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Michiko Iseri was a dancer instrumental in setting forth the way for Japanese American dancers and performers to reach Broadway. She went on to become a dance consultant to help produce the movie adaptation of "The King and I" on Broadway.

Life during and after World War II
Michiko Iseri was believed to be born in 1918 and in the southwest of America. Michiko Iseri was one of many Japanese Americans who was forcibly removed from their households and put in internment camps after Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and the fear involving national security, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that ordered for all persons of Japanese descent to be rounded up and put into internment camps. These camps were usually overcrowded and had poor living qualities. In the midst of all this, Michiko overcame all of this and found time to study under Madame Fujime Kansume at Heart Mountain and began teaching Odori to other internees; sewing scraps together to make costumes and buying old kimonos, a long robe with loose, wide sleeves that is tied with a sash, originally worn as a formal garment in Japan, from former waitresses. When she left Heart Mountain in 1944, she moved in with Teiko Ono, a sponsor that helped her move to New York.

She restarted her dancing career and proceeded to make a reputation for herself in Japanese dance. Around that time, word spread of a new “oriental” musical being produced and many of her students auditioned. When the choreographer found that Michiko had taught all these dancers, he hired her as an oriental dance consultant. She trained the dancers in authentic oriental dances, so the production would be more authentic. At one hundred years old, Michiko Iseri is still choreographing with the help of her daughter. She is choreographing a dance for the Nisei week festival parade in Los Angeles.

The Nisei Week Festival is a week-long celebration of Japanese American culture, the first one being held in Tokyo in 1934 and lights were lit for seven days and seven nights.

Impact on Broadway (The King and I)
Initially, Michiko was doubtful about the fact that the show was not authentic enough. Her beliefs did not coincide with the casting being conducted in the “King and I”. She stated that “it’s a sacrilege to make the dancing like they’re supposed to be ‘Oriental’” and made it her goal to express the true definition of “orientalist” culture. It was difficult for Michiko to implement “orientalist” culture into the play without being scrutinized by Jerome Robbins, the choreographer who initially asked Michiko to join the cast. After many attempts and almost leaving the cast, she was able to leave her mark on the play in a meaningful way, even though she didn't get the chance to accomplish everything she had in mind. Michiko Iseri trained all of her students, for the movie adaptation of the “King and I”, in authentic “oriental” dancing to enhance and improve the production as a whole and make it more realistic.


 * Madame Fujima Kansuma taught Japanese Odori in America’s concentration camps. Her students included Yukino Okubo Harada who is 96 years old and I believe her oldest living student. Another student, Michiko Iseri, also taught Odori at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. After her release from the camp, Michiko went on to dance in Broadway’s The “King and I” as one of their youngest dancers.

The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain and located midway between the towns of Cody and Powell in northwest Wyoming, was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans that were evicted from the West Coast Exclusion Zone during World War II by executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.