Dalcroze Gesture Master Class

With Miki Orihara and Special Guest Artist from Japan

Wednesday, May 15, 6-8 PM

Class will include learning Dalcroze 20 gestures and a section of Seiko Takata's "Mother(1938)

Free with RSVP. Space is limited!

RESONANCE III

A Preamble and Performance of Female Dance Masters

Featuring Miki Orihara

Thursday, May 16, 7 PM

Piano by Nora Izumi Bartosik

Pre-Performance guest lecture with Japanese professor of dance history

Translated by Naoko Katakami

In this solo concert, RESONANCE III, Miki Orihara will be dancing Martha Graham’s “Lamentation (1930)”, Doris Humphrey’s “Two Ecstatic Themes (1931)”, Seiko Takata’s work “Mother (1938)” Konami Ishii’s “Moon Desert (early 1930’s)” and Yuriko’s “Cry (1963)”.

Orihara will bring both American and Japanese early modern dance pioneers works and Yuriko Kikuchi’s work together to connect the lineage of her dance heritage.

Orihara studied at Takata/Yamada modern dance studio in Tokyo until she was 18, came to US, studied Limon/Humphrey, Graham, Horton, ballet, jazz as a young dancer in NY, then danced with Martha Graham for 27 years. Her mentor Yuriko Kikuchi, who is a former director of Graham Co, she studied in Japan with Konami Ishii.  Orihara will bring all of her teacher and teacher’s lineages together.

The Program

I - Lamentation (1930)

- Martha Graham

Martha Graham (1894-1991) has had a deep and lasting impact on American art and culture. She single-handedly defined contemporary dance as a uniquely American art form, which the nation has in turn shared with the world. Crossing artistic boundaries, she collaborated with and commissioned work from the leading visual artists, musicians, and designers of her day, including sculptor Isamu Noguchi and composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Gian Carlo Menotti.

Graham’s groundbreaking style grew from her experimentation with the elemental movements of contraction and release. By focusing on the basic activities of the human form, she enlivened the body with raw, electric emotion. The sharp, angular, and direct movements of her technique were a dramatic departure from the predominant style of the time.

Graham influenced generations of choreographers that included Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp, altering the scope of dance. Classical ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov sought her out to broaden their artistry. Artists of all genres were eager to study and work with Graham—she taught actors including Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Madonna, Liza Minelli, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Joanne Woodward to utilize their bodies as expressive instruments.

During her long and illustrious career, Graham created 181 dance compositions. During the Bicentennial she was granted the United States’ highest civilian honor, The Medal of Freedom. In 1998, TIME Magazine named her the “Dancer of the Century.” The first dancer to perform at the White House and to act as a cultural ambassador abroad, she captured the spirit of a nation. "No artist is ahead of his time,” she said. “He is his time. It is just that the others are behind the time.”

III - Mother (1938)

- Seiko Takata

Seiko Takata entered Tokyo Music School (now Tokyo University of the Arts). After dropping out of the university, she studied at the imperial theater with the Italian dance/theater/opera director Giovanni Vittorio Rosi. The opera department closed in 1916, and  Rosi opened the Asakusa Royal Hall in October of the same year to perform the opera, Seiko Hara joined with Takada Masao and others. The original surname of the stage name is named after Nobuko Hara.

In 1918, 23 years of age, she married Masao Takata and changed her stage name to Seiko Takata. The Royal Hall closed in February 1919. In May of the same year,

Rosi left for the US, Shochiku Company opened the Asakusa Opera in Asakusa Park's Six Wards to form the "New Star Kabukidan". Takatas participates in this. In August 1920, Negishi Yoshinosuke, a third generation Negishi entertainment pulled out Takatas, Kintaro Shimizu, Shizuko Shimizu and Rikizo Taya and Kinsei Hotta from the Royal House to form the "Negishi Kabukidan". On October 11, the same year, they performed a launch performance at the "Kinryukan" run by Negishi. The Asakusa Opera bloomed, centered on the Kinryukan and the Opera.

