Melody Takata brings traditional Japanese dance into the 21st century, plus a benefit for SF dance vet Enrico Labayen
Melody Takata at Taiko Legacy in Chicago
PHOTO BY KEN CARLDANCE It took Los Angeles-born Melody Takata, founder and artistic director of Japantown's GenRyu Arts, four years to convince her parents to let her study dance. It was her older sister's "fault"— she had studied ballet for a while but didn't like it and stopped. "So my parents didn't want to go through that experience again," Takata remembered. But Takata was living in a Japanese American community that embraced traditional arts, and ballet wasn't what she had in mind.Read more »