13 Facts About Sono Osato

Sono Osato was the oldest of three children of a Japanese father and a Canadian mother of French-Irish origin.

Sono Osato's family moved to Chicago in 1925 in order to be closer to Frances' family, and Shoji opened a photography studio there.

In 1927, when she was eight, Osato's mother took her and her sister to Europe for two years; while in Monte Carlo, they attended a performance of Cleopatre by Sergei Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes company, which inspired Osato to start ballet classes when she returned to Chicago in late 1929.

Sono Osato studied with prominent dancers Berenice Holmes and Adolph Bolm.

Sono Osato performed with ballet companies Ballets Russe de Monte-Carlo and the American Ballet Theatre.

Sono Osato began her career at the age of fourteen with Wassily de Basil's Ballets Russe de Monte-Carlo, which at the time was the world's most well known ballet company; she was the youngest member of the troupe, their first American dancer and their first dancer of Japanese descent.

Sono Osato spent six years touring the United States, Europe, Australia and South America with the company, leaving in 1941 as she felt her career was stagnating.

Sono Osato went to study at the School of American Ballet in New York City for six months, then joined the American Ballet Theatre as a dancer.

In 1942, when the Ballet Theatre toured Mexico, Sono Osato was unable to join the tour as Japanese Americans were barred from leaving the country, and she had several months without work.

Sono Osato was unable to perform in California and other parts of the western United States when the company toured there later in the same year, as these states were deemed military areas and were off-limits for people of Japanese descent.

Sono Osato married real estate developer Victor Elmaleh in 1943, and they had two sons.

Sono Osato died at her home in Manhattan on December 26,2018, at the age of 99.

Sono Osato was the aunt of the installation artist of the same name, Sono Osato.