This year Yumi Miyazaki celebrates a milestone anniversary. One of Japan's earliest ballet masters, she says her career has progressed very naturally. "I feel I have lived five lifetimes in one," she said.
Her first lifetime began in Hiroshima, where she was born to a family engaged in the traditional arts of Japan. Her grandfather was a noh performer. Her grandmother, who performed "nihon buyo," also played the shamisen. An only child, the little girl saw a lot of her grandmother. From the age of 5, she began her own lessons in traditional dancing.
"I had a friend who had ballet lessons, and I was attracted to ballet as I watched her development," said Miyazaki. Her second lifetime dawned when she was 10 and began her own lessons in classical ballet. In a further departure from tradition, she elected to study modern dance.