RDT displays 'Mystique' of Japanese choreographer

The rich diversity in the history of modern dance will be showcased during Repertory Dance Theatre's upcoming performance of "Mystique."

RDT artistic director Linda C. Smith said the evening will include classic, older works and a world premiere.

"This is an interesting concert filled with a lot of contrast," Smith said during a break in rehearsals at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. "They are all wonderful pieces, but we see works from 1918 up to 2010."

Smith said she is fascinated by the varied modern dance vocabulary, which is represented in this performance.

"I get asked, 'What's the difference between modern dance and ballet?'," Smith said. "One aspect is all about the languages. In academic dance, which ballet is, you learn certain vocabulary and dance it 'this way.' But modern dancers can make up their own movement language. To me, what's fascinating about this concert is the different languages that people have created to express the human condition, emotions, the world in the movement."

The centerpiece of this evening of dance is a run of works by the late Japanese dance pioneer Michio Ito, whose technique is based on 10 movement positions of the arms that Ito likened to the keys on a piano.

"RDT was introduced to Michio's works in the early 1990s and found them fascinating," Smith said. "We were reintroduced to the idea that we could become more sophisticated in our understanding and expand our repertory of Ito works."

During a discussion with Ito historian Mary-Jean Cowell, Smith realized RDT could expand its information by going to the source — Ito's dance school, the Michio Ito Doomonkai in Japan.

To secure funding to work with the school, RDT sought a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

"We were ecstatic to find that not only were we funded, but very generously," she said. "We got the green light that the NEA thought this was important enough to preserve his work."

The grant helped foster an ongoing relationship with the school's senior teachers, Kyoko Ryutani and Kumio Komine.

"Kyoko is the master teacher and gives the final word for all things," said Smith. "She's the last remaining person who worked closely with Ito, who died in 1961. Kumio runs the school."

The two came to Utah to work with RDT in the winter of 2000.