Performance Report: Hatsudai Awa Odori

Hatsudai shares an unusual detail in common with the main Tokushima event that very few of the other Tokyo festivals do, and I've yet to work out exactly why that is. For some reason, it always takes place over the same two days, regardless of what day of the week they fall on. They're both public holidays, which helps of course.

Unlike the main Tokushima festival though, it also uses a varient spelling of "Awa Odori" in the festival name, that you would need to really be on the ball to spot. The preferred spelling is "阿波おどり", whereas Hatsudai uses the more conventionally correct "阿波踊り".

What's the difference? Well, to the branding conscious, rendering the "Odori" part in hiragana is the more pleasing choice, as it binds it inseperably to its "Awa" component, as part of a proper noun. Rendering the "odori" part in kanji + okurigana, like Hatsudai does, is the default for most text input systems, but it also serves to separate them into two distinct words of equal stature.

The knock-on effect of this is that the preferred rendering really puts the emphasis on "Awa"—it's not just a dance, it's the AWA dance; the alternative rendering removes that emphasis, turning the "Awa" component into a mere adjective for a common noun—this is a dance from the province once known as Awa. The difference is very nuanced, very slight, and I'm not sure why we care so much about it.

But we do.

This one came out fine!
Photo: Yuko Yamazaki

Hatsudai is also fairly unusual in that it only has one performance space—a relatively long at 300 meters high street where all the performers begin at the top and end at the bottom, before returning to the top via the backstreets and doing it all over again. The road is fairly wide compared to similar festivals, which gives us a lot more room to move and swing our dead cats around. It's also lit by ten light poles which are in the middle of the road, which is fine if you're moving in two columns, but can cause logistical issues when moving in threes. Apparently they're a blessing and a curse for the cameramen—they provide a convenient hiding space that allows them to photograph from within the performance space without getting in the way (or being told to move by staff), but as the light poles have quite a high colour temperature compared to the rest of the lights, they often end up with blue foregrounds and orange backgrounds, or vice-versa depending on which direction they point the cameras.

After the parade portion has finished, all the teams take up positions along the road, separated by the light poles, and perform a set piece for 15-30 minutes.

This year we performed on the second day, and started two light stands from the goal line. That gave us a nice casual warm up, and also meant we didn't need to fight for our stamina while also giving our best performances.

Our second run, which was from the top, was somewhat less easy. The teams in front by ripple effect were jammed solid, which kept us from moving for quite long periods of time. We ended up performing our parade set piece a total of six times in one run—three would be a lot under normal circumstances. Thankfully the weather was cool enough that nobody collapsed, but it was touch and go for a couple of people.

The long time spent on the wide parade ground did give me plenty of opportunity to try out some new material though, which I think I have well polished now! Unlike the onna odori, otoko odori have remarkable freedom to individualise their dance, and this is something I like to take full advantage of. And while it looks fairly random, it's more a case of having a repertoire of patterns of varying lengths which I'll sprinkle into the regular dance as the feeling takes me. If people are never quite sure what you're about to do, it keeps the dance more interesting I find.

However, it's important to distinguish between randomly selected patterns and actual randomness—the moves need to be both decisive and precise, almost like a series of carefully crafted poses, only the motion between them is of no less importance. And the key to this is practice, and practice with a critical eye!

My new power jump is still a work in progress, so will return to that on another occasion.

Well, that's the final Tokyo festival of the season for us anyway, but we still have more to come. Next month we'll be performing at the Yoshiwara-juku Shukuba Matsuri down in Shizuoka. We also have a couple more volunteer performances in the pipeline to look forward to. While that's going on, we're finally resuming our practice schedule starting on October 3rd, and already have a number of new members eager to get started!

Performance Report: Green Port EBISU

This facility for the elderly near Ebisu Garden Place is another of our regular guest spots—they often invite us to perform at their "Respect for the Aged Day" festival in September, and we're always happy to oblige!

One of the difficulties with this particular venue is that the performance takes place in a rather oddly shaped room. It's actually more like two rooms joined by a fairly small opening, and it's near that opening that we have a wide but shallow stage area to perform in, to two sets of audiences. That means we have to perform 1 dimensionally, in multiple directions, if you can get your head around that. Thankfully it was a little deeper this year so we could perform in 2 dimensions our normal routine without too much of a hitch.

The other issue we had this time was an absense of any melodic instruments. We had to rely entirely upon the drums and gong, which isn't easy for some of the more complex routines. Most of us remember the routines by time as well as melody though, so it wasn't a problem there so much. It just, can't have been that interesting to watch.

The audience seemed happy enough though, and I rather got the impression that most of them could only really hear the drums anyway, so I'll chalk that up as a partial success.

Next stop is Hatsudai Awa Odori on Wednesday 23rd. This is the last of the regular season's events, and it always gets a good audience turnout of other team members for some reason. After that we still have a couple of performances by special request, one as far as away as Shizuoka.

Performance Report: IM Japan

Though not quite as surreal as the performance we gave in May at a rakugo event, playing the part of some kind of corporealised voices of the underworld, our most recent performance at IM Japan on Sunday 6th was certainly something a little different.

The information we had to work with was that it was at the Indonesian Embassy School, and that the guests were visitors from overseas, in Japan for research purposes. They'd wanted some traditional culture to be added to the line up, and that's where we came in. When we arrived, you can imagine our surprise to see some 500 odd young Indonesian students crammed into a school hall, each of them wearing hachimaki around their heads.

Not to be perturbed, we got on with our preparations as per usual, but the atmosphere was a little more tense than usual. We're used to seated audiences of around 50 tops, and this was ten times that. And normally our audiences don't look like they're in the middle of militia training. What is it about a hachimaki that does that I wonder...

The previous week, the otoko odori had tried something a little different, adding a slow section in the middle of our usual routine. The music had been the Tokushima folk song "Iyano Kohiki Uta", performed on flute. As it had worked out so well that time, I decided we should do it again, only this time one of our most senior members, a Tokushima native, volunteered to sing it instead. We don't normally have vocalists, but many teams do, so sure! What could possibly go wrong?

Eventually it was time to begin. The people who had the stage before us were a pop group comprised of very young and energetic girls, who'd got the audience whipped up into a frenzy, which meant we could either ride that enthusiasm, or destroy it. Our entry, right through the middle of the crowd who had parted like the Red Sea, was very enthusiastically met, which was a very good sign.

There were some minor problems of course. 500 people crammed into a school gym hall meant it was very hot, it wasn't until a few minutes into the performance that somebody realised that 99% of the students couldn't see anything and got them all to sit down, and the mics were giving quite harsh feedback for a while. Overall it was a successful show though.

When it came to the new part, there was a slight delay while our singer struggled to find a mic that worked, but not enough to give any sense of unease. I would like to make that a part of our regular routine, but it may be better to stick to the flute. We'll see.

Finally, we had our dance class section where we teach everybody the moves. That would normally involve getting everybody to dance in a big circle around the room, but with that many people, it clearly wasn't going to go well. In the end, they all moved on the spot while we milled about among them. They seemed to enjoy it.

Next performance is in a couple of weeks, