HEROES
Choreographer: Takehiro Ueyama
Music: Tokoshieni by Kato Hideki (composition & percussion), Ana Milosavljevic (orchestration & violin), & Anita Culp (recorded voice)
The Chairman Dances – Foxtrot for Orchestra by John Adams
Lighting Designers: Christopher Ham & Michael Korsch
Costume Designer: Eugenia P. Stallings
Costume Construction: Julie Watson
Performed by BalletX
Musicians: Kato Hideki, Ana Milosavijevic
HEROES premiered on Ballet on April 26, 2024 at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA.
HEROES is a work for 12 dancers that blends powerful athleticism with delicate gestures inspired by choreographer Takehiro Ueyama’s Japanese heritage. The piece honors the resilience, dedication, and perseverance of Japanese citizens who contributed to the country’s recovery after World War II and continue to shape its success today.
The first movement is set to Tokoshie-ni (“Forever”), a commissioned composition by Japanese composer Kato Hideki, inspired by an ancient Japanese poem expressing a longing for eternal love, written by Sotori-no-Iratsume (Princess Passing-Through-Her-Robes) from the Chronicles of Japan (circa AD 720). This movement premiered at the Mann Center in April 2024, and the music was later orchestrated by Ana Milosavljevic for a performance with BalletX and the Opera House Orchestra, conducted by Gary Sheldon, at the Kennedy Center in December 2024.
The second section features John Adams’s 1985 composition The Chairman Dances, described by the composer as “an imagined foxtrot for Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and his bride, Chiang Ch’ing,” and considered a warm-up to his opera Nixon in China. Ueyama’s choreography responds to the music’s sweeping energy and cinematic texture, weaving history, memory, and movement into a poignant and powerful tribute.