Sono Osato

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
name = Sono Osato
birthdate = birth date and age|1919|8|29|mf=y
birthplace = Omaha, Nebraska, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
spouse =

Sono Osato (born August 29, 1919 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American dancer and actress of half-Japanese, half Caucasian descent. ["Distant Dances" (1980), autobiography by Sono Osato]

Osato began her career at the age of fourteen with the Ballet Russe; she later went on to dance with American Ballet Theatre (then Ballet Theatre). While at ABT, she danced roles in such ballets as Kenneth MacMillan's "Sleeping Beauty", Antony Tudor's "Pillar of Fire", and Bronislava Nijinska's "The Beloved". As a musical theater performer, her Broadway credits included principal dancer in "One Touch of Venus" (Donaldson Award) and Ivy Smith in the original "On the Town".

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Osato briefly pursued a career as an actress, appearing on Broadway in "Peer Gynt", in the film "The Kissing Bandit", and in occasional guest appearances on TV series like "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" (1950).

She founded the Sono Osato Scholarship Program in Graduate Studies to help former dancers finance graduate work in both the professions and the liberal arts.

Osato has been married for over sixty years to real estate developer Victor Elmaleh.

Notes

External links

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* [http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/4881.html Brief entry at Australia Dancing]
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3414642 Photograph of Osato in costume]