In 1922, Seiko, with her husband, left for European countries and the United States, and studied dance in various places. Japan was hit by the Great Kanto Earthquake on September 1, 1923, Tokyo, the capital was destroyed, Asakusa six wards collapsed, and the Asakusa opera went to its end. Takatas came back to Japan in 1924 and opened Takata Dance Institute.

Seiko’s husband Masao Takata died at the age of 33 on May 24, 1929. After her husband's death she continued to dance.

In October 1939, Seiko was named among the judges of the dance section of the Korean Art Award together with Baku Ishii. Also around this time, she competed for popularity with Ishii's disciple's dancer, Sai Sho Ki.

World War II ended on August 15, 1945, Seiko with Goro Yamada opened the Takata-Yamada Dance Company after the war. When an exhibition of fifteen self-selected contemporary art exhibitions was held in 1950, a former Western-style work "Seiko Takata of Spanish Costume" (production year unknown) drawn by Yoshizaburo Kojima was exhibited.

In 1959, Seiko formed the All Japan Art Dance Association (now the Modern Dance Association) and became chairman. In the same year, she was awarded the a Purple Ribbon Medal, and in 1970 she was awarded the 4th Order of the Precious Crown. Eguchi Takaya, Hiraoka Tonanao, Ozawa Atsuko, Ando Tetsuko, Mika Yoriko and many other dancers were raised.

In 1976, one year after leaving the chairman of the Modern Dance Association and becoming an honorary chairman, she died on March 19, 1977, she was 81 years old.

V - The Cry (1936)

- Yuriko Kikuchi

Yuriko Kikuchi – known throughout her entire career solely as Yuriko – is an honoree for this year’s NAAP Gala. She is an American Japanese dancer and choreographer. Born in San Jose, California in 1920, she began her dance training with the Konami Ishii Dance Company in Tokyo in 1930. Yuriko returned to the United States in 1937 where she joined Dorothy Lyndall's Junior Dance Company in Los Angeles. From 1941 to 1943, Yuriko continued to teach dance even as she was interned alongside other Japanese Americans in a World War II relocation camp. In 1943, she moved to New York City and that following year joined the Martha Graham Dance Company where she danced, choreographed, directed, and taught for 50 years (Clytemnestra, Appalachian Spring, Cave of the Heart, Dark Meadow, Primitive Mysteries, coaching generations of dancers including Miki Orihara and Mikhail Baryshnikov). Along with her modern dance credits, Yuriko has also danced in Broadway shows (The King and I, Flower Drum Song), television, and film. For 6 years she performed internationally with her own dance company. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship award for choreography (1967), the Bessie Award (1991), an honorary doctorate from Boston Conservatory (2006), and the Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement award (2012).

II - Two Ecstatic Themes (1931)

- Doris Humphrey

Humphrey (1895-1958) is renowned for her groundbreaking choreography and her innate sense of musical ability and form. She began her career early, opening her own dance school in Chicago in 1913 at the age of 18. In 1917, she joined the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts in California and began performing in the United States and Asia.

Humphrey and fellow dancer Charles Weidman left the Denishawn school in 1928 and started the Humphrey-Weidman Company in New York City. Humphrey developed a new style of dance around the principles of fall and recovery, utilizing the body’s potential to travel between the polarities of balance and imbalance.

Central to Humphrey’s approach to dance was her belief in its power to communicate pathos, complexity, and the richness of life through motion and gestures. Her work also reflected current events and concerns, capturing the American spirit.

In 1945, arthritis forced Humphrey to retire from performing, so she joined the José Limón Dance Company in New York as its artistic director. There she choreographed the masterpieces "Day on Earth," "Night Spell," and "Ruins and Visions."

Her various works reflect her mastery of the intricacies of large groups and emphasis of sculptural shapes.

Humphrey's book, The Art of Making Dances, in which she shared her observations and theories on dance and composition, was published after her death and is still used as a guide for fledgling choreographers.

IV - Moon Desert (early 1930’s)

- Konami Ishii

When Konami Ishii was 15, she learned to dance with her brother-in-law Baku Ishii, very important figure in Japanese modern dance, and stepped on the first stage at “Sinking Temple” and “Young Centaur and Nymph” during Baku Ishii’s commemorative tour of Europe in 1922 at the Imperial Theater, Tokyo. At the end of the same year, Baku and Konami performed Japanese Creative Dance in Europe and other countries.

