Risa Kobayashi was born and raised in Japan, and started ballet in her hometown of Tokyo. In 2009, she moved to Canada to continue her pre-professional training and graduated from the Victoria Academy of Ballet. She attended summer programs with the St. Louis Ballet, the Joffrey ballet School, Arts Umbrella and Okanagan Summer Dance Intensive. She has been gracing the stage with Ballet Victoria as a lead dancer for 12 seasons and she has been on the BVC faculty for the last 6 years.