Yeichi Nimura and Lisan Kay Nimura papers

1903-2006 [bulk 1927-1990] D

Yeishi Nimura

Yeichi Nimura, dancer, teacher, and choreographer, was born Tomizo Miki on March 25, 1897 in Suwa, Japan, the sixteenth generation of a Samurai family. His father, a retired Commissioner of Police, died when Nimura was six. He never knew, or heard mention of, his mother. Nimura would always remember his father's severe childrearing methods and the succor of the Japanese rituals they observed together. His grandfather, a respected Suwa patriarch, was a similarly exacting influence who exposed Nimura to martial arts and other Japanese traditions.

Nimura left Suwa for Tokyo when his grandfather died and family fortunes collapsed. He drifted from job to job, ran away from school and became a cabin boy with a Japanese steamship company. When the ship docked in Seattle on September 1, 1918, Nimura left the boat and never returned. For two years, he migrated across the U. S., adopting his new name and supporting himself as a "school boy" and farm hand. He arrived in New York City in 1920, worked in tea rooms on lower Fifth Avenue and began studying ballet. Chance attendance at a Denishawn Company recital in 1924 led to intensive training at the Denishawn School, primarily ballet with Katherine Edson. It was Edson who encouraged Nimura to dance professionally. He also studied ballet with Ivan Tarasoff and Constantin Kobeleff, and Spanish dance with Aurora Arriaza at other Manhattan studios. In 1925, he studied only briefly with Michio Ito - their movement styles were incompatible. Yet Nimura's talent was evident and Ito hired him to perform two musical numbers in the 1927 revue Chingaling.

Virginia Lee (née Ice), Ito's manager, saw a "rare quality of mobility" and "majesty" in Nimura's dancing and began promoting his career. He performed a fan dance and warrior dance, accompanied by Louis Horst, at a Dance Masters of America convention in 1927, and was featured in the short-lived operetta Taza (1928), choreographed by Edward Strawbridge. Other early engagements included Neighborhood Playhouse productions of Bloch's Israel (1928) and Prince Igor; Shubert productions of A Night in Venice, Broadway Nights, and Land of Smiles (1931); numerous Roxy Theater shows as featured soloist; and, in the role of the Efficiency Expert, the League of Composer's Pas d'Acier (1931), choreographed by Strawbridge with an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

Nimura choreographed signature works Javanesque (music by Lily Strickland), Ceremony (David Freed), Spear Episode, Cosmic Poems (including "Earth is a Drum" and "Primeval") and Wizard Cat (aka The Cat Dance) (Alda Astori) in these years. The style was Nimura's own; the pieces showcased his versatility, fascination with animal movement, and gift for creating illusion. In 1930, he made a successful concert debut with Pauline Koner at the New Yorker Theater.

By 1931, Nimura was teaching a dance idiom that blended "eastern and western ideals and techniques" at the Yeichi Nimura Studios in the Lincoln Square Building. He was soon invited by Sali Lobel to be a faculty member of the First International Summer School of Dance in Buxton, England (1932). His protégé, Lisan Kay, was a Buxton scholarship student and Nimura chose her as his dance partner at the program's end.

Nimura and Kay, with Virginia Lee as their manager, toured Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from 1932-1937 and the United States, Canada, Hawaii and Cuba from 1937-1940. Figures of Earth (unaccompanied) and Ch'Ien Niu and the Spinning Maiden (Astori) were among their duets. Critical acclaim was widespread; Nimura was hailed another Nijinsky. But plans for a second national tour were dropped with the outbreak of World War II and the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment. Nimura and Kay's final performance together was on October 12, 1940.

Thereafter, Nimura concentrated on teaching, choreographing and coaching. He and Virginia Lee established The Nimura Studio at "61" Carnegie Hall in 1937, renaming it Ballet Arts when they co-founded the school in 1940. Nimura was Artistic Director, unofficial janitor, and permanent instructor, specializing in Modern Plastique (aka Nimura Technique). Many of his students went on to professional renown, including Gemze DeLappe, Bambi Linn and Diana Adams. The school faculty included Anton Dolin, Edward Caton, Agnes DeMille, Vera Nemchinova, Lisan Kay, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Nina Stroganova, Alexandra Danilova and Aida Alvarez. But dance training stopped for the annual Ballet Arts Christmas party, for which Nimura was both host and chef.

Nimura resumed theatrical work in 1945 at the urging of Mary Martin, a studio visitor. He choreographed the Broadway musical Lute Song (1946) in which Martin and Yul Brynner starred and reset the dances and staging for the 1959 revival. Tropic Etude (Villa-Lobos) premiered in 1960 and was restaged by Missouri Concert Ballet in 1984. Other concert works have included Ondine (Saint-Saëns) which premiered at Jacob's Pillow in 1960, and A Changing Wind (Rosenthal) based on Rashomon. Coaching and directing credits include both the ballet in the opera Iris (1931) and Marjorie Lawrence's Salome (1938) at the Metropolitan Opera, Madame Butterfly (1941) at Radio City Music Hall, and Andra McLaughlin's ice dancing in the Hollywood Ice Revue of the 1950s.