In 1926, Baku and Konami visited the US then back to Japan.   She was a member of the Baku Ishii Dance Poetry Institute, and appeared in the works of Baku Ishii with Sai Sho Ki et al.

Konami left Baku’s studio,  open the Ishii Konami Dance Research Institute independently in 1955, and later devoted herself to dance education at Jiyugaoka, Tokyo.  Leading dance artsts including Momoko Tani, Yuriko (Yuriko Amemiya (Kikuchi)), Akiko Kanda, Ayako Ishii and Noriko Sato studied at this studio.

About the Artists

Miki Orihara, Dancer

Miki Orihara is best known for her work as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, for which she earned a Bessie Award in 2010. In addition to performing an extensive range within the Graham repertory, including many of Ms Graham’s signature roles, she has worked closely with the renowned Japanese-American dancer, choreographer and director, Yuriko, preserving her unique approach to the Graham Technique. She has performed with various prominent companies and choreographers including Yuriko, Elisa Monte, Jean Erdman, Mariko Sanjo, Jun Kono(Japan), Buglisi/ Foreman Dance, Twyla Tharp, Stephen Pier, Martha Clarke, Anne Bogart/SITI company, and Robert Wilson. In 2001, she was invited to dance at the New National Theater in Japan. In 2006, she was a guest artist with Pascal Rioult Dance Theater for their France Tour. On Broadway, she appeared in the role of “Eliza”and“Topsy”in the production of “The King & I” directed by Christopher Renshaw, choreographed by Jerome Robbins and Lar Lubovitch. In 2015, she was invited to perform with the Theatre of Yugen’s production of “Mystical Abyss” directed by Yuriko Doi in Denver, CO.

Orihara began her training in Japan at an early age in traditional Fujima Japanese Dance.  She studied at Takata/Yamada Dance Studio in Tokyo. After graduating from Bunka Gakuin high school in Tokyo, she came to New York to study at the Jofferey Ballet School. She then received scholarships to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. In 1983 she became one of the original members of the Martha Graham Ensemble and shortly thereafter joined the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 2011, she earned a BA in Dance from SUNY Empire State College.

As a choreographer, Orihara premiered her solo work “Searching Dimensions” in New York in 1995 and later presented “Passage”, “Serious Garden”, and “End of Summer” in NYC and Tokyo. In 2001, she presented an 8 women piece “VOICE” for M’Deux Ballet in Nagoya, Japan followed in 2008 by “Stage”.   She created “Prologue” in 2014, and “Shirabyoshi” is a work she collaborated with Kyogen/Noh actor Tanroh Ishida premiered in 2017.  

Orihara assists master teacher and choreographer Yuriko in her Graham technique classes, reconstructions and choreography. She has also been a guest teacher at UCLA World Arts and Culture Department, Atlanta Ballet, State University of Florida, the Ailey School, Peridance, The Hartt School, Arts International in Moscow with Takako Asakawa, the New National Theater Ballet School in Tokyo, Les Etés de la Danse in Paris, Henny Jurriens Foundation in Amsterdam and numerous other workshops and schools throughout the world. She is currently on faculty at the Hartt School and the Martha Graham School. As a regisseur of Martha Graham’s work, she has been setting works world wide, including Diana Vishneva’s “Dialogue” and for Wendy Whelan of New York City Ballet.

Orihara served as the Movement Designer for Jen Silverman’s “Crane Story” directed by Katherine Kovner and as the Casting Producer/Dance Director for mishmash/Miki Orihara music videos which were released Summer 2014.

With the Japanese filmmaker, Tomoko Mikanagi, Orihara created the film “Broken Memory”. Commissioned by the CORDA foundation for David Rosenmann-Taub, it was featured at Dance on Camera Festival in NYC in 2017. She is in the process of making “ Two Women” with Tomoko.

