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Fuyou-hime In reply to NamieDanielle [2013-10-03 22:46:32 +0000 UTC]

I especially love this dance as well.  I still get goosebumps when I watch the video of it. 

I've been thinking for a few days about how to say this, and I don't want to be a party-pooper, but... uhhh, I practice Classical Japanese Dance, so I'm a little hesitant about the idea that you know all of the moves.  I mean, really know them.  Most people aren't aware of what really goes into these movements, and actually, when I watch the dancing of people who watch the videos of maiko and geiko dancing and try to replicate that on their own, they end up missing the core aspects of what constitutes the movements.

Breathing is an integral part of dance.  It's what brings it to life.  The use of inhales and exhales is what changes dance from robotic to alive, and it takes practice for people to breathe properly while dancing.  It's not like the everyday breathing people do, it's a lot deeper.  It's not going to come very naturally to someone who's never danced before, although it would be easier for someone who's already performed certain sports.

The posture a dancer takes on changes from school to school, but in every case, no one comes into dance already holding the proper posture.  Most people slump to a certain degree, and people really don't use the muscles in their core and along their spine much.  Bodies don't aim for perfection, they fall into whatever takes the least amount of effort.  It's part of the reason why people get stiff and achy so easily.  Learning the proper posture can take years for some dancers, in which the stomach is stretched, the back is straight, and the shoulders are down (the three things Classical Japanese Dance schools aim for, although they'll all go about it in somewhat different ways). 

A stretched stomach is the key to Japanese dance.  A way of describing Classical Japanese Dance is "hara-gei", "art from the stomach".  All movements are supposed to come from the stomach.  When a dancer turns their body, it comes from the stomach.  Learning how to twist the body with the stomach is absolutely key.  Dancing from the stomach is literally one of the most important things a dancer needs to learn, and if they can't learn how to do it, their dancing will never improve.  It takes a lot of effort to learn how to dance with a perpetually stretched stomach, no matter what the movement or pose is.  For most students, this takes years.    

The movements are centered to an incredibly precise degree.  When holding a fan in front of my body as if it was a sake cup, I must have the fan lined up against the line of my arm with the tip of the fan lined up precisely with the center of my body.  I also have to make sure my hands are lined up parallel.  When bending my knees, I have to make sure that the foot is lined up perfectly with the knee, and that the knee doesn't extend forward past the foot.  This means that to bend my knees, which is absolutely vital in dance, I basically have to sit on a chair without the chair.  All with my knees locked together (in women's dance).  To maintain balance, I have to learn how to place my feet just so, which is one of the many things I'm still working on.  When I don't get it right, I overstretch and can (and have) hurt the muscles in front of my ankle.   

All of these things I mentioned are things that I'm still working on, and things that the natori I study with also get called on occasionally.  It's hard.  Really seasoned, dedicated dancers still find this hard.  So I don't want to sound like I'm berating you or anything, but I know what practicing Classical Japanese Dance is like.  Thus, I don't actually think you know, and I mean really know, how to do the moves. 

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NamieDanielle In reply to Fuyou-hime [2013-10-04 22:04:21 +0000 UTC]

I didn't mind you getting into the specifics of the dance at all. I haven't studied it formally and I was just excited to see the picture, and well, I wanted to keep the comment simple. Heehee~

I'm taking Raqs Sharqi at the moment and breathing and posture is a big part of it as well. We bend our knees and have to balance and ground ourselves. For lack of better description, it's all in the abs and the hips. (~=u~

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Fuyou-hime In reply to NamieDanielle [2013-10-05 22:34:41 +0000 UTC]

I'm sorry if I came off too harsh.  I see a lot of people claim that they perform Classical Japanese Dance, but they aren't a part of any school, often never was, and they basically just do their own thing.  Some people watch videos of maiko and geiko and say they can do the dances, but they miss the foundations of Nihon Buyo.  I see the same thing with tea ceremony as well, something I've also taken lessons in.  Really, I'm not an expert in any of these, but I know enough to know what I don't know.  It takes a lot of work just to learn the basics of dance, it's something that I'm still working on, so when I see people just watch videos and claim that they can do the dance too, I get a little upset.

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NamieDanielle In reply to Fuyou-hime [2013-10-07 03:34:01 +0000 UTC]

Understandable.

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Fuyou-hime In reply to conquest79 [2013-10-02 00:05:32 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much .

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Fuyou-hime In reply to 23-tiny-wishes [2010-04-03 04:17:27 +0000 UTC]

They do have cute kimono, I'm especially fond of the blue one with the peonies. The Miyagawa Ondo is just so much fun .

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23-tiny-wishes In reply to Fuyou-hime [2010-04-03 06:14:17 +0000 UTC]

>< I want to go, I want to go!

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