Bravo Niagara! premieres original ballet Kimiko's Pearl Saturday

The result of more than three years of creating, planning, and producing the brand-new commissioned ballet Kimiko’s Pearl comes to fruition for Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts’ Christine Mori and Alexis Spieldenner when it premieres at the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre this Saturday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m.

The mother and daughter co-founders of the festival have practically been living at the downtown St. Catharines home for the arts for the past two weeks, watching four generations of their family’s life story come to beautiful life on the Partridge Hall stage. 

Kimiko’s Pearl traces the tragedies, triumphs and perseverance of one family before, during and after the Japanese Canadian internment of World War II. 

It’s told through the eyes of Kimiko, a 15-year-old Toronto girl who discovers an old family trunk containing her great-grandfather’s diary and other precious keepsakes. Along the way, ancient Japanese traditions appear and seem to vanish, only to re-emerge as Kimiko’s Pearl reaches its 21st-century finale.

It’s all inspired by the family history of co-creators and producers Mori and Spieldenner. Spieldenner’s maternal great-grandparents, Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa, left Japan to start a new life in Canada at the dawn of the 20th century. They settled in Mission, BC, where they built a strawberry farm before they were removed from their property during the war and held at the New Denver Internment camp. 

Kimiko’s Pearl uses music, dance, immersive sound and stunning visuals, including several family photos, to follow that journey. But it also focuses on the family’s resilience after the war, as they build a life and a community in Ontario. 

As a young girl, Spieldenner, whose middle name is Kimiko, discovered this surprising and important part of her family’s story. It became the basis for middle school and high school projects and later was central to her thesis while she studied at Duke University.

The creative team, including Emmy Award-winning writer Howard Reich, who wrote the story, Kevin Lau, who composed the score and choreographer Yosuke Mino, have come together numerous times in NOTL and Winnipeg, where Mino and some of the dancers perform. 

As the weekend approaches, Spieldenner says she and Mori are thrilled to be almost at the finish line. 

“It’s a dream to see this come to life,” Spieldenner told The Local. “It is our personal family story but it also sheds light on an important Canadian story. It’s never been told through ballet.” 

She added that their collaborators on the project have become like a family since the early stages of the project in 2021. Many of those working sessions with the team have taken place in Mori’s and Spieldenner’s NOTL home. 

Mori added that the full creative team will attend the world premiere Saturday. Reich will arrive from Chicago, Lau from Ottawa and sound designer Aaron Tsang from Toronto, while all of the visual artists who contributed to the projections will coming in from various locations. 

Many of her family members will also be arriving, including Mori’s aunt Hiro Ayukawa Kaita, who wrote the poem Father's Trunk after the Canadian government redress. This poem, along with the Ayukawa trunk, is central to the story. The trunk, which will be on in the lobby during the production while a prop copy will be on stage, was made by Mori’s grandfather while he was interned.

The Local stopped by last week to watch choreographer Yousuke Mino lead dancers Kyra Soo, Rachel Gibbs and Liam Saito through the first movement of Act Two, which centres on Mori’s parents meeting for the first time in a post-war factory setting in Toronto. 

“I have really enjoyed creating a ballet with a story that arcs through the entire evening,” the 44-year-old told The Local. “I’m honoured that they trusted me on this project, that they gave me a chance to express how their story makes me feel. They’ve been very supportive.”

Mino, who came to Canada from Kanazawa, Japan and has been with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for 22 years, says working with the young dancers has been a true collaboration.

“There’s no hierarchy,” he explained. “They are very respectful but also open to sharing their opinions on the creative process. Our purpose has always been to deliver this story. It’s not as much about the steps as it is to tell the audience what happened.”

Kyra Soo, the 22-year-old dancer who plays Kimiko, has appreciated Mino’s collaborative approach. 

“I wanted to do this project justice so I did my own research,” Soo explained. “When he would set choreography or have some recurring themes or movements for me, I would throw some ideas out there from my research. He was always open to a back-and-forth dialogue.” 

Soo added that it was important for her to pick Spieldenner’s ear throughout the process, as well.

“When I first came to Niagara to work on this I wanted to hear her perspective, how she came about finding out about her family,” Soo recalled. “She explained how learning about it changed her worldview, how it impacted her. I wanted to get her visceral reaction into my interpretation of the character.”

The 22-year-old member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet says the amount of storytelling in Kimiko’s Pearl presented some new challenges for her.

“I never saw myself as much of an actor,” she enthused. “It’s really pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of in terms of telling a story to an audience instead of the technical dancing involved in classical ballet.”

As she watched the dancers on stage and observed the projections being tested out by the technical producers, Mori expressed gratitude to the PAC for being a commissioning partner and presenter from the beginning.

While Kimiko’s Pearl premieres in St. Catharines this weekend, Mori and Spieldenner are hoping that it becomes a touring production in the near future, bringing an important chapter in Canada’s history across the country. And Lau’s score is set to be released as a CD later in 2024.

“It’s one thing to read about the internment in a textbook,” said Spieldenner, “but it’s another to see it through the eyes of a family through music, dance and art. I think it will really touch people.”

For tickets to Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. premiere or Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. matinee, visit kimikospearl.com.