Reviews

The Tale of Genji

Japanese choreographer Saeko Ichinohe, who makes dances in Western idioms, here tackles an interesting challenge: bringing the ancient literary text to the stage with a multiracial cast, an international melange of music and contemporary movement ... Their unfolding drama has the feel of a Japanese Lilac Garden: hidden passions smoldering within individuals intent on keeping up appearances.
- The Village Voice
The audience was enchanted by the company's gorgeous costumes adapted from kimono and the unique movements, which share the aesthetics of Japanese traditional dance.
- The OSC News
This ambitious work-in-progress harks back to the great story-ballets or modern dance classics such as "The Moore's Pavane", Jose Limon's re-telling of Othello.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Ms. Ichinohe creates a sense of delicate, sometimes powerful Japanese ritual with colors that are drawn at least as much from the Western modern-dance palette as from traditional Japanese dance. The exquisite fabrics and elegant costumes for "Genji" are also an important ingredient. Hifumi Shimoyama's haunting music for shakuhachi, percussion and mysterious sounds also helps to create a potent atmosphere.
- The New York Times
Wrapped in the strikingly beautiful costumes modeled after the robes of the Heian Period, the dancers expressed the life of Genji skillfully, and the audience was mesmerized.
- The Yomiuri America
The performance was superb, filled with a sense of artistry and an exquisite balance of western movements and music, both traditional and contemporary. In addition effective lighting created the atmosphere of ancient Japanese scenes.
- The Mutsu Shimpo Newspaper (Hirosaki, Japan)
This collaborative work by Japanese and non-Japanese artists proved far from conventional.
- The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo, Japan)
I was very much impressed by the company's performance. It gave me a new dimension in my interpretation of The Tale of Genji.
- an audience member (Tokyo, Japan)

General

A quantum leap of the imagination.
- The New York Times
The delicacy and introspection of Japanese art combined with vigor of American modern dance ...I call it a spanning of cultures?
- The Village Voice
Ms. Ichinohe and her small company dazzled a filled auditorium with delicacy, artistry and unique vision theatrically presented. Her ability to combine traditional Japanese dance and modern was certainly a thing of beauty.
- The Attitude
East has not only met West, but moved on to conquer us with dancers the likes of Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company. Rarely do we witness cross-cultural expression of this company's caliber.
- The Sunday Express News
Ms. Ichinohe is a choreographer I hope to see more of.
- Dance Magazine

35th Anniversary Performance on March 31, 2005

To think that not too long ago, quite a few dance mavens were convinced that ethnic dance could not be modernized. In its 35th anniversary celebration, the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company certainly proved that such a conviction no longer holds.

Saeko Ichinohe has certainly succeeded in her mission: utilizing dance to inspire mutual understanding between diverse peoples and cultures.

- Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

Back in 1970, sushi bars were just appearing in New York, and places like Japan House and the Zen Studies Society were isolated outpost of what was still an extremely foreign culture. That was when Saeko Ichinohe, a Japanese graduate of the Juilliard School, started her dance company with the aim of combining western and Japanese dance traditions. Today, there’s sushi in every supermarket, and Americans have become not just customers but producers of Japanese culture. That was the message at the 35th anniversary celebration of the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company, and it was personified by an all-American young man who can dance and choreograph in the traditional Japanese style, and even move around in the house-like costumes of traditional Japanese theater. Jeff Moen has been a disciple of Ichinohe for ten years, and now he appears in line to be her heir.

- Tom Phillips, dance reviewtimes

 The key to Saeko Ichinohe’s artistic survival lies in respect for tradition and timelessness.

- Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Village Voice

 

Individual Dance

Dew of Hagi from The Tale of Genji:

A man and woman are bound by formal manners and by their Japanese vestments. Their desire to express their affection for each other is repressed by the demands of social conduct. Jeff Moen and Yukie Okuyama gave very poignant performances.

- Tim Martin, Dance Europe

Ichinohe’s choreography for The Tale of Genji combines Japanese ritualism with erotic partnering from ballet and modern dance, worked together in a seamless fashion.

- Tom Phillip, Danceviewtimes

Dreams Wandering Over a Withered Field:

Unencumbered by imperial attire was Moen’s own premiere based on haiku poems by Basho.

The audience never hears the poem, just spare score for flute and percussion, but somehow we pick up the mood of melancholy intensity, of letting go. Mostly this is because of a masterful performance by Yukie Okuyama, a woman playing the poet himself.

- Tom Phillip, Danceviewtimes

Variation for Taiko:

The most exhilarating piece from 1981, with a score of Japanese drumming, followed by a long stretch of silence. The movements emphasized the breadth and power of the body, often facing front in a wide knee bend – the platform for explosive thrust of Asian martial arts.

- Tom Phillip, Danceviewtimes

Head:

The weirdest and funniest piece from 1984, with a jumping John Cage score that sounds like a pinball machine from space. It brought back an ara of art – Alwing Nikolais, the rock group Devo – that explores the reduction of humanity to brainless automatons. There was always something ironic and defiant about the pose, and here it was done with wit and delight.

- Tom Phillip, Danceviewtimes

Individual Dancers

In a company chock-full of graceful performers, Katie Higham-Kessler stands out for her work in Pearl and Fire-eating Bird (1966) and as “Winter” in Moen’s Dreams, where she applies a robust clarity of line to all her movements and phrases.

- Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Village Voice

In Pearl, Haruno Yoshida was a high priestess of lyricism a s she moved in paryer, mourning, and finnaly, hope, so lithe she barely seemed skim the floor. Vivifying the dancer’s artistly was the background curtain conceived by artist Cornelia Ruehlicke.

- Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

In Head was distinguished by Shiho Miyazawa’s electrifying solo, which combined echoes of Japan with contemporary dynamics.

 - Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

 

In Dew of Hagi, the exquisite tenderness conveyed by the performers, Yukie Okuyama as Lady Murasaki and Jeff Moen as Prince Genji.

- Jennie Schulman, Back Stage

In Dreams, Saeko Ichinohe appeared as Autumn Moon. Despite the fact that this was mainly walk-on role, she made an awesome showing. Later on, Ichinohe stood quietly on the far side of the stage, but our eyes kept wandering to her. Call it her magnetism. There is no pro like an old pro.

- Jennie Schulman, Back Stage