Spotlight: Melissa Thodos’ ‘Sono’s Journey’

Article by Thomas Connors

Read full article on Crain’s Chicago Business

 

“How can we know the dancer from the dance?” That line, which concludes a William Butler Yeats poem, often has been cited by dance writers in an effort to underscore the evanescence of the most body-centered of the arts. And while the art and artist are inseparable in the moment on stage, the dancer, like anyone else, has a life and a story.  Melissa Thodos-who in recent seasons has revived works by Broadway dance legend Bob Fosse and Chicago modernist Sybil Shearer-now focuses on the life of Sono Osato, a Nebraska-born Japanese-American whose career began in the 1930s, when she joined the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo.

Performed by Thodos Dance Chicago, “Sono’s Journey” (Jan. 9, $28-$68, Auditorium Theatre ) reflects on both the dancer’s creative life-she went on to perform with American Ballet Theatre and appeared on Broadway-and the greater world through which she has moved for the past 96 years. Osato’s minority status is central to her biography. Not only was the dance world of her youth almost exclusively white, but the real world was equally restrictive. Her Japanese father and Irish/French Canadian mother-caretakers of Jackson Park’s Japanese garden and Phoenix Pavilion-endured the hardship of separation after Pearl Harbor, when he was taken to an interment camp on the South Side.

Though she made a great impression dancing Miss Ivy Smith in the original production of “On the Town,” the war years found Osato performing under her mother’s maiden name (Fitzpatrick) and sometimes using heavy makeup to alter her Asian features.

“I carry a strong belief that our present is very much informed by our past,” Thodos says. “Sono’s story is so moving, truly an American story of an individual’s growth and perseverance in the face of adversity.”

Osato’s resume ranges from roles in such iconic ballets as Anthony Tudor’s “Pillar of Fire” and a comic turn choreographed by Agnes de Mille for the musical “One Touch of Venus.” But looking back at her career, she once remarked, “I never achieved great fame-no heights of incredible glory. But any strong endeavor that gives you a sense of joy is the greatest thing in life. “