Yuriko (b. 1920)

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Yuriko (b. 1920)

American modern dancer and choreographer. Name variations: Yuriko Kikuchi. Born Yuriko Kikuchi, Feb 2, 1920, in San Jose, CA; raised in Japan; children: Susan Kikuchi.

Danced with company of Konami Ishil during adolescence in Tokyo; returned to US and danced in Dorothy Lyndall's Junior Dance Company until 1941; following bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941), was interned at the Gila River Reservation Center in Arizona, along with 13,000 Japanese-American; started a dance school for the prisoners; released to study with Martha Graham in NY (1944); began a 50-year association with the Graham Company, creating roles in Primitive Mysteries (1944), Appalachian Spring (1944), Imagined Wing (1944), Ardent Song (1954), Clytemnestra (1958), Embattled Garden (1958) and Equatorial (1978); took over Graham's roles in numerous works, including Appalachian Spring; also created role of Eliza for The King and I on Broadway (1951); founded and directed Yuriko Dance Company (1967–74) for which she choreographed many works; formed Martha Graham Dance Ensemble to recreate Graham dances from the 1930s.