We Are Tomodachi Japan and Russia Edition 2018

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12Morihiro IwataIwata was born in 1970 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Having entered the Bolshoi Ballet as a trainee in 1995, he became a regular member in 1996, and was promoted to the ranks of the First Soloists in 2003. In November of 2009, he received the Order of Friendship from then Russian Federation President Medvedev. Since 2012, he has served as the artistic director of the Buryat National Academic House of Ballet. In 2016, he received the coveted “Ballet Cavalier” award in Russia’s “Soul of the Dance” awards. © Hiroshi AbeMorihiro Iwata’s path to becoming the first foreign regular member of the storied Bolshoi Ballet and going on to join the ranks of its “First Soloists” began when he encountered Russian ballet at the age of nine, his first glimpse coming in the form of a video. “I’ve seen ballet from many different countries, but the dancers who truly captivate me have always been Russian. Looking back, I suppose that even as a child I may have sensed the deep emotional expression that is a distinctive feature of Russian ballet.”Given the opportunity to study abroad after graduating from high school, Iwata traveled to Russia, where he met the person who would become his lifelong mentor, the late Aleksandr Ivanovich Bondarenko, at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. To this day, Iwata still holds dear to his heart the words of his mentor: “Ballet is a virtue. It is the act of conveying something important about life, in a way that anyone in the world can understand, using only one’s body.”Iwata’s study abroad experience would prove to be a major turning point in his life. Having decided that he would live in Russia as a professional dancer at the epicenter of Russian ballet, Iwata spent three years beginning in 1991 as a regular member at Moscow’s Russian National Ballet Theatre before setting his sights on the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet.At the time, the Bolshoi Ballet did not have any precedent of hiring foreigners, but Iwata finally won admission after practicing with the ballet as a trainee. Iwata recalls, “It was quite mentally draining for me at Series: Japanese Individuals Contributing WorldwideDancing Onward with Love for Russian Ballet