The Transnational Modern Dance of Itō Michio a DISSERTATION
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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Altered Belonging: The Transnational Modern Dance of Itō Michio A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Theatre and Drama By Tara Rodman EVANSTON, ILLINOIS June 2017 2 © Copyright by Tara Rodman 2017 All Rights Reserved 3 Abstract This dissertation, “Altered Belonging: The Transnational Modern Dance of Itō Michio,” argues that Itō forged an artistic and social identity out of the very categories of racial and national difference typically used to exclude Japanese from Euro-American society. The strategies he employed provide a paradigm for how performing bodies marked as foreign claim freedom of mobility and a sense of belonging in their adopted communities. Addressing the full span of his career across five decades of performance in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, this dissertation restores the historic and analytic relationships among geographically distinct archives. By uncovering the linkages between his eurythmics training in Hellerau, Germany, his modernist collaborations in London, his nearly three decades dancing in New York and Los Angeles, and his Pan-Asianist activities under Japan’s wartime empire, I recover, for instance, how Itō’s experience of New York stage Orientalism later shadows his Pan-Asianist planned performances for Imperial Japan, and how the universalist ideals of his Hellerau training resurfaced as an ideology of community dance in Los Angeles. The trans-oceanic linkages thus rendered legible are relevant for understanding not only Itō’s career but also the integrated nature of twentieth-century modernism and the strategies by which modern artists refashioned alterity into a basis for creative freedom and freedom of movement. 4 Acknowledgments I won’t ever be able to truly express how grateful I am for my committee. I am humbled by the insight, generosity, and care that they have devoted to me and to this project. Susan Manning has been there from the beginning, and she has served as an incredible role model. She gave me the freedom to pursue this project, grounded it with her attentive questions, and sustained my work with her encouragement and friendship. Chris Bush has shown me my best arguments and revealed the ones I didn’t even know I was making; he has enabled me to make connections far beyond my home discipline. Andrew Leong grew this project in many of its most unexpected and valuable directions; I’ve become a more rigorous and exciting scholar because of him. Dilip Gaonkar served on my qualifying committee, and his ideas and suggestions have continued to guide my work. Harvey Young shaped not only this project in its earliest stages, but my experience in academia; it is a place full of warmth and camaraderie because of him. Tracy Davis, Dassia Posner, and Elizabeth Son have provided keen insights, professional guidance, and all around support; I am so grateful. If I had known what I was getting into, I probably would never have decided to learn Japanese for this project. To all my Japanese teachers, okage sama de; I truly could not have done it without you. A very special thanks goes to Junko Sato and Phyllis Lyons at Northwestern, and Kushida Kiyomi at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama. I will be forever grateful for all your help. My time in Japan was made immeasurably richer by the people I met there. Suzuki Sho, who provided critical contacts, Takemoto Mikio for welcoming me to Waseda University, and Kodama Ryūichi, who gave not only essential feedback and suggestions, but the experience of a Japanese zemi. Thank you, indeed, to all the members of that zemi, especially 5 Arisa Aoki, without whose enthusiastic support and kind explanations I would have been totally lost. Yoshida Yukihiko keeps me connected to the Itō sphere in Japan and abreast of the wide range of dance research there. The hours of conversation with Yūki Oyamada were some of my favorite. Noriko Karube gave not only crucial help, but a lot of laughter and friendship. Finally, Kazui and Takato Yabe offered a sense of home, giving me many of my most cherished memories from Japan—especially the meals. The research undertaken for this project would not have been possible without the help of librarians and specialists at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Gordon Prange Collection at University of Maryland (especially Yukako Tatsumi), the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress (especially Kiyoyo Pipher), the Special Collections of Northwestern University, and of University of California, Santa Barbara (especially Mari Khasmanyan), the Archives of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (especially Steve Lacoste). An especially large thanks goes to everyone at the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum