Sachiyo Ito’s Memoir: Chapter 14

Since January 2024 renowned dancer, dance educator, and choreographer Sachiyo Ito has been serializing her memoir on JapanCulture•NYC with monthly installments, each chapter revealing a different aspect of her early life in Tokyo and career in New York City.

Ito offers of a profound exploration of the experience of dedicating herself to traditional Japanese dance at an early age, arriving in New York City during the tumultuous ‘70s, and making a successful career in the arts. Each chapter offers a glimpse into the complexities that shaped her journey. It is a literary examination of not only Ito Sensei’s life, but of how New York City’s culture evolved over the decades and what sacrifices one must make to achieve a thriving career in the arts.

The memoir is an invitation to delve into the layers of a creative life and career that has spanned more than 50 years. As a work in progress, it is also an invitation for you to offer your feedback. Your insights will contribute to the evolution of this extraordinary work.

To read all the chapters, please click here. For more information about Sachiyo Ito, please visit her website, dancejapan.com.

Japanese Culture Through Dance II

For this chapter, I would like to share episodes and memories I treasure, which I encountered through my program Japanese Culture Through Dance.

Free Children’s Workshop

As a part of our community service for the city of New York over the past two decades, my company has offered free children’s workshops at schools and libraries and performances at geriatric centers.

One of the schools I cherish memories of visiting is P.S. 72 in the Bronx. The instructor in charge was Mrs. Sharon Williams, who was an incredibly passionate and loving dance teacher. Wholeheartedly she welcomed me and my program to introduce Japanese arts and culture to her young students. I must say students were mirrors of their teacher: I have never met a class of students who were so affectionate, as if Ms. Williams’s beautiful personality, her passion, and love for dance and children were reflected onto them. Even though it was the first time for my assistant Maiko and me to meet them, each one of them came up to hug us to show her/his appreciation at the end of the workshop. It goes without saying, their gestures and smiles touched our hearts deeply. I haven’t had such closeness and love from one-time workshop students though there have been countless schools and libraries that I have visited during the past 50 years. I went back to the schools to teach the following year, but the third time was not realized due to the pandemic.

There is one more school that stands out in Brooklyn, P.S. 147 in Bushwick, where there is a good-sized Japanese community. One class I taught for a few years was all Japanese or Japanese American students. It was when I was too naïve to know about this large population in the community in Brooklyn. I was also so surprised to learn that there were many Japanese students in the class who did not speak Japanese.

For the Free Children’s Workshop, I bring yukata and obi for the students to try on. This is very exciting, and almost everyone in the class will volunteer to wear them. I also have small dance fans with a Japanese flag design for them to practice with, as you can see in the photo of the Muscota New School below. I am so pleased that learning dance movements and about different cultures can be a joyful and fulfilling experience rather than just another school assignment. For me, it has been a gratifying experience to meet youngsters who are keen to learn Japanese culture through dance. Unfortunately, the pandemic has resulted in such in-person workshops being drastically cut, even though the teachers and I know how valuable it is to have human interactions with students, face-to-face communication with them. In fact, it is one of the most essential aspects of education.

Giving my workshop at the Beginning with Children Charter School was a wonderful experience, and I visited the school repeatedly over 2018 and 2019. Not only did this provide my dancers and me with a wonderful opportunity to introduce Japanese culture and dance to the students, but it also connected me to Mr. Colin McNally, one of the teachers there. He had recently completed the “One Thousand Crane Project” with his students, folding a thousand paper cranes to benefit cancer survivors.

I invited him to be a guest artist at one of my Salon Series programs in 2020, titled “Prayer Through Symbolism of Crane.” As we know, the crane is a symbol of longevity and healing in Japan. In addition to performing dances in honor of victims of the pandemic, I talked about Sadako Sasaki, who died as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and Mr. McNally explained his project and demonstrated how to fold origami cranes. At the end, my friend Beth Griffith sang a touching rendition of “Amazing Grace” as a light to guide us toward healing.

*Beginning with Children Charter School, Brooklyn (2019)*

*Kingsbridge Community Center, Bronx (2017)*

Flushing Queens Library

Among the many public libraries with which I have worked, I have had the longest association with the Flushing Queens Library. This relationship, which has spanned two decades, I owe to the dedication and efforts of Ms. Alexandra Sanchez, who promoted various cultures and their arts in the library’s international program. It is a relationship that continues to this day, even after Ms. Sanchez’s retirement. My company performed for 16 years in the library’s auditorium. After the pandemic, this program became the Cultural Bridge program, presented in a hybrid format, in person and streaming. I have also worked with their children’s program several times over the years.

