Takeshi Hamagaki, known to generations of dancers simply as “Hama,” is a master teacher of jazz dance and the founder of Hama Dance Center.

Born in Japan, Hama came of age in the aftermath of World War II. After his mother passed away, he began training at the Toho/Nichigeki Theatre’s entertainment school in Tokyo, studying ballet, tap, acrobatics, and other dance forms multiple times a week. He went on to become a principal dancer with the Toho Theater, launching a performance career that would span decades and continents.

In 1964, Hama relocated to New York City, where he performed at Carnegie Hall and taught at the Harkness Ballet Company. It was there he became a protégé and assistant to the legendary Luigi, the father of modern jazz dance technique — a relationship that shaped Hama into one of the style’s foremost interpreters and teachers.

Hama moved to the West Coast in 1971, teaching at nearly every major dance studio in Los Angeles while maintaining an active performance career. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, he appeared in numerous film and television projects alongside stars including Lucille Ball, Shirley MacLaine, Mary Tyler Moore, Don Knotts, and Debbie Reynolds.

In 1991, Hama opened his own studio in Glendale, followed by the Studio City location in 1998 — the home of Hama Dance Center today. In 1994, he founded the Jazz Dance LA Foundation, and alongside Claude Thompson, a former Alvin Ailey principal, produced an annual concert showcasing Los Angeles’s finest jazz dance choreographers and dancers.

Hama’s contributions to dance have been widely recognized: he received the Lehman Award in 1995, honoring dance’s revered pioneers, served as an honorary dance instructor at USC for over a decade, and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his decades of mentorship in the LA jazz dance community.

Today, Hama continues to teach at Hama Dance Center, passing on the Luigi lineage and his own decades of artistry to a new generation of dancers.