Do you know YOSAKOI ? Momoka

Do you know Yosakoi dance? It is one of the Japanese traditional dance. We can watch this dance in Japanese festival. I belong to Yosakoi dance club in my university in Japan. When I was freshman in college, I watched Yosakoi dance for the first time. I was very impressed by Yosakoi. People who are dancing Yosakoi is always smile and shouting while they are dancing. Also, they dance at the same time so they are very beautiful.

 

So I wanted to watch again and again even though they are same dance and same music.Then I thought that I want to not only watching them but also be a member of them. So I decided to join this club. Actually, I am not good at dancing so I was very nervous. Moreover, the dance is very hard because the base of dance is keeping our hip low and moving fast. But my members taught me a lot until I got it. Furthermore, even after practice, they took me to the park and practiced with me a lot. It took a lot of time to get used to this Japanese dance and remember the dance.

 In the first festival for me is last end of August, I wore special costume and wore special making up. I was excited and a little bit nervous. But my members encouraged my back and supported me. While I dance, my members made an eye contact with me and audience was very surprised by our powerful dance and they became smile. I was very glad to see them.

 There are many teams all over Japan. They have each character. In case of our team, my members make a dance and music every year and dance it for one year. Sometimes we use musical instrument like Naruko which the sound is like a castanet. Also the number of members is 200. I am in huge team so it is difficult to remember their name. So we have own name plate and put it to the T-shirt. Our motto is dancing for someone. For example, in case of me, in the last festival before this studying abroad, I appreciate my members and mom and friends who supported me while I danced.

 Now I miss Yosakoi and Yosakoi members. So sometimes I dance Yosakoi even in America. Let me know if you are interested in Yosakoi.