So Jessi and I both joined a club for Yatose! Which is a kind of Japanese folk dance. Last friday we joined them in a small welcoming party, about 5 students including us. The club leaders made some food and bought some drinks and we basically all got to know each other. It was a lot of fun. The group was really good about making sure we understood what was going on, and spoke a lot in English. I imagine it's excellent practice for them.
Yatose isn't a very technical dance, it's strength comes from being a simple dance done passionately. The leader, Juunko, told us how the dance is supposed to lift the spirits of the audience, and even bring some people on the stage afterwards to participate. She says that in Akita, there are a lot of very old and very young people, but many teenagers leave for school or just leave. Yatose is a way to revitalize a community that may be in dire need of some positive energy. Juunko seems to be an induvidual who really cares about her community, and she's done a lot to make sure that we feel welcome. We will do our best to help her in dance.
You'll see some video soon, our first performance is in two weeks.
Beyond Yatose, today is the first night of swing dance club. Put on by our friends Matt and Ondine. A half hour of teaching basics, and an hour of swing dancing, should be a whole lot of fun. Matt and Ondine have told us that it's a very social club, which is great since the ballroom dance club at Ithaca is a performance club. This will be an excellent change of pace.
-Mack
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment