Kenji and Nobuko Shibata have been involved in the square and round dance movement since 1964 nd began teaching round dancing in 1968 in Tokyo, Japan. In 1976, they attended their first National Square Dance Convention in Anaheim, California, where they were exposed to advanced level round dancing. This so excited them that they were inspired to improve their dancing ability to that level. Since then they have taken professional dance instruction for ballroom and Latin dances; in 1993, Kenji passed the exam of professional ballroom and Latin dance teachers and taught at a dance studio in Tokyo for two years. When Kenji retired from the DuPont Company in Japan in 1995, he and Nobuko moved to California, where they continue to share the pleasure of Round dancing with their American friends. In 2000, they were the URDC Golden Torch Award recipients in honor of their outstanding contributions to the round dance movement. They currently conduct a high-intermediate/advanced round dance class, Dancing Shadows, in Los Gatos, Ca1ifornia, and also a beginner/intermediate round dance class, Dancing Diamonds, for ballroom dancers in Los Altos, California.

Choreography and styling clinics are the Shibatas' two loves. They have choreographed more than fifty round dances covering all rhythms, for a full listing of their dances see the choreography page!