Mugiyono Kasido (Mugi) was born at Jogodayoh village, Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia in 1967. His family’s background is a dalang (puppet shadow master). Since early childhood, Mugi has been familiar with the performing art and started to dance at the age of eight. He has a very strong basis on classic Javaness dance. Mugi begins his formal education on the field of performing art at Senior High School for the Arts in Surakarta that completed in 1988. He then continues his interest to the Department of Dance at STSI College of Arts Surakarta and finished in 1993.
In his career, he has learned a lot from various maestros like R. Ng. Rono Suripto from the Mangkunegaran Palace in Surakarta (1988-1990), Suprapto Suryodarmo at Padepokan Lemah Putih Surakarta (1994-1996), and since 1994 he has been with Sardono W. Kusumo.
His career as a choreographer begins in 1992, with his work Mati Suri. Presented at the Mangkunegaran Palace, the work was awarded the Mangkunegara IX Trophy as the Best Performer Creative Dance. The following year, 1993, his work titling Terjerat (‘Tangled’) was performed at the Sriwedari Park in Surakarta to win the Best Choreographer award.
His works already performed in Asia, Europe, Australia, USA and Africa are Kabar Kabur (the rumours), Bagaspati (In the spirit of the sun), Kosong (empty), Topeng (mask), Amorphous, Rotate, and Mencari Mata Candi (in search of the temple's eyes), Menelusuri Relief (tracing Relief), Surat Shinta (Shinta's letter) and Lingkar (Circle). He’s been also involved in collaborative projects, which include SOME SHINE (Germany, England, Israel, and Indonesia), OR LOCAL (Indonesia, England, the Netherlands, and Germany) and MASK DANCE SYMBIOSA PROJECT (Indonesia and Thailand).
Such collaborations have led to further co-operations with artists from various countries, like Denisa Reyes (the Philippines); Ramli Ibrahim, Arif Waran Saharudin (Malaysia); Waguri, Masato Tanaka, Osamu Jareo (Japan); Ria Haggler (the Netherlands); and Lane Savadove (the USA), Polly Motley(USA), Koffi Koko (France), Kotta Yamazaki (Japan). Collaborations with Indonesian artists include those with Dedek Wahyudi, Slamet Gundono, W.S. Rendra, and I Wayan Sadra. Mugi was also a research assistant to Dr Alessandra Lopes Y Royo Iyer (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Dance of University of Surrey Roehampton, London), studying the Prambanan temple reliefs.