Our performances at the library opened another door for us. Patricia Welch, a professor at Hofstra University who was in the audience during one of our performances, made a dedicated effort to bring us to the university to perform, an opportunity we were able to take in 2016. I admired her perseverance in securing funding for our performance, which took a few years. We received very good responses and comments, even emails from students, faculty, and people from the area after the event of my lecture-demonstration and the company performance. Though we were appreciated and thanked for bringing Japanese culture to their Long Island community, the event could not have been realized without the efforts of many and their love for the Japanese culture and arts, something for which I am forever grateful. I bowed to all involved after our performance, not only to the audience.

*Children’s Workshop at Queens Library (2017)*

Nightingale-Bamford School

I have always been happy to work with Nightingale-Bamford School, a private girls’ school. It is Ms. April Tonin, an art teacher at the school and an artist, who brought me to teach at the school for more than ten years. The first graders were my students, and I was always impressed by them; they demonstrated excellent behavior and good manners as young ladies should. They would listen quietly and attentively to my talk about Japan and to my dance instructions. Their greetings in Japanese to me, their bright and intent eyes, and their smiles are unforgettable.

My company also performed at their school assembly programs. I will never forget their greeting to me: the entire school, around a hundred or so students, speaking in unison, “Good morning, Ms. Ito!” It is a memory I will always carry with me.

Cultural Institutions

Aside from schools and libraries, there are several cultural organizations I worked with to form bridges of arts and culture among people. The organization with which I worked closely is the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

My association with them began more than thirty years ago. The organization promotes ethnic music and dance from various cultures around the world. They offer rosters of artists in muti-cultural and multi-art disciplines. During the pandemic I was impressed by the director’s initiative and resilience, continuing their mission and prevailing over the challenges brought on by COVID-19. He proposed a broadcast of artists’ works over the course of three months titled “Beat of the Boroughs: NYC.” I was one of the artists who was invited. The filming was done at my small studio. To tell the truth, I was amazed by myself; the filming went smoothly, and we did not have to do retakes.

*Wall Street Journal 2020:* *New York City Cultural Scene Increasingly Draws Immigrant Artists - WSJ*

Japan Society

I have worked with Japan Society since 1972 for many programs, such as my recitals, workshops, and lectures for performing arts, education, and language departments for participants and audiences of various ages: from preschool, high school, high school teachers in social studies preparing to teach Japanese culture to general audiences for pre-performance lectures.

For the very young, there is a special traditional occasion called Hina Matsuri, or the Dolls’ Festival. This festival celebrates the health and growth of all young girls. At one of the workshops there, I was pleased to see that many boys also participated, though the boys’ celebration is in May. The Japanese celebrate the health and birthdays of girls on March 3, while the celebration of boys takes place on May 5. Traditionally, the Japanese would recognize these days as birthday celebrations for every child, rather than recognizing each individual’s actual birthday. This is what I was familiar with as I was growing up. However, as Western customs have become more prevalent, individual birthdays are now celebrated alongside March 3 and May 5.

As a child, I used to enjoy having friends over to celebrate Hina Matsuri, sharing special sweets with them in front of our display of dolls. Traditionally, the dolls are passed down to daughters from their mothers and grandmothers. There was a legend that at the end of the festival, the dolls must be tidied up and stored away. To display them for more than a week means that the daughters will never marry. Maybe that is why I am single?

Also, Young Audiences of NY and Midori & Friends gave me wonderful opportunities to offer Japanese dance workshops in various parts of New York City in the 1990s and 2000s.

Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education

The passion of the director of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education and her love for Japanese dance, which we discussed whenever we met, are still in my heart. I worked with them for an entire year, culminating in the Tri-State School Performance, conducted in the spring of 2000, taking place over several weeks. I admit I was not keen on the idea of a 6:00 a.m. call for departure, required for consecutive weeks to arrive at the performance locations on time, but in the end, it was not worth worrying. With a musician who accompanied me during dances, and the young and cheerful stage manager, our minivan seemed like my old days of touring in a station wagon with the AllNations Dance Company. The stage manager’s wild, purple-rainbow hair would wave up around her head as she started the engine of the car, and then our day began. It was such fun. I appreciated having a stage manager who knew what was needed in terms of preparation and logistics for my performances and who could deal with schools. Normally, such preparatory work would fall to me, in addition to dancing. Having her made my work, both dancing and teaching students, so much easier.

