ASSOCIATED PRESS / NOV. 24
Aimi Kawasaki practices her classic Japanese dance moves Hanayagi-style at instructor Naoko Kihara’s studio in Mexico City on Friday, Nov. 24. Japanese dances such as Hanayagi and Kabuki have been classically performed to honor the emperor, who is a representative of God in Shintoism. religion.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / NOV. 24
Aimi Kawasaki, a student of classical Japanese Hanayagi-style dance, practices at instructor Naoko Kihara’s studio in Mexico City, on Friday, November 24. For classical dancers, choreography is a sign of respect and no detail is minor. The way a woman holds her fan is a testament to her sense of elegance and honor. “They don’t teach you a dance, they teach you a way of life,” Kawasaki said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / NOV. 22
Professor Naoko Kihara, who has practiced Hanayagi-style dance for over two decades, stands in her studio during an interview in Mexico City, Wednesday, Nov. 22. Born in Brazil from Japanese parents who later moved to Mexico City, she carries on the legacy of Tamiko Kawabe, her mentor and pioneer of Hanayagi-style dance.
MEXICO CITY>> When the music forces her to cry, Japanese classical dancer Naoko Kihara alters her expression slightly. It’s his arms and torso that move like a wave in slow motion.
“The expression is minimal: we cry with our bodies,” Kihara said recently, wrapped in her white and military blue kimono, at her dance studio in Mexico, home to some 76,000 Japanese descendants.
“It’s the dance that speaks, that interprets, because we don’t smile, we don’t shout and we don’t laugh. “
Kihara possibly does not reveal her age, however, she has been practicing classical Japanese dance for approximately 24 years. Born in Brazil to Japanese parents who later moved to Mexico City, she continues the legacy of Tamiko Kawabe, her mentor and Hanayagi pioneer. -Dance style in the country.
For Latin American audiences, Kihara says, classical Japanese dance will be difficult to adopt.
Unlike the fast-moving samba and salsa performers prevalent in Brazil and Mexico, Hanayagi dancers move smoothly and gently, performing some moves that their bodies keep completely in control.
“Is this yoga?” a viewer once asked Kihara, who replied, “No, it’s an interpretation. “
Some of her repertoires are almost sacred. Japanese dances as Hanayagi and Kabuki have been historically performed to honor the emperor, considered a representative of god in the Shinto religion.
For traditional dancers, choreography is a sign of respect and no detail is minor. How a woman holds her fan speaks of her sense of elegance and honor.
“They don’t teach you a dance, they teach you a way of life,” says Aimi Kawasaki, a 21-year-old student from Kihara who will soon travel to Tokyo in hopes of receiving her dance diploma.
Born in Mexico after her parents left Japan, Kawasaki says Hanayagi is like ballet, but with one exception: Although classical Japanese dancers are sensitive and graceful, they never stand on tiptoe or lift their bodies to the sky.
“A Japanese ballerina is more of a squatter,” Kawasaki says, as her instructor teaches her the pose: firm torso, bent knees and feet together, like a flower rooted to the ground.
“You have to be humble,” Kawasaki said, and classical Japanese dance maintains deep codes.
“We bring our bodies closer to the earth because we are of nature,” Kihara said. “It’s a respect for the land. “
In the Japanese worldview, Kihara said, dance originated from earth, air, fire, and water. “That’s our essence; it’s our basis.”
To keep this in mind, dancer Hanayagi takes the oath at graduation in Japan. It’s like a manual of honor,” Kihara said, a promise to uphold his legacy.
Thirteen students, seven of whom are at the elementary level, at Ginreikai, her dance studio.
“In our performances, it’s all about patience,” Kihara said. “We call them ‘long songs’ because they’re not works with a beginning or an end. “
Eiko Moriya, another descendant of Japanese migrants who will soon travel to Tokyo to get certified, has spent the last three years perfecting the long songs she’ll perform before the Hanayagi committee.
Her mentor watches her carefully as Moriya’s feet slide delicately across the floor and gives her his opinion. “She Move your foot only when the music requires it. Pay attention to the rhythm. Don’t bend your arm too much.
“Dancing is a transformation,” Moriya said. “Our dances are pieces of culture that are re-signified.”
The meaning of their performances is conveyed through music and movement, Kihara said. Even in front of a foreign audience that couldn’t possibly perceive a Japanese song, its frame is its means of speaking.
Her favorite long song, a story about an unrequited love, portrays a princess convinced that the man she loves has transformed into the bell of the local temple. So, to get to him, she turns into a snake.
“There are just a few movements, but each of them portrays her belief of transforming,” Kihara said. “It is a story about anger, courage. It symbolizes the suffering of humanity.”
The songs that she and her colleagues perform for Mexican audiences are shorter and less complex than the original Japanese long songs — a dance can last up to five minutes instead of 20 or 30 — but creating new choreographies and adaptations for foreign scenarios does not diminish her excitement.
“Through Japanese dance we connect,” she said. “It’s a union of cultures. “
“Ginrekai,” which translates to “Silver Mountain,” the name her predecessor chose for the school because she believed that Japan and Mexico shared much more than their sacred volcanoes. If Mount Fuji and Popocatepetl are so similar, he said, it’s because deep down we’re all the same.
“In Ginrekai we have this cosmic vision,” Kihara said. “Humanity is divided by religion, by culture, but for me to dance is to say: we are all one. “
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