Rino Nakasone

Rino Nakasone was born in Naha, capital of Okinawa Prefecture on June 11, 1979. She became interested in dance after watching music videos by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson and mimicking their moves. At the age of nineteen, she went to Los Angeles to study dance.^[1] Just after her visa expired, she got a job as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson.

In 2004, she was chosen by Britney Spears as a backup dancer for Spears' Onyx Hotel Tour.^[2] After touring with Spears, she toured with Gwen Stefani as "Music", one of the Harajuku Girls, earning praise for her dance performance.^[1] She also danced for other musicians, such as Justin Bieber,^[2] and taught dance at performing arts centers. She joined an all-female dance group, Beat Freaks, which competed and was runner-up in America's Best Dance Crew in 2009.^[3]

Nakasone started her career as a choreographer in 2008 with South Korean boy band Shinee's debut song, "Replay".^[4] In 2009, she worked with SM Entertainment's dance team to create the choreography for Girls' Generation's "Genie".^[1] She has choreographed for other SM Entertainment artists, including Super Junior and BoA, as well as Japanese groups AKB48 and SMAP.^[2] She has directed concerts for BoA, Girls' Generation, Shinee, Taemin, SuperM and NCT 127.^[5]

In 2010, she appeared in the dance multimedia production "Siren Assassins" as Queen Jade.^[6] That same year, she joined The Pussycat Dolls after four of the original members left the group.^[7][8] She performed in two musicals in 2015, The Wiz and Asterisk, both in Japan.^[2]

Rino Nakasone married LeeJ Razalan, the manager of Beat Freaks and a fellow dancer, in 2007.^[4] On May 6, 2012, Rino announced that she and LeeJ had decided to go separate ways and would take their five years of marriage as a "special learning experience" while continuing to remain friends.^[13]

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