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My First Japanese Recital

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On June 12th I took part in another dance concert.  This one was more of a recital than a professional venture like last week's, which meant it was a little more relaxed.  I did still have to go for crazy amounts of rehearsal and tech in one weekend, but at least it was only two days of crazy!  I got to meet a lot of really interesting people from all corners of Gifu and Nagoya.  I'm pictured to the left with my itty bitty fan club.

I danced in an improvisational workshop piece set by Haruna and Mikiko of Tokyo.  They have an interesting company called KiriCollage, which you check out via the link (although it is mostly in Japanese).  There's a lot of pictures and video on the site, understandable in any language.  They are both very impressive movers and have spectacular improvisational flow together.  I took two workshops with them back in April, and they came back to Gifu to set a workshop dance with the participants.  I got to play around with lots of adults and kids while wearing brightly colored clothes... what's not to enjoy?

The crazy cast of characters I got to dance with.
In the picture above, Haruna is in the blue jacket in the front, Mikiko is in the hat beside her, and then there's Yuri with the orange flowers.  Yuri is the owner of the studio, and she also dances with me at ModernDanceYou Co.  She's lovely, and speaks English well, so we often get in trouble for talking too much.    Beside and slightly behind her, with the huge open mouth, is Beta, a cross-dressing MC.  He was fantastic, an absolute sweetheart.  And he looks pretty great in a sequined dress!  Look closely: he's wearing huge fake eyelashes.  Next there's Genki, a great hip hop dancer, and finally Keiko, a middle-aged dynamo who organized a huge after-party even though she danced throughout the concert.  I don't really know anyone in the back row... more cast and crew.

Here, Shio, Sachiko, and a new friend Ami go crazy with fun pictures with me.  They are great gals, up for anything.  Shio and I are the only two without kids, which especially she gets teased for, since she's married.  Even though Sachiko and Ami have kids (one each I think), they went out after the show for a long time with us.  In America, I think that would be more difficult.  I think in Japan since people tend to live very close to their entire family, Grandma is easily called upon to dote after any little ones.  While I don't necessarily agree with settling in your hometown, I think it would be nice to raise kids in such an environment.


There was also a hip hop "team" from Nagoya.  It was refreshing to see some authentic hip hop styles in Japan!  Many of the boys were great poppers, lockers, whackers, and b-boys.  Their improvisational skills lacked a bit, so it wasn't always as "fresh" as it could have been (as my teacher Larry would say), but they were good.  And very friendly!  I was co-opted into this group photo even though I am definitely not a hip hop dancer.  A few of them spoke very good English, so I've made a few new friends!


One such new friend is Taiga, who sometimes goes by Michael (after Michael Jackson, who else?).  He and I were partners in the finale dance, which was a fun nonsense dance of epic proportions.  We danced with a another woman originally from America (of Latin descent, I think).  So the two of us foreigners made a joke out of running everywhere after Michael, because neither of us fully comprehended the massively fast Japanese directions pouring out of Yuri.  He's a good sport though, as the picture attests.
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