Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Martha Nishitani Interview
Narrator: Martha Nishitani
Interviewer: Sara Yamasaki
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 15, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-nmartha-01-0028

<Begin Segment 28>

MN: But I wanted to dance ever since I was six.

SY: Ever since you were six?

MN: Six. I don't know whether I told you that.

SY: How do you know that?

MN: Well, when I was six years old, I was in the first grade. And I developed a toothache. And so I was sent home and taken to the dentist to have the tooth fixed. And then after we went to the dentist, my sister-in-law, Pearl, took me to see (...) the movie, Les Miserables. That was the first time it came with Frederick March and (Charles) Laughton, (...) that was the first Les Miserables that was (filmed). (...) They had a vaudeville along with it. And in this vaudeville there was a dance and there were, oh, about six girls in long blue gowns, and they danced flowing type movement. And I guess I just sat up and stared and watched. And after it was over, I just fell back, exhausted. And all the people started tittering, laughing around me. (...)

SY: Oh, laughing at you?

MN: (No), because of my reaction. And then I knew from that moment that I wanted to be a dancer, that I wanted to dance. And in grade school, there were two, three girls that came from (...) wealthy families, and this was in the Depression. And they got dance lessons, and whenever we'd have a program, they got to dance. And, oh, I was just, wanted to be their friend and wanted to dance, but I never said that. I just said, "I wanna be a school teacher," because if you wanted to be a dancer, they think you were gonna be a nightclub dancer or (...) a prostitute (...). 'Cause people didn't pursue dancing as a career. So anyway, I got to be both. [Laughs]

SY: Oh, that's right, because you're a dance teacher. You're a choreographer and dancer. So in some ways, your wish came true.

MN: (Yes).

SY: But back then, when you were six, you said it was a secret. When did it not become a secret?

MN: Well, when I started, I guess, with Eleanor King. Because after I came back from the war, when I started studying with the intercultural dance workshop that Katherine Wolfe started, that, I knew I was going to dance. But then when I started with Eleanor King, I really thought, this is dance, this is what I always wanted. Because she always gave technique and then she'd always give composition. And she liked the things that I choreographed.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.