50+ Years in the Dance Circle: Nancy Okada of New York

Editor’s note: “50+ Years in the Dance Circle” will pay tribute to the extraordinary dance instructors who taught Bon Odori at BCA temples for 50 or more years. This series continues with a tribute to Nancy Okada.

Nancy Okada studied with Sahomi Tachibana in New York City, earned her professional dance name, co-directed and directed the New York Tachibana School of Dance, and has taught Bon Odori at the New York Buddhist Church for over six decades.

Nancy’s father, Stanley Okada, was born in Hawai‘i, educated in Japan, and moved to New York City to enroll in Columbia University’s economics graduate program in 1933. He joined the New York Buddhist Church and served as its Executive Director during World War II. After a lengthy engagement prolonged by the war, he and Akiko Hino, grandniece of Rev. Yemyo Imamura, were married in 1946. The couple lived on the fourth floor of the temple brownstone building and had four children — Nancy, Alan, Elsie, and Dick. 

In 1956, the family moved to the borough of Queens and Nancy attended P.S. 11 elementary school. Beginning in 1957, she studied Japanese classical dance with Sahomi Tachibana (Haruno Doris Abey Hrubant), and in a few years, the young dancer was assisting her teacher with Bon Odori instruction at the New York Buddhist Church. During this time, the temple’s Obon festival moved from a street event in front of the temple to Riverside Park. Nancy was often one of the five dancers featured on the yagura.

Nancy graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School and the Taylor School of Business before working at the United Nations in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Graduate School of the City University of New York as an editor of the journal “Comparative Urban Politics.”  

In 1975, she and fellow dancer Toyoko (“Toyo”) Kikuchi traveled to Tokyo and studied with the head of the Tachibana School of Dance, Hiroyo Tachibana. Following an intense period of training and testing, both dancers received their professional dance names, Sahotae and Sahotoyo Tachibana, respectively.

After Sahomi Tachibana retired in 1989, Nancy and Toyo co-directed the New York Tachibana School of Dance and led Bon Odori at the temple, retaining dances from their teacher including “A-I-U-E Ondo,” “Bamba Odori,” “Bon Odori Uta,” “Chowa Ondo,” “Gujo Bushi,” “Kanaiwa Matsuri Ondo,” “Nippon Daiko,” “Tanko Bushi,” and “Tokyo Ondo.” 

In her professional life, Nancy worked for over three decades as the Administrative Director at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, retiring in 2018. As a lifelong member of the New York Buddhist Church, she served in virtually every position at the temple from Sunday School teacher and chairperson of various committees to temple chairperson, BCA Eastern District chairperson, and representative to the BCA National Council. 

Nancy continues to teach Bon Odori at the New York Buddhist Church and directs the New York Tachibana School of Dance. At the temple’s Obon, held since 1995 at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, Nancy could be found dressing the dancers, directing and performing with the Tachibana group, and leading a diverse array of New Yorkers and tourists alike in Bon Odori. 

To view a full list of 50+ teachers, follow the link: www.bit.ly/fiftyplusyears. If you have an additional dance instructor for the BCA Music Committee to consider, please email Wynn at wynnkiyama@gmail.com.

Wynn Kiyama lives in Honolulu, Hawai‘i with his family and is a member of the BCA and the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. He studied Japanese classical dance with Sahotae and Sahotoyo Tachibana in New York City and Sahomi Tachibana in Portland. He is currently working on a history of Bon Odori in the continental United States.