People
- Individuals
Miyabi Ichikawa市川雅
Dance critic. Also known as: Masaaki Ichikawa. Studied ballet in his neighboured while also playing for the school football club during high school. Began writing dance reviews as a postgraduate student at Waseda University in the early 1960s. He introduced international dancers to a Japanese audience, and also introduced dancers such as Kazuo Ohno, Bonjin Atsugi and Shigeka Hanayagi to overseas audiences. In 1980 he accompanied Kazuo Ohno on his debut overseas tour. In addition to his work as a dance critic, he was also instrumental in producing dance festivals, in some of which Kazuo Ohno was invited to perform.
Basic Information
- ID
- PER8
- Born
- 15 January 1937
- Died
- 10 February 1997
- Profession(s)
- Critic
- Nationality
- Japanese
Short Biography
1962 Graduated from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences
1966 Went to New York to study until December 1968
1970 Received a doctorate from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences
1971 Planned the ‘Bizarre Exhibition of Contemporary Dance’. Akira Kasai and Kazuo Ohno performed ‘The Foothills [Oka no Fumoto]’. The same year, his translation of ‘Nijinsky no shuki’ [Nijinsky’s Memoirs] (Gendai ShichoSha) was published.
1976 Ichikawa is integral to the founding of the Japanese Society for Dance Research, which holds its first meeting. Contributed ‘The Sprint of Helm Aphrodite’ to the programme for Kazuo Ohno’s film ‘Mr O’s Book of the Dead’
1978 Cycling trip around India
1980 Accompanied Kazuo Ohno on his tour to Europe, reporting back to papers such as the Asahi Graph
1981 Accompanied Kazuo Ohno on his tour to the USA
1984 Opening of the first ‘ADF (American Dance Festival) Tokyo’
1989 Spent some time in Germany as a Japan Foundation Research Fellow
1993 Chair of the steering committee for JADE ‘93 (Japan Asia Dance Event), which was held in Tokyo and Akita, and at which Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno performed
1997 Passed away, aged 60.