Though he never returned to Japan, Nimura steadily cultivated a network of Japanese artists, businessmen and officials. The Azuma Kabuki Dancers and Musicians, the Takarazuka Opera Company, and numerous others were invited to teach at Ballet Arts and/or were guests in Nimura's home. He, himself, was invited to address Japanese dignitaries at New York's Nippon Club events.

In 1969, Nimura was awarded the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure. Thereafter, most of his projects were based in Japan and many were supervised by Masao Fujiwara, the son of a childhood friend. Nimura donated rare Sosen screens to Suwa and was honored, in absentia, at the dedication ceremony. In 1971, Jiden, his Japanese-language autobiography, was published in Suwa and Ballet Arts of Carnegie Hall in Tokyo opened under the direction of Aiko Ohtaki, a former pupil. Finally, in 1973 he established the Nimura Award, a prize recognizing Japanese dance artists, conferred annually in Suwa, Japan.

Nimura and Virginia Lee were married in 1947 and divorced in 1963. He married Lisan Kay in 1964. Yeichi Nimura died in New York City on April 3, 1979 and was cremated. His ashes were returned to Suwa, Japan.

Lisan Kay Nimura

Lisan Kay Nimura, wife and dance partner of Yeichi Nimura, was born Elizabeth Malvina Hathaway on May 4, 1910 in Conneaut, Ohio to Lisbeth Pond Hathaway, a piano teacher, and Reverend Jay Clyde Hathaway, who took his life six months before his daughter was born. Kay was raised by her mother, with her Aunt Dora providing further adult guidance. These two women encouraged Kay's artistic abilities and the three shared a lifelong devotion to each other.

By twelve years of age, Kay was studying in Chicago at the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet School and, later, with Ruth Austin, a former Denishawn Company member. Kay's professional debut was in 1926 with Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet. She rose from corps member to soloist, touring the United States and Canada on concert stages and in vaudeville as Nina Valerskaya. After five years, Kay left the Pavley-Oukrainsky troupe and moved to New York City in search of a dance partner. It was the soda jerk serving her one hot day who recommended classes with Yeichi Nimura; the young man had seen Kay dance in Chicago and recognized her potential for Nimura's unique style. In 1931, Kay became a regular in Nimura's classes and toured briefly with Ruth Page. In 1932, she won the Sali Lobel Scholarship to The First International Summer School of Dance in Buxton, England where Nimura was to teach. The Dean of judges was Ruth St. Denis, who would become a steadfast mentor. At the close of the Buxton program, Nimura selected Kay as his dance partner and she took her new professional name. The "N" in "Lisan" was her tribute to Nimura.

From 1932-1937, Nimura and Kay, with Virginia Lee as their stage manager, toured Europe, Egypt and Palestine to widespread acclaim. Among their signature duets were Nimura's Figures of Earth and Ch'Ien Niu and the Spinning Maiden. Nimura, Kay and Lee returned to the U. S. and, from 1937-1940, the dancers toured the United States, Canada, Hawaii and Cuba. "Lisan Kay is agile as a chamois, sinuous as a cobra, and swift and sure as a hummingbird in sudden flight", one critic enthused.

When their onstage partnership ended in 1940, Kay became a permanent faculty member at Ballet Arts School in Carnegie Hall, teaching Modern Dance, Ballet, and Modern Plastique (aka Nimura Technique) to professionals and amateurs of all ages. Not only was she a beloved teacher, but she saw to daily studio upkeep, hosted functions, and, as Secretary of Ballet Arts Associates, Inc., contributed to the school's longevity. She was also active in the 1980 protest against Carnegie Hall's rent hikes for artist tenants and the Dance Artists' Nationwide Space Emergency (D. A. N. S. E.) movement of 1986. Among those Kay has taught or coached have been Gemze De Lappe, Yul Brynner, Lavinia Williams, Ron Fletcher, Aiko Ohtaki, Valerie Harper, and Nancy Raffa.

Kay continued teaching at Ballet Arts into the 1980s, while also pursuing freelance work. She was a lead dancer in Broadway's Lute Song (1946), and remounted Nimura's choreography for the 1948 London production. She performed the role of Azuri in MUNY St. Louis' Desert Song from 1946-1947 and was a guest artist in San Carlo Opera Company's 1950 Aida. She choreographed and performed Birth of a Color (1944) for the New York Times' stage show "Fashions of the Times"; Dinner Menu (1944), for Bernard Gabriel's musical suite on food rationing; and choreographed Vera Ralston's dances in the movie Storm over Lisbon. Kay also taught Nimura Technique and ballet in lecture-demonstrations and at teaching conferences until 1964.

From their earliest association, Nimura had been Kay's artistic ideal and Ballet Arts, of which Nimura was both co-founder and Artistic Director, remained Kay's professional home. "Nimura's dance has always been like religion to me," Kay once said, and she avidly sought the continuation of its aesthetic and technique. Over time, the two became offstage companions, and in 1964 they wed.

Kay had already been Nimura's advocate in obtaining permanent U. S. residency status. As his wife, she became his ally, secretary, publicist and enthusiastic biographer, writing and circulating photos, press releases, and portions of And So to Up!, her unpublished biography of Nimura. Long after Nimura's death, Kay continued to publicize, and sometimes appear at, the Nimura Award celebration in Suwa, Japan.

Lisan Kay Nimura died on August 24, 2006 and was cremated. Her ashes join those of her husband in Suwa, Japan.