Akiko Portrait of a Dancer

I have three tasks in my life to dance to teach dance and to create dance says the pioneering Japanese performer Akiko Kanda in this intimate portrait of creativity and individuality After seeing a Martha Graham performance in college Kanda left her family behind in Japan and arrived in New York City where she studied under the legendary Graham and became a principal dancer with the troupe Following the wiry artist as she moves from practice floor to performance hall and from the cramped singleroom apartment she lives in to a trip home to see her aging mother director Sumiko Haneda reveals a woman who has rebelled against traditional ideals of marriage and motherhood and who nearly singlehandedly brought modern dance to Japanand kept it alive When I die Kanda tells the director I will be content if I can just say I danced