By LEAH WEATHERSBY

"Children are born with the joy of movement," explained Martha Nishitani, as we sat in her U-District dance studio.

It's fair to say that "active senior citizen" is an apt description for Nishitani.

She has also played an important role in helping to shape Seattle's modern dance scene.

Nishitani specializes in creative dance for children. Part of her inspiration may be memories from her own childhood in Lake City.

"I really knew I wanted to dance when I was six," Nishitani said. She tells of a trip she took to see the movie "Les Miserables" in 1926 at a downtown Seattle theater, which offered a live vaudeville performance in addition to the film. Nishitani said the beauty of the performance inspired her.

"I knew at that moment I wanted to be dancer," Nishitani said. "But I kept it a secret because it wasn't nice to be a dancer."

Back then, Nishitani said, dancing on stage was usually part of vaudeville routines. It wasn't until 1935 when she entered Lincoln High School that she was able to get some dance training. Fortunately, Lincoln offered dance drama as part of its physical education program. The classes were taught by Katharine Wolfe, who later started a dance group called Intercultural Dance Workshop, which Nishitani joined in the late '40s.

Nishitani also studied with Eleanor King, a modern dancer from New York. When King decided to leave Seattle in 1950, Nishitani took over her studio, then located on Broadway and East Madison Street on First Hill.

Nishitani taught dance at that studio until 1954, when she returned from Connecticut College, where she spent the summer studying dance, only to find that her landlord had rented her studio to someone else.

It was then that Nishitani moved her studio to its current space in the U-District and renamed it the Martha Nishitani Modern Dance School.

At that same time, she also landed the position of choreographer for the University of Washington music department's opera theater productions. She held her position at the UW for over10 years.

During her long career, Nishitani has choreographed dances on a variety of subjects from the turbulence of the 1960s to a dance called "Transit into Dormancy," which was about the effects of winter weather on vegetation and the promise of spring.

Undoubtedly she was at least partly inspired by the work of her father, Denjiro Nishitani, a florist and nursery owner who emigrated to Seattle from Japan in 1906. During his career, Denjiro Nishitani made an important mark on the landscape of Seattle. His accomplishments included the planting of a cutting from the original George Washington Elm tree at Ravenna Ave NE and NE 98th Street. That tree still stands today on property that is now owned and occupied by a software company called Dexter + Chaney.

"I have a deep love and appreciation for that tree," Martha Nishitani said.

As a choreographer, Martha Nishitani created dances for a variety of venues including a special dance program for public television station KCTS-Channel 9. Her dance company, the Martha Nishitani Modern Dance Company, also toured colleges throughout the Northwest.

Over the years, a number of Nishitani's students have gone on to join professional dance companies, including the Robert Joffery Ballet Company, Merce Cunningham Modern Dance Company and the Mark Morris Dance Company. Nishitani was also honored with a Mayor's Small Business Award in 1998.

Nishitani has become part of the history of University Way as well. Through her 47 years in that location, Nishitani has seen "The Ave" go through immense change.

"When I first came here in '54 it was beautiful," Nishitani said. But she went on to tell of the 1960s when vandalism and other unsavory activities became a problem. "That's when all the big wonderful shops took their business and moved elsewhere. It's been that way ever since."

Visitors to Nishitani's studio today will see enough historical photos and memorabilia on the walls that they may think they've entered a museum, but it's still an active place. Nishitani herself dances there everyday and tries to teach her young students how to express themselves using dance.

"That's what dance is," Nishitani said. " (It is) using space and your energy to create expressive personal movement."

Martha Nishitani Modern Dance School is located at 4205 University Way NE. (