Yuriko Kikuchi (née Amemiya, February 2, 1920 – March 8, 2022), known to audiences by her

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Yuriko, was an American dancer and choreographer who was best known for her work with the

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...

Dance Company.

Early life and career

Yuriko Amemiya was born to Chiyo (Furuya) Amemiya and Morishige Amemiya in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

in 1920, but her mother sent her to Japan in 1923 in order to escape an influenza epidemic in the United States that killed her father and sisters. At age six, she returned to California but was later left in Japan during a 1929 visit after her mother's second marriage ended. She began her dance training with Konami Ishii in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, and danced with the Konami Ishii Dance Company from 1930 to 1937. In 1937, Yuriko returned to the United States and joined Dorothy Lyndall's Junior Dance Company in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Internment

From 1941 to 1943, due to the signing of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...

, Yuriko was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

along with other

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

s at the

Gila River War Relocation Center The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was lo ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, where she taught dance. She was released in September 1943, whereupon she immediately moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Later career

Yuriko joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1944 and continued with the company for the next 50 years. She danced in the first production of Graham's masterpiece, ''Clytemnestra'', as well as in ''

Appalachian Spring ''Appalachian Spring'' is an American ballet created by the choreographer Martha Graham and the composer Aaron Copland, later arranged as an orchestral work. Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Copland composed the ballet music for Gra ...

'', ''

Cave of the Heart ''Cave of the Heart'' is a one-act ballet choreographed by Martha Graham to music (''Medea'' suite) by Samuel Barber.Martha Graham Dance Company Repertory http://marthagraham.org/press-presenters2/repertory It was first performed on May 10, 1946, ...

'' and ''

Dark Meadow Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of lighting, illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human visual perception, vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photorecep ...

''. She has also reconstructed a number of Graham's dances such as '' Primitive Mysteries''.Arlene Croce, ''Writing in the Dark, Dancing in the New Yorker''. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. Print. pp. 194-195. In addition to her work in

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th ...

, Yuriko performed on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

in the original productions of ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childr ...

'' (1951–54) and ''

Flower Drum Song ''Flower Drum Song'' was the eighth musical theatre, musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, ''The Flower Drum Song'', by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee (author), C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway the ...

'' (1958–60) and directed the 1977-78

revival of ''The King and I''. On November 23, 1954, she acted in a Broadway play called ''Sandhog''. In the musical, Yuriko alongside

Eliot Feld Eliot Feld (born July 5, 1942) is an American modern ballet choreographer, performer, teacher, and director. Feld works in contemporary ballet. His company and schools, including the Feld Ballet and Ballet Tech, are involved in dance and dance ed ...

, David Winters, Muriel Mannings, and Betty Ageloff played a group of kids. Paul Affelder of ''

The Brooklyn Eagle The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''Kings County Democrat'', later ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' before shortening title further to ''Brooklyn Eagle'') was an afternoon daily newspaper published in the city ...

'' praised all the performances, and found the kids talented. She has also performed on television, and in motion pictures and danced to works by

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particu ...

and Eugene Lester. She taught famous dancers such as

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...

and

Miki Orihara Miki may refer to: Places *Miki, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Kagawa, a town in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Azerbaijan, a village in Astara Rayon, Azerbaijan People *Miki (given name) *Miki (surname) *Miki Núñez (born ...

. She formed her own modern dance company in 1967, which remained active until 1973. Sources from the time frequently confuse this Yuriko with Japan-born Yuriko Kimura, who danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1967 to 1985.McGehee, Helen (1993). "Review of Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham". ''Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research''. 11 (1): 99–103. doi:10.2307/1290612.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit to uniquely identify a periodical publication (periodical), such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...

0264-2875. Kimura joined the company a decade after Yuriko, and so they were often referred to as "Big Yuriko" (Kiguchi) and "Little Yuriko" (Kimura).

Personal life

Yuriko married Charles Kikuchi in 1946 and had two children. She died in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on March 8, 2022, one month after her 102nd birthday.

Awards

In 1967, she was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in choreography. In 1991, she won a

Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

. Yuriko was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded o ...

in 2006. Yuriko received the Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Films

*1956 – ''

'' *1957 – ''A Dancer's World'' *1960 – ''Yuriko: Creation of a Dance''

References

External links

Yuriko interview.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuriko 1920 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American actresses American actresses of Japanese descent American women centenarians American choreographers American dancers of Asian descent American female dancers Actresses from Manhattan Actresses from San Jose, California Japanese-American internees