at Waseda University, in particular, Kazuno Moegi. Grants from Northwestern University, the Nippon Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission supported this work. I’ve enjoyed so much of graduate school and dissertation writing because of my friends. To Jordana Cox, Lisa Kelly, Laura Lodewyck, and Aileen Robinson: it’s not every cohort that looks out for each other the way we have; I feel so lucky to have gone through this with you. The community of graduate students of IPTD is incredible; I can only hope to try to repay the innumerable small acts of mentorship and friendship. A little extra thanks to Nathan Hedman, Sam O’Connell, Katherine Zien, Gina DiSalvo, David Calder, and Keith Kirk, for showing me the way. Anndrea Mathers, you’ve taught me what perseverance looks like, and reminded me of the deep importance of female friendship. Katie Hartsock, your singing and your poetry made 6 these years so much more joyful. Emma Chubb, thank you for Flunches in Paris, a shared baking obsession, and sharing the sense that this could be both important and fun. Jyana Browne, navigating our field with you makes it all fun, and I am so grateful for all the times you’ve helped me out of confusion. Joanna Linzer, I think you’re really the sempai here; our conversations always make me learn, and laugh. Ron Wilson, your radical openness reminds me to stay curious, and to choose meaning. Dwayne Mann, our talks keep me going, and keep me excited. Faye Gleisser, I am inspired by your honesty, your way with words, and your listening. Aileen Robinson, I can’t imagine the last eight years without you there to decipher it all, and your steadfastness has been such a gift. Jordana Cox, your brain is in so much of this project, and your friendship behind it. Kelly Conron Bernard, Kathryn Doyle, Rebecca Levi, and Isabelle Smeall: you were there before all of this, and your friendship restores me to myself. To Margie and Sarah Peteraf and Paul Wolfson; thank you for all your support; I am so lucky to have you as family. To my parents, Linda and Larry Rodman, your encouragement, belief, and love has sustained me, not just in this work, but throughout my life. Truly, you’ve made this all possible. Max, you always remind me to take joy in what I’m doing, and to make time for celebrations. To Leo, you came first, and always will. Your presence is the most humbling and thrilling experience. To Jesse Wolfson, who is behind every word of this dissertation and has supported every hour that it took, you are my superpower. Thank you. 7 Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………3 Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………4 List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………...8 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..10 Chapter One: Being Modern in Time and Space, Itō in Europe………………………………………………42 Chapter Two: Impersonating the Orient: Japoniste, Oriental, and Interpretive Dance in New York…………98 Chapter Three: Emulsive Cosmopolitanism in California and Beyond………………………………………..136 Chapter Four: The Edge of Allegiance: The Greater East Asia Stage Arts Research Institute and the War Years……………………………………………………………………………..185 Chapter Five: Walking Into Democracy: Repurposing Modern Dance during the Allied Occupation………223 Conclusion: Choreographing the Silk Road for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics………………………………...256 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………....266 8 List of Illustrations Chapter 1 Figure 1: Selection from Helen Caldwell's demonstration of Itō's pose series. Michio Ito: The Dancer and His Dances. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25…………...48 Figure 2: Itō in the Fox Dance, with mask by Edmund Dulac. Photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1915. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25……………………...73 Figure 3: Itō in the Hawk costume. Photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1916. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25……………………………………………………..80 Figure 4: Itō in Pizzicati. Photograph by Toyo Miyatake, 1929. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25………………………………………………………………………..92 Figure 5: Drawing of Pizzicati, by Itō Michio. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25………………………………………………………………………………………….94 Chapter 2 Figure 1: "Manhattan Nights and Exotic Entertainers," Feature on Ballet Intime, 1917, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts…………….......……………………………….118 Figure 2: Dance Magazine, February 1926. Northwestern University Special Collections……121 Figure 3: Tango, 1927. University of California, Santa Barbara, CEMA 25…………………..123 Figure 4: “Danse Ecclesiastique, Drawings and Choreography by Michio Ito,” Dance Magazine, October 1926, 49. Northwestern University Special Collections………………………127 Chapter 3 Figure 1: Publicity for Itō recital with Lindahl and Komori,