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Seiko Takata

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Seiko Takata
A Japanese woman with hair cut in a curled bob, wearing a jacket and tie with a corsage
Takata Seiko, from a 1930 publication
Born
Sawano Sei

September 13, 1895
Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
DiedMarch 19, 1977 (age 81)
Tokyo, Japan
Other namesHara Seiko, Takada Seiko
OccupationDancer

Seiko Takata (September 13, 1895 – March 19, 1977; in Japanese, 高田せい子, or kana, たかた せいこ ), born Sawano Sei, was a Japanese dancer and dance educator. She is considered a pioneer of modern dance in Japan.

Early life and education

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Sawano Sei was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. She moved to Tokyo as a young woman, to attend music school.[1] She trained as a dancer with Enrico Cecchetti,[2] Giovanni Vittorio Rosi, Mary Wigman, Doris Humphrey, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis.[3][4]

Career

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With her dancer husband, Takata ran the Takata Dancing Society,[5] and toured and studied in Europe and the United States. Their duo dancing act was sometimes billed as "Seiko and Takata" on variety bills.[6][7] She was a member of the Imperial Theatre, the Negishi Kabukikan and the Asakusa Opera.[4] They were in London when the Great Kanto Earthquake devastated Tokyo in 1923. They returned to Japan in the autumn of 1924, but many of their professional connections were lost in the quake's aftermath.[3]

In widowhood, Takata continued performing,[8] and taught dance at the Takatas' school and in other settings.[5][9] After World War II she co-founded the Takata/Yamada Dance Company with Yamada Goro, and was president of the All-Japan Art Dance Association.[4] She is considered one of the founders of modern dance in Japan, alongside Baku Ishii and Eguchi Takaya.[10][11]

Takata's students included Japanese dancer Erika Akoh[2] and Chinese dancer Xiaobang Wu [zh].[12] Choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata trained with a student of Takata's.[4] Modern artist Zenzaburo Kojima [ja] painted a portrait of Takata in a Spanish dance costume in 1929.[13]

Personal life and legacy

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Sawano married fellow dancer Masao Takata [ja] in 1918. Her husband died from tuberculosis in 1929. She died in 1977, at the age of 81, in Tokyo.[3] A Takata/Yamada Dance Company and Martha Graham Dance Company alumna, Miki Orihara, performed Takata's "Mother" (1938) in San Francisco and New York in 2019.[14][15]

References

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  1. ^ The Japan biographical encyclopedia & who's who. Internet Archive. Tokyo, Rengo Press. 1961. p. 1583.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ^ a b Akoh, Erika. "A short biography of Seiko Takada (My Teacher)". ErikaAkoh.com. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  3. ^ a b c Akoh, Erika: "In search of beauty: Seiko Takada", 16th International Congress on Dance Research. Athens, IOFA Greece, 2002.
  4. ^ a b c d International dictionary of modern dance. Internet Archive. Detroit, MI : St. James Press. 1998. pp. 305, 394–395. ISBN 978-1-55862-359-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ^ a b "New Music and Dancing". Present-Day Japan; Asahi English Supplement: 36. October 25, 1931.
  6. ^ "Coliseum". The Daily Telegraph. March 25, 1924. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "At the Coliseum". Daily Mirror. April 2, 1924. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Matida, Kasyo (2013-10-28). Odori: Japanese Dance. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-20806-5.
  9. ^ "Geisha Girls Take Up Jazz". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. October 17, 1930. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Baird, Bruce; Candelario, Rosemary (2018-09-03). The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-53611-8.
  11. ^ Yukihiko, Yoshida (2016), "Eguchi Takaya (1900–1977)", Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism (1 ed.), London: Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781135000356-rem717-1, ISBN 978-1-135-00035-6, retrieved 2024-11-25
  12. ^ Ma, Nan (2023). When Words are Inadequate: Modern Dance and Transnationalism in China. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-19-757530-7.
  13. ^ Kojima Zenzaburo, "Portrait of Seiko Takata Dressed in Spanish" (1929), painting in the collection of the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art
  14. ^ Fancher, Lou (May 10, 2019). "Miki Orihara Brings Female Dance Masters to the Fore in "Resonance III"". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  15. ^ "Dialogue between Japanese and American Modern Dance by Miki Orihara". Dance Enthusiast. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
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