Japan's Jazz Machine - Masashi Action Machine to appear at Jazz Dance World Congress

Dance Magazine, August, 2001 by Merrill Leigh

THESE ARE no crouching tigers, hidden dragons. It's Masashi Mishiro and his company of ten dancers, who are known collectively as the Masashi Action Machine. Founded in Nagoya, Japan, in 1985 by Mishiro and Artistic Director Kumiko Sakamoto, in a whirlwind four years the troupe had been awarded the Japan Cup at the national Culture Festival sponsored by the country's Bureau of Culture. In 1990 they appeared at the Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Further awards followed in 1992: both the All-Japan Jazz Dance Competition grand prix and first prize at the Nagoya City Art Festival.

Masashi Mishiro is a discreet and intensely private person. But as a youngster he experienced the celebrity that goes along with special talent and achievement. He was a prize-winning gymnast, medalling at West Germany's World Gymnastics Festival in 1979, and he held titles in rhythmic sports gymnastics for three successive years in the All-Japan Student Championships. He is a graduate of the prestigious Chukyo University, enjoys a reputation as a dance and gymnastics teacher, and now operates a studio, Dancepro Ltd., and associated company, Masashi Mishiro Jazz Dance, in Nagoya. His most apparent passion is his Porsche automobile, and he is a member of the exclusive Porsche club of Japan.

Kumiko Sakamoto is a modern Japanese woman, well educated at private high schools and university, with flawless manners and charm and a classical traditional background as well. She is married to a very successful Japanese business executive and has one daughter; their pet beagle, fittingly, is named Tango. Sakamoto won the gold in the Leo's Choreography Competition at the 2000 Jazz Dance World Congress in Buffalo, New York, with her choreography Japan Moving Men.

"We've become great friends over the years," says Frank Hatchett, who introduced the company to his VOP style of jazz dance about twelve years ago. Choreographer Sakamoto and Mishiro made the jump into jazz dance together. Studying at the Broadway Dance Center in New York, they quickly absorbed American jazz styles and adopted those aspects that might fuse with their company's Japanese traditions and look. "They would come and take my classes for about ten days, then perform with us and us with them--like a cultural exchange," remembers Hatchett. "I sent people over during the year to teach them further in my style. Then I recommended them to Gus for the Congress."

In a sense, Hatchett and Giordano are the American godparents of this jazz company.

Invited by founder/director Gus Giordano to the American Jazz Dance World Congress (the first Congress in 1990 was so named) in Evanston, Illinois, they have performed at every one since. Sakamoto co-presented the Congress in Nagoya in August of 1995 on the campus of Chukyo University.

"[They're] one of the best groups to have at the Congress," Giordano explains. "That's why they're invited back every time. Their work is immensely entertaining, but more than that, their organization, their commitment, and their graciousness make them a joy to work with. On a personal note, encountering Kumiko and Masashi and their dancers since the first Congress in 1990, and visiting them in Nagoya in 1995, has helped erase for me the negative feeling about Japan that had been my legacy as a veteran of World War II."

Dancers for the company are chosen by open audition. They are selected not only for their skills in gymnastics and jazz dance, but especially for their personality and character. The training is extremely rigorous and the performers are expected to grow and form a unit within the studio.

"Practice every day," says Sakamoto by way of a translator, and as with most American dancers, that practice may come after a day of classes or other occupation. With the choreographed risk inherent in their programs, there is little room for error.

The Masashi Action Machine is composed of both men and women, but except for Mishiro, who is plainly the star, dancers are genderless when it comes to the synchronous choreography of breathtaking tumbling runs, leaps, and lifts. Often costumed alike, all are expected to perform at the same level of strength and difficulty. This is clearly a company of modern Japan, whose members are seen offstage most often in matching workout slacks and jackets or in contemporary evening wear. Sakamoto wears a traditional kimono when she presents, in charmingly halting English, a gift from her city or its prefecture, Aichi, to the host company, but backstage, she too is a working artistic director/choreographer.

The Machine's enthusiastic reception outside Japan encouraged performances in Singapore in 1994, Hawaii in 1996, and Guam in 1997. Then in 2000, the company toured Europe for six weeks, visiting Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, and Belgium. "The company, their character, art, and tradition, was extremely well received by the European audiences in the six different countries," said Andreas Pfeifer, project manager for Germany's Konzertdirektion Landgraf. Pfeifer arranged Masashi Action Machine's 2000 and 2001 European tours.