I loved working on this one. As a force on the cultural scene in pre-WWII Los Angeles, Ito was fascinating: a truly multicultural artist whose interracial company prefigures art-making from the end of the 20th Century. Not only that, but as a young performer Ito rubs shoulders with the giants of modern art, performance and literature like Pound, Yeats, and Shaw...he dances with Pavlova, confounds Stokowski, and trains a generation of modern dancers including Lester Horton and Bella Lewitsky in extravaganzas at the Hollywood Bowl.
But with the coming of war, Ito falls under suspicion as a spy and provocateur. His Irish wife and Nisei sons can only watch helplessly as this supreme Modernist is interned and then deported.
He's an amazing figure and little-known outside the modern dance community...one of those people who seemed to be everywhere and know everyone for a time until darkness overtook him.... Check it out!
