Before the Dance – Kitamachi Awaodori
Last weekend I was rushing to be in time for the Kitamachi Awaodori festival in Tokyo’s northern Nerima Ward and managed to get a good spot right in front of the famous Aoishinren (葵新連) awaodori dance team. It must have been some sort of delay because they teams all spent quite a lot of time waiting to start the show and since I had nothing better to do I tried to take some (for me anyway) unusual snapshots of awaodori dancers warming up. I don’t know if they were nervous or not, I know I would have been, but this team at least is very experienced so maybe they were very cool about it. I tend to remember the performances by this team due to the many unusually talented younger dancers.
We’re right in the middle of the peak of the Awaodori season and it seems like there’s a handful of different festivals going on every weekend in the greater Tokyo area. It’s really tough on the awaodori maniacs, like me. I don’t know what it is, but the sound of the flute and the drums just trigger something inside me that makes me smile! Is Awaodori addictive? I think it is, at least for me!
Yeah, absolutely it’s addictive! Once it grabs you it never lets go. But you knew that…
There wasn’t a delay as such, but there is a lot of waiting around at Kitamachi. Everybody has to be ready at their stations by 6:10, but then there’s 15 minutes of speeches followed by a countdown to 6:25 when all the teams start together with a boom. Not convinced that’s for the best as the sound carries, so it’s like having a 17 course gourmet meal all mixed together in a bucket.
You picked a good team by the looks. Aoishinren is one of the older Kōenji teams, and I think it’s twinned with Aoiren in Tokushima which is one of the professional teams. There’s certainly a look of calm about them all as you say. That may be more about not making wasteful movements, as you only needed to lift a finger to break a sweat that day and they had 2 hours performing ahead of them…
Thank you for that insightful comment Coal! I learn a lot through them… (^-^)
Is it wrong that I focused on the beautiful raspberry lipstick color and then on the use of pink for eyeshadow? I think they’re so underutilized.
I know they’re in teams, but is it like a competition? Or is it more of a parade with everyone admiring each other’s moves? Because I thought it was more of a way to showcase your team, but right now I wondered if there is a streak of competitiveness if just for your team’s pride.
Allow me to step in for this one. It’s mostly showcasing and having a bit of fun, but some events also have various awards for the best teams. More often than not, very little is made of these awards, their judging criteria is entirely arbitrary, and most of the team members aren’t even aware they’re being judged. At some festivals, the teams themselves don’t even find out they’ve won until they accidentally stumble upon it on a website several weeks later (one of the biggest festivals is like that…) That said though, there is a degree of friendly and cooperative rivalry between the stronger teams which is more for self-improvement than winning anything. The teams with stronger reputations also tend to attract more fans, and get invited to more paid performances, so there’s that side of things too.
I knew you’d have a good answer for my curiosity. I did get the feeling that you start up because you love the dancing, but figured there had to be some sort of rivalry from time to time. That’s human nature. But I am glad the awards are not even a consideration, I think that would change the spirit of it.
Thanks for the education
Good to be back.
Welcome back Irina! (^-^)/
Oh my goodness. The little girl’s expression in the last photo… it makes me gasp. She’s 100% perfect. What an angel.
Isn’t she! (^-^)