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A female Asian dancer with long black hair, wearing a red floral kimono over a red top and jeans holds a pose, arms stretched out, right leg forward and left leg back, her held tilted slightly back as she faces forward and upward.
A female Asian dancer with long black hair, wearing a red floral kimono over a red top and jeans holds a pose, arms stretched out, right leg forward and left leg back, her held tilted slightly back as she faces forward and upward.
Photo: Photo credits: Kyra Soo. Photo by Réjean Brandt.

Powerful dance storytelling Powerful dance storytelling

The lives of four generations of a Japanese family, forever changed.

Photo: Photo credits: Kyra Soo. Photo by Réjean Brandt.

Home Events Performance Kimiko’s Pearl: A ballet world premiere

Kimiko’s Pearl: A ballet world premiere

Tragedies, triumphs & perseverance
The first time the Japanese Canadian WWII internment experience has been told through ballet

FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre presents the world premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl, a new Canadian ballet produced and commissioned by Bravo Niagara! – based on a story by Emmy Award-winning writer Howard Reich and inspired by the family history of Bravo Niagara! co-founders, and production co-creators/producers, Christine Mori and her daughter Alexis Spieldenner. For two performances only, the ballet takes the stage on Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23, 2024 at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines.

The story, spanning over a century, is 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. As Kimiko reads the diary, her family’s tale comes to life – and she sees her great-grandfather leaving his home in Japan in 1917 to start a new life in Canada. He marries a “picture bride” (a bride chosen from photographs sent by a matchmaker) from Kagoshima, and they become berry farmers in Mission, B.C. But after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, their lives and the lives of their descendants are irrevocably changed.

Kimiko’s Pearl was inspired by the Ayukawa family trunk, currently in the collection of the Canadian War Museum, which was built by Christine Mori’s grandfather Shizuo Ayukawa in the New Denver Internment Camp of B.C. The ballet reflects the tragedies, triumphs and perseverance of Japanese Canadians before, during and after the Japanese Canadian internment. Their harsh experiences attest to heroism and hope in the face of racism.

From 1942 to 1949, the Canadian government uprooted, interned, permanently dispossessed and displaced over 22,000 Japanese Canadians.

“As a fourth-generation Japanese Canadian, I hope this deeply personal story sheds light on a dark chapter in Canadian history and takes audiences on a journey of intergenerational healing and hope.”

– Alexis Spieldenner, Co-creator and Producer

 

A Japanese mother (right) and adult daughter (left), both dressed in black dresses, pose side by side for the photo, the mother's left arm stretched across a shelf of museum display text, the wall behind decorated with scenes of birds and foliage on a black background.

(Photo credits: Alexis Spieldenner and Christine Mori, Bravo Niagara! co-founders & production co-creators/producers. Photo by Bo Huang.)

Kimiko’s Pearl features original music by Kevin Lau (Le Petit Prince, The National Ballet of Canada) and choreography by Yosuke Mino (Royal Winnipeg Ballet). The ensemble of dancers includes Kyra Soo (Royal Winnipeg Ballet), Yue Shi (Boston Ballet), Chenxin Liu (Boston Ballet), Liam Caines (Royal Winnipeg Ballet), Rachel Gibbs (Coastal City Ballet), Liam Saito (Royal Winnipeg Ballet) and Yayoi Ban (Royal Winnipeg Ballet). This multimedia production includes Ayukawa family photographs, plus original commissioned artwork by Norman Takeuchi, CM, Lillian Yano Blakey, Emma Nishimura and Miya Turnbull.

Following the world premiere of the ballet, Kevin Lau’s “Kimiko’s Pearl Symphonic Suite”, commissioned by Bravo Niagara! and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, will premiere on April 9 and 11, 2025, as part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-25 Masterworks Series. Learn more here.

About Bravo Niagara!

Founded in 2014 by mother-daughter team Christine Mori and Alexis Spieldenner, Bravo Niagara! is a not-for-profit charitable organization based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, that produces transformative concert experiences and multidisciplinary programming featuring leading and emerging artists from across Canada and around the world.

A female Asian dancer with long black hair, wearing a red floral kimono over a red top and jeans holds a pose, arms stretched out, right leg forward and left leg back, her held tilted slightly back as she faces forward and upward.

(Photo credits: Kyra Soo in Kimiko’s Pearl. Photo by Réjean Brandt.)

Six Asian dancers, two men and four women, perform. Five dancers form a circle around a woman, dressed in a kimono, in the centre.

(Photo credits: Kyra Soo, Liam Saito, Rachel Gibbs, Yue Shi, Chenxin Liu & Yayoi Ban in Kimiko’s Pearl. Photo by Alex Heidbuechel.)

 

Event details

Hosted by: Produced and commissioned by Bravo Niagara! & presented by FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

Type of event: ballet world premiere

Created by: Christine Mori & Alexis Spieldenner, based on a story by Howard Reich

Music by: Kevin Lau

Choreography by: Yosuke Mino

Dance ensemble: Kyra Soo, Yue Shi, Chenxin Liu, Liam Caines, Rachel Gibbs, Liam Saito & Yayoi Ban

Dates & start times:

  • Saturday, June 22, 2024 @ 7:30 PM ET
  • Sunday, June 23, 2024 @ 2:30 PM ET

Duration: The ballet runs approximately 85 minutes (+ intermission). Plus there will be an opening performance by Nagata Shachu taiko group.

Cost: C$25.00 – $65.00 (+ HST)

Video: Watch the digital short.

Location: FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul St., St. Catharines, ON, L2R 3M2, Canada

Booking link: Book your tickets here

Contact Details: Bravo Niagara!; 289-868-9177, info@kimikospearl.com, kimikospearl.com

 

Content warning: Depictions of harsh wartime and internment experiences and racism.

Accessibility: Info here.

Refund policy: Please contact the organizer.