A Japanese Dancer in America

Join the Department of Dance as we host George A. Miller Visiting Artist and former Martha Graham principal dancer Miki Orihara for a lecture presented on Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 5pm at Spurlock Museum's Knight Auditorium located at 600 South Gregory in Urbana. Admission is free.

Miki Orihara was 18 years old when she arrived in New York to study with Martha Graham, in whose company she performed from 1987 to 2015, eventually as a highly acclaimed principal dancer. Along the way, she received a Bessie Award and Dance Magazine called her "the kind of Graham dancer who comes along once in a decade." She has performed on Broadway and in film, along with many other notable companies including Twyla Tharp, Martha Clarke, and Anne Bogart (SITI Company). Today, she will discuss her new solo concert series that includes her own choreography with the aim of defining who she is now, how she got to be this artist, and honoring her mentors and teachers.

This event is hosted by the Department of Dance in conjunction with the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, Department of History, Department of Theatre, Japan House, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Program in Jewish Culture and Society, School of Music, and the Spurlock Museum.