Mount Prospect native brings famed dancer's life to stage
Mount Prospect native Shelby Moran has been dancing for most of her life.
Now the 23-year-old is using her talent to bring the life of another dancer, famed Japanese-American ballet dancer and actress Sono Osato, into the spotlight in Thodos Dance Chicago's production of “Sono's Journey.” The program is part of the company's “Chicago Revealed” contemporary dance concert.
“Sono's Journey” had its world premiere in January at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, with Osato now 96, in the audience as Moran and two other dancers performed different stages of her life. Having Osato at the premiere was a moment Moran won't soon forget.
“She (Osato) looked so moved, so touched. It meant a lot to her and to her family,” Moran said. “After the show, Sono took a bit of time to talk to each of the dancers, and she gave us some advice about performing — various things about portraying a character onstage, and how to keep everything fresh. To hear these wise words from someone who has taken this incredible journey was an honor.”
Osato, born in 1919 to a Japanese father and an Irish-French Canadian mother, battled discrimination at various times in her life. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Osato's father was arrested as an alien enemy of the United States and interned for six months. But Sono Osato forged on, later dancing with the American Ballet Theatre and in various Broadway productions.
Moran portrays Osato in her later years, in a segment titled “Sono the Matriarch.”
“It's not so much that I am portraying an old woman, but I am portraying her voice as she is now,” Moran said. “I am portraying Sono as an older woman, looking back on her life. I am portraying a memoir, rather than a physical character.”
One challenge Moran faced is the structure of the ballet has her moving to the sound of a prerecorded narrative, rather than to music.
“The movement is relating to the story she is telling,” Moran said.
Moran graduated from John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and received her BFA from the Julliard School in New York in 2015.
Over the years, she trained in various styles, including ballet and modern dance, at the Bataille Academie of the Danse in Mount Prospect and the Dance Center Evanston. Moran has performed in programs on the East coast and has worked with companies such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. But she has achieved her childhood goal with Thodos Dance Chicago.
“I've known since I was very young that I wanted to be a professional dancer,” Moran said.
Moran, who now lives in Prospect Heights, does not have much free time these days. Along with her work with Thodos Dance Chicago, she teaches ballet to youth at Extensions Dance Company in Chicago.
Many of Moran's friends and relatives were in the audience at the “Sono's Journey” premiere. and they will also be at upcoming performances on Saturday, Feb. 20, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie and Saturday, March 5, at the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance in Chicago, Moran said.
But when she is onstage, Moran often forgets about family, friends and the hundreds — or thousands — of others who might be watching her.
“I almost forget that there is an audience,” Moran said. “You are in this world, especially when you are portraying a character. The steps and movement are in your muscle memory. But it does require a great amount of presence in your mental and emotional state of mind. Every step has great meaning.”
“Sono's Journey” in Thodos Dance Chicago's “Chicago Revealed” winter concert
<b>• 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. Tickets $28-$50. (847) 673-6300 or <a href="http://www.northshorecenter.org">northshorecenter.org</a>.</b>
<b>• 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., Chicago. Tickets $15-$65 (40 percent off for students and seniors). (312) 334-7777 or <a href="http://www.harristheaterchicago.org">harristheaterchiscago.org</a>.</b>