Sono Osato

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Sono Osato born August 29 1919 in Omaha Nebraska is an American dancer and actress of Japanese and European descent Early life Her Japanese father Shoji Osato 18851955 and her IrishFrench Canadian mother Frances Fitzpatrick 18971954 were the caretakers of the Phoenix Pavilion and its Japanese garden both of which had been built for Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893 from 1935 to 1941 JapaneseAmericans were forbidden from traveling east of Chicago during World War II as a result her father was interned in Chicago under the United States Governments Japanese American Internment policy Sono Osato was the oldest of three siblings her given name is Japanese for garden She had two siblings Teru her younger sister married a US naval officer and started a family in Norfolk Virginia Timothy her younger brother upon turning eighteen yearsold in 1943 joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army to fight on the front lines in Europe Career Osato began her career at the age of fourteen with the Ballets Russe de MonteCarlo she later went on to dance with American Ballet Theatre then Ballet Theatre While at ABT she danced roles in such ballets as Kenneth MacMillans Sleeping Beauty Antony Tudors Pillar of Fire and Bronislava Nijinskas The Beloved As a musical theater performer her Broadway credits included principal dancer in One Touch of Venus Donaldson Award Ivy Smith in the original On the Town and Cocaine Lil in Ballet Ballads In the late 1940s and 1950s Osato briefly pursued a career as an actress appearing on Broadway in Peer Gynt in the film The Kissing Bandit and in occasional guest appearances on TV series such as The Adventures of Ellery Queen 1950 She founded the Sono Osato Scholarship Program in Graduate Studies at Career Transition For Dancers to help former dancers finance graduate work in both the professions and the liberal arts Personal life Osato married the real estate developer Victor Elmaleh in 1943 and they had two sons He died in 2014 She is the aunt of installation artist Sono Osato She is fluent in English and Japanese