DANCE Dance dance!!

.
The dancers are fools

Those watching are fools

They are fools the same

So why not dance?Summer in Japan can be defined in one word for me: DANCE!! Since late May a handful of Americans have been showing up at the JMSDF Chidori-ren dance practices to learn the swirls and dips and steps of the Awa Odori Festival dances (my hands-down favorite thing I’ve done in Japan!!). At our first 2010 general Awa Odori dance practice we made a joke about possibly getting to participate in the stationary showcase dances beyond the introduction dances we did last year. Then the joking turned serious. “Yes, if you come to all practices, they will let you dance,” Sumi translated. For a second I couldn’t breath and my brain felt all fuzzy. A chance to be one of those beautiful, elegant, spinning, twirling dancers?? Is it possible?? After class we ran into one of the guys in charge and Sumi related to him what had transpired. “Ehhh?!?” he said, smiling and looking at each of us. “Ganbatte!” Go for it! Good luck! Last year I followed to good advice of other Navy wives and signed up for Bon Odori dancing—a traditional Japanese walk-and-wave-your-arms dance performed during August’s O-Bon Festival. At the first practice, Sumi, a tea ceremony master and Director of Cultural Relations on base, announced that the award-winning Chidori-ren dance team was—for the first time—inviting Americans to dance Awa Odori. This dance is different from O-Bon and started in the 1500s when a lord celebrated the awesomeness of his new castle by getting all his villagers soused. They in turned began to dance and play music. This is now the Awa Odori Festival and it usually coincides with O-Bon. That’s why we’re currently practicing both. Bon Odori practice started today and the second the music started I felt like I was already there in the tiny streets around Yamato Station, oreo-ed between Japanese dance teams, wearing our traditional Japanese yukata in American red, white and blue. Shuffling along and waving my arms in the air is so relaxing it’s almost hypnotic…until I lose focus and clap loudly while everyone else is making a big moon with their arms. Oooops. So now I’m completly stuffing my schedule full with FOUR dance practices a week—Thursday mornings for Bon Odori practice and all afternoon Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Awa Odori! This much dancing would not be sustainable all year, but I will just have to make it work for two months! Ganbatte!