Geriatric Centers

As I mentioned in my previous chapter, the original idea of Japanese Culture Through Dance was intended for youngsters, aiming to help them open their horizons and better understand other parts of the world. This is important work, as the world is becoming a global village, where people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds interact on a regular basis.

However, as I gave workshops at geriatric and senior centers more and more often in recent years, I began to realize that speaking about cultures through dance is important not only for the young, but also for the elderly, for they can share their life experiences through watching and learning Japanese dance. Many times, in the facilities where we offer our programs, people happily told us their stories about Japan: visiting the country, their experiences of getting to know Japanese culture, and musings on their own cultures, stirred up by watching our dances. They showed their joy in being able to try some gestures with dance fans, even if they were in a wheelchair.

There are two geriatric centers where I have made repeated visits. The first is the Schervier Nursing Care Center in the Bronx, where on one occasion, my dancers were thrilled to be treated to a special Valentine lunch, while I was happy with the raised stage, so well-suited for our concert, different from small lunchrooms. The other is the Isabella Geriatric Center, where my longtime friend, student, and volunteer Yachi Teramura was in the audience. She welcomed us with her usual big smile. Her appreciation for our dances was touching to me and my dancers, as she had studied with me, and our reunion brought us both to tears. I was so relieved that she moved away from the center before the pandemic hit—more than 90 residents passed away due to COVID in the spring of 2020.

New York University

The first year I began teaching at the college level was 1975, at New York University. It was an assignment from the NYU School of Education, where I had finished my MA in Dance. I was so happy to be called back by Dr. Patrica A. Rowe, the department chair. She was also my mentor in dance education. In later years, another great dance educator, Martha Hill, appointed me to teach dance at the Juilliard School.

I vividly remember the first week in New York after returning from Tokyo. Staying at the social welfare hotel was clearly a bad choice. I hadn’t expected it to be so dreadful: The hallway bathroom was too dirty for any decent human being to use, and there was a crazy lady who would hit the bathtub at a certain time each night, the percussive noise accompanied by her screams, which made me feel even more miserable than I already was. Somehow, I had to pull myself together to teach.

The course I was teaching was titled “Japanese Culture and Dance,” and I had about fifteen students. It was important for them to learn the history of Japanese performing arts, aesthetics, and the cultural background that nurtured our dance forms. I had brought dance fans and yukata back from Japan for them to use, but the yukata was too small for many of them, particularly the sleeve length. I told the students to add extra material to the sleeves so they could practice properly. I had already taught Western non-dancers in Tokyo; in comparison, this group of students seemed easier to teach. They had to have had previous dance training to be admitted to the dance department, just like the students at Juilliard, where I later taught. Many wrote very good term papers about Noh, Kabuki, and Nihon Buyo, which I held onto for a long time, as some of their writing and insights were incredible. Several became dance historians or critics in later years. Some kept studying with me and performed with me after they graduated. One student studied with me from those NYU days until last year, when she moved to Vermont. Jean Hurkin-Torres and I became close friends over the course of those 40 years.

My time as a professor lasted only eleven years. Toward the end of that time, I realized that I needed dedicated time to finishing my research in Okinawa and writing my Ph.D. dissertation.

Although my days as a full professor were behind me, I have remained active in the collegiate world, giving performances, workshops, and lectures.

Giving workshops at Barnard College’s Theater Department is particularly enjoyable for me because I meet many aspiring dancers, actors, and even directors who are eager to learn the basics of Kabuki acting and dancing. One of the good things about the program is that it is open to students from both Barnard College and Columbia University. I am fortunate and grateful to have met Prof. Shayoni Mitra, who included me in her course of World Theatre. She is keen for her students to have a real grasp of the Kabuki dance movement experience rather than just an intellectual and visual understanding, including use of the essential stage prop of fans.

I did not mind at all purchasing and bringing fans back in my suitcases from Tokyo. In recent years, I have been gearing the workshop toward the students’ experimenting and sharing their experience among themselves.

I have given workshops through the Dance Department as well. I wish I could continue offering workshops to the young dancers there, as they are very good and quick to pick up the techniques of Japanese dance.

It was in one of these workshops that I met Akin-san, who would go on to become one of my company volunteers. He was incredibly brilliant and always willing to help us. He was the head of the Japanese American Friends Club at Columbia University in 2015. After graduating with honors, he was briefly employed by the Columbia library before leaving for Japan to teach English at high schools in Chiba prefecture. Not only was his contribution to my company tremendous, but he also arranged for us to perform for the Friends Club. I still miss him, the young man who was passionate in his love for Japan and the Japanese.