Orihara released a Martha Graham technique Beginner Level DVD in collaboration with Dance Spotlight and the Martha Graham Center in 2018, and is in process of making Intermediate and Advanced level.

Orihara produced and curated the benefit concert “Dancing for JAPAN 2014”, as well as her first solo concert, “Kyomei-Resonance”, at the La MaMa theater in New York City in May, 2014.  

In April 2017, Orihara was featured in the inaugural performance of “Peace is...”at the United Nations by invitation from the Permanent Mission of Japan. Orihara produced “Dancing for JAPAN 2017”and co-producing “Resonance II” at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, curated and directed the inaugural performance of “NuVu Festival” in 2018.  

Orihara presented the second “NuVu Festival” past week and finally in this “Resonance III”, she is presenting American and Japanese early modern dance works and Yuriko’s work. This will display similarity and comparison in both countries, and Japanese modern dance influenced American modern dance, and display gap between both countries.

Orihara is the recipient for Japan Foundations’ Tour grant for 2018/2019 for “Resonance III”.

Nora Izumi Bartosik, Piano

Described as a “young talent in a class of her own” (Osterländer Volkszeitung), “marvelous… with elegant grace” (Le Dauphine) and “fully in command of her craft” (Harvard Crimson), pianist Nora Bartosik has performed internationally as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in the United States, Germany, Austria, Bahrain, China, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

She has performed in venues including the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna, the Théâtre de la Ville in Valence, France, and the Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal. She is the winner of the Concours International de Piano Teresa Llacuna (France, 2013) and the Karl Bergemann Sightreading Competition for Pianists (Germany, 2011) as well as the laureate of 3rd prizes at the Premio Silvio Bengali Val Tidone Music Competition (Italy, 2015) and the International Blüthner Piano Competition (Austria, 2013). She has performed with orchestras including the Philharmonic Orchestra Altenburg-Gera, the Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, the Harvard Mozart Society Orchestra and the Harvard Pops Orchestra. She has worked with conductors including Thomas Ades, Stefan Asbury, Aram Demirjian, Gemma New, Akiko Fujimoto and Thomas Wicklein.

Nora Bartosik was invited to perform at the prestigious Tanglewood Festival as a Piano Fellow in the 2018 summer season, where she also appeared in Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music. She has performed in other international festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Saoû Chante Mozart Festival in Saoû, France, and the Festival des Nuits d’été in Macon, France. Her interest in chamber music and new music has led her to perform at the HARMOS Chamber Music Festival in Porto, Portugal, the Max Reger Forum in Bremen, with the Ensemble for New Music in Leipzig and as a guest artist at the Festival Baltimore. She has also performed regularly as a collaborative pianist, most recently working with the New Camerata Opera in New York City to produce an evening of American vocal music featuring the poetry of Emily Dickinson and to stage Gian Carlo Menotti’s chamber opera The Medium in its version with piano. Beyond her regular performance activities, she has served on the jury of the 2017 Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation Piano Competition on Long Island and given recitals in Harvard University’s historic Sanders Theater to benefit afterschool arts programs for children in the Boston area. 

Nora Bartosik holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Music and German Literature from Harvard University, a Master of Arts and postgraduate diploma in piano performance from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, and a Konzertexamen (Artist Diploma) degree in solo piano from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. She also attended the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover upon the invitation of noted piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. She wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on Swiss Appenzeller folk music, and her master’s thesis with distinction on the performance and interpretation of Maurice Ravel’s Valse Nobles et Sentimentales for piano. She was a two-time recipient of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowship and received scholarships from Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Germany.

Her primary teachers have included Jacques Rouvier in Salzburg, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hannover, Gerald Fauth in Leipzig, Patricia Zander and Robert Levin in Boston, and Jan Jiracek von Arnim in Vienna. She has also performed in masterclasses with artists including Daniel Barenboim, Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, Garrick Ohlsson, Paul Lewis, Peter Serkin, Paul Badura-Skoda, Boris Berman, Alexander Jenner, Arie Vardi, Yoheved Kaplinsky and Menahem Pressler. Nora Bartosik is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at The Graduate Center, CUNY under the guidance of Professor Ursula Oppens. She is on the faculty at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.