan	Rino Nakasone team
7	Stranger		Concert SHINee World The Best 2018, Japan	Rino Nakasone team
8	Love like oxygen		Concert SHINee World The Best 2018, Japan	Rino Nakasone team
9	Your name/Replay		Musical version Concert SHINee World The Best 2018, Japan	Rino Nakasone team
10	Every time			Rino Nakasone team
11	Work you out		Dancers performance	Rino Nakasone team
12	GENTLEMEN			Rino Nakasone, Maika
13	Rookie	Red Velvet	Intro		[10]
14	One Hundred Degrees	WARPs UP			[19]

Other Projects

MV with his appearance

Year	MV	Artist	Role	Reference
2016	LookBook	BoA	Dancer	[20]
2015	Make That Sh*t Work	Willdabeast, T-Pain ft. Juicy J	Dancer
2015	You Will (Dance Video)	Kento Mori	Dancer	[21]

TV Show

Year	Program	Reference
2011-2012	Sekai 1 no SHOW taimu 〜 gyara wo kime runoha anata 〜	[17]
	Sutadorafuto kaigi
	PON!
	24 jikan terebidansu koushien
	Toku dane
	Hirunandesu
2021	Chuang 2021	[3]

External links

• Rikimaru Chikada on Instagram
• Rikimaru Chikada trên Sina Weibo
• Rikimaru Chikada on Twitter
• Rikimaru Chikada's channel on YouTube

References

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