Barnard College Theater Department 2015 Class

Barnard College Dance Department 2023 Class

In 2009, I took a leave of absence from my New York studio for three months to teach at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. I was doubtful at first about leaving New York and the students in my studio, but it was worth the worry, and I was very happy to teach at the college and to live on campus. I was impressed with the beautiful environment, its historical buildings with the most beautiful dance studio, and the campus—luckily, I was there in the fall, and the trees were all beautifully colored.

There is a photo featured in the Columbia Missourian that I love; it features all of us in class walking forward and in so doing, captures one of the most important basics of Japanese dance. It was very easy and enjoyable to teach these aspiring students, who were all eager to take up professions in the performing arts. All of them were excellent dancers, having made it through rounds of auditions to be admitted to a department known for its high standards. They were very quick to follow my instructions and were always ready to start class promptly, already dressed in yukata. We held another audition for a production for which I would create new choreography. The students who were chosen to perform were truly top notch. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed working with these students, regardless of whether they were trained in modern dance or ballet. The new work, titled Just Like Birds and set to a modern koto composition by Sawai Tadao, was a joy to choreograph.

One big surprise I received was the gift of a large photograph of me in Mitsumen Komori, taken in the early 1980s as a promotional photo for Asia Society. The photographer, David Fuller, had a friend who worked in the college’s administration, and on hearing that I was coming, prepared the special photo for me.

Another surprise occurred much later, when I met two of the young men I had taught at Stephens at a rehearsal space in New York. They had both come to the city and joined professional dance companies after graduation. It was such a delight to see them again, particularly knowing that they had kept pursuing their careers and continued to dance.

Teaching is a Blessing

I have learned a lot of things from teaching, but one of the most important insights I have gained is the affirmation of our predecessors, from Plato to Socrates and so many others: “I know that I know nothing.”

For me, the longer I teach dance, the more I realize how little I know about dance. Dance is composed of more than just steps, movements, and techniques. There are the cultural aspects that go into it: the history, the stories, all of which are distilled down to a few beautiful moments on a stage. Looking back, I must be apologetic, since I began teaching at an early age when I knew so little about dance. Of course, I could teach technique and dance repertoire, but there was more I should have been transmitting to my students. In the 50 years since I began teaching, I have learned so much about my own heritage, and the roots of the Japanese culture that has nurtured our dance forms. Five full decades, and yet, I know that still I don’t know enough.

I suppose this realization is true for any artist; the longer you toil in your life’s work, the deeper you go into the truth of art, only to realize you have just touched the tip of the iceberg. So, I often find myself sighing as I face the immensity of traditions. But still, I want to share it, offering my limited resources in whatever capacity I can to my students. In return, my students have given me the precious gift of their curiosity and questions, leading me to look at dance from different angles and see it in a new light, helping me to grow as both a teacher and an artist.

I did not always look at teaching this way. There was a point in my life when I envied artist friends who did not have to teach; I would have preferred to concentrate on my own choreography and performance, as they did. However, I was wrong. For over time, I realized how much teaching was deepening my own performance. Teaching provides the ability to reach a new angle of choreography, of technique, of dance itself. Learning through teaching is a priceless gift, and it has become my nourishment, bone, and blood: a great blessing.

My program, Japanese Culture Through Dance, expanded over the decades in ways I could not have imagined when I began it. What began as a local program for children grew into something encompassing all ages which took me to many different parts of America. It has provided me with irreplaceable and precious opportunities and experiences. Although one would assume that the recipients of the workshops and classes are the beneficiaries of my teaching, I think that it is the opposite: I am the one who has received the countless benefits of learning and beautiful gifts to treasure.

Affirming that learning art enriches our lives, regardless of whether one aspires to or succeeds in becoming an artist or not, the joy of discovery and the insights we shared together in class become the nourishment for all participants—students and teachers alike. This in turn has become my own engine, the force that propels me forward in life, the only life I was given on this earth. Humbled, I can only vow to continue spreading the beauty of Japanese arts and culture.

The posting of this chapter to JapanCulture-NYC.com was paid for by Sachiyo Ito and reprinted here with her permission. Susan Miyagi McCormac of JapanCultureNYC, LLC edited this chapter for grammatical purposes only and did not write or fact-check any information. For more information about Sachiyo Ito and Company, please visit dancejapan.com. ©Sachiyo Ito. All rights reserved.

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