Gifu Nobunga Festival, Part Two: Dancing in the Streets

 

Last year Matt and I spent some time watching these dancers, and I was lucky enough to see them this year, back on the same street!  They are called Awa Odori dancers, and while I can't find much information in English that makes sense, there is a lot on various Japanese pages.  From what I can garner, there's a big festival each August in Tokushima.  It's 400 years old, and the dances celebrate the famous Awaodori forest.  Luckily for me, they bring the show on the road to Gifu every year, too.  For each group there's a video, as well as a picture, if you don't have a lot of time.  First up, subtle dancers in blue/green, that appear to be the trees as they wave in the wind.

Next, here are some absolutely adorable men, mostly older, dancing a ridiculous-looking dance.  We saw the same men last year, which is where this picture came from.  I can see the growth of the forest as they move from crouching to standing,  and I can see birds when they wave their arms... it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but it's all pretty great.  If you can catch their faces at any time, that's awesome too.  As far as entertainment factor goes, they were my favorites.  Because I started dancing in the third grade, I missed that lovely developmental stage where you are adorable doing anything (the creative movement and pre-ballet/tap years).  What these dancers show me is, that comes back when you get old!  I guess right now I'm stuck in the awkward middle years, where cute doesn't exist.

Speaking of cute, there also were tiny children dancing!  Here is the young end of the cute spectrum, where you can mess up as much as you like and it's only the most adorable thing in the world.  There were three kids dressed in yellow and an even younger one in blue.  It was heart-warming to watch the ones in yellow look after the one in blue.  Most of the time the three in yellow would more or less be on track, and the little one would be wandering around doing this cute step-touch thing.  Bless his heart, he commits fully.  Although his little legs don't carry him as quickly, he step-touches all the way back to his friends.  Nicely, the next dancers wait for him.  The whole thing is a beautiful testament to the inclusive quality of Japanese society, and the emphasis placed on educating children in cultural traditions.  I often saw similar things at African dance jams in the States, too.    

My favorite dancers, just based on skill demonstrated, were the women pictured to the right.  Of course they're also the most beautiful, in their kimono and fancy hats.  They keep the position pictured of long, raised arms and lengthened bodies.  There's not much change over the course of their dance but at the feet, where the magic happens.  They always dance on the top of their geta, or wooden shoes, balancing on the top slat.  I dance in pointe shoes and I think I'd fall over doing the things these girls can in geta.  They kick and twirl in precise time with the drums, faster than anyone has a right to, especially balanced precariously on the tops of wooden sandals.  I do find the upright position interesting in light of the fact that all the other dancers mostly keep lower, crouched positions not unlike the foundational posture of most African dance forms.  I'm sure the posture developed from the fact that it's impossible to keep your balance in those shoes with a crouch, just as in ballet.  It demonstrates that dance evolves due to functionality, and that countries can evolve similar dance traits without exposure to each other.  Convergent evolution in dance!  Now I can say I've seen it.     

These young girls carried oblong lanterns that they'd swing up and down, wrapping them in interesting ways around their forearms.  I don't have video of them performing alone, but they appear in the final video below, which is part of a huge finale number.  The crouch position versus the upright position is very evident in the finale dance, as the different kinds of dancers interact.  I like the fever pitch the drums reach, calling the dancers to new levels of energy.  It was a really electric atmosphere at the end of the performance, and just such a treat to be able to see a wonderful group like this two years in a row.