How Dancer Michiko Brought Authenticity To THE KING AND I After Imprisoned In Japanese Internment Camp

With the new musical ALLEGIANCE currently previewing on Broadway and last season's revival of The King and I continuing to delight audiences, it's interesting to note a connection between the two musicals, dancer Michiko Iseri. (pictured, 2014)

Like actor George Takei, who was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp during World War II and is now making his Broadway debut in a musical inspired by the experience, Michiko, as she is known in the dance world, was also imprisoned during the war, but her Broadway debut came much quicker.

As detailed by Hana C. Maruyama in the Asian American Writers' Workshop's The Margins, Michiko came to New York after the war, studying Chinese, Korean, Javanese, Balinese, Burmese, and Thai and Japanese dancing.

When word spread around town of the upcoming Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM, she was disappointed to see so many white people cast in Asian roles and had no intention to audition for it.

But by the time chorus auditions were being held, she was a well-established teacher, and choreographer Jerome Robbins began to notice that many of the dancers coming in were her students so he hired her as a consultant and featured dancer.

Right away there were conflicts. Michiko insisted that the ballet dancers stop "jumping around," which is uncharacteristic of Thai dance.

When Robbins asked her to come up with something sexy for a scene, she replied, ""There's nothing sexy about Siamese dancing."

At one point Rodgers was so frustrated for Michiko's insistence on strict cultural authenticity that he burst out with, "Just call it 'Anna and the King of Asia'!"

With her role being whittled down during Boston tryouts and the dances still combining different Asian styles, Michiko was ready to quit, but Rodgers took her to dinner and told her he was adding a new song that would feature her in a solo dance. The song was "Getting To Know You," and since the scene involved the Siamese children being fascinated by Anna's hoop skirt, Michiko thought of staging the dance so that the children would surround her, imitating a hoop skirt with their bodies.

Opportunities for Asian actors on Broadway are still few and far between, but pioneers like Michiko helped open doors for performers who would follow her in FLOWER DRUM SONG, MISS SAIGON, and now, ALLEGIANCE.

Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara stars as Anna alongside Hoon Lee (as The King), Tony winner Ruthie Ann Mile s (as Lady Thiang), Ashley Park (as Tuptim), Conrad Ricamora (as Lun Tha), Edward Baker-Duly (as Sir Edward Ramsey), Jon Viktor Corpuz (as Prince Chulalongkorn), Murphy Guyer (as Captain Orton),Jake Lucas (as Louis), Paul Nakauchi (as Kralahome), and Marc Oka (as Phra Alack).

One of Rodgers & Hammerstein's finest works, The King and I boasts a score which features such beloved classics as "Getting To Know You", "Hello Young Lovers", "Shall We Dance", "I Have Dreamed", and "Something Wonderful". Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, whom the imperious King brings to Siam to tutor his many wives and children.

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