Kaori Ogasawara was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied ballet with her grandmother Kazue Ogasawara and her coach Takao Hisamitsu. In 1993, Ogasawara came to the US to train at Boston Ballet school and joined Boston ballet 2 in 1995. She and her husband, Christopher Rendall-Jackson moved to join to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1999 where she was promoted to rank of Soloist in 2004. After joining PBT, she had performed many featured roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy ann Marie in Terrence S. Orr's The Nutcracker, Myrtha in Giselle, Mercedes and Dryad queen in Don Quixote, Svetlana in Ben stevenson's Dracula, and Queen of Hearts in Derek Dean's Alice in Wonderland. Among many opportunities to dance George Balanchine's ballets, Ogasawara 's performances included the Russian Lead in Serenade, Sylvia Pas de duex, Divertimento No. 15, Theme and variations and Who Cares?.  She also has  enjoyed performing contemporary ballet by choreographers such as Dwight Rhoden and Jean-Christophe Maillot and Modern ballet by Paul Tayer and Glen Tetley.

Among other things, she is currently the Rehearsal Director for Berkeley Ballet Theater, company teacher for various companies, including ODC, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Diablo Ballet and Oakland Ballet and also guest Choreographer for New Ensemble Ballet in Memphis, Tennessee. Ogasawara and her husband are also proud parents of two children, Emiya and Hana.