Nobuko Miyamoto
Nobuko Miyamoto is a songwriter, dance and theater artist and Artistic Director of Great Leap. A lead dancer in Broadway’s Flower Drum Song and film West Side Story, she found her own voice in the 70s as activist and singer for the Asian American movement. This led to reimagining art and culture as a force for liberation. In 1978 she founded Great Leap, producing musicals, concerts, music videos and community residencies to deepen relations between diverse cultures and connect with Mother Earth. In 1986 Nobuko began creating song and dances for Obon, the Japanese Buddhist tradition of ancestor remembrance, danced by thousands in yearly festivals. Nobuko now co-produces FandangObon, an Eco-Arts Festival building cross-cultural solidarity through participatory music and dance from Latinx, Asian, African and Muslim traditions. In 2021, her album 120,000 Stories (Smithsonian Folkways) and memoir Not Yo’ Butterfly (UC Press) were published. www.greatleap.org www.nobukomiyamoto.org