Mana Kawamura grew up studying dance at the Izumi Kawamura Dance Studio, a dance school her grand mother established in 1953. In 2001 she traveled to Germany to study under Dominique Merci and Malou Airaudo (both members of Pina Bausch Dance Company) at the Folkwang Hochschule, Germany until 2003.
She then returned to Japan and started dancing as a member of the Izumi Kawamura Dance Company. In addition to this, she choreographed and performed her own solo for the All Japan Modern Dance Competition in Akita, and received 1st prize. Continuing to the national competition in Tokyo, she placed 7th. She then applied for and received a scholarship from the Agency for cultural affairs in Japan to further her studies abroad, and traveled to New York in 2006.
In the spring of 2008, she was selected by the “Audition for new Steps: an emerging choreographer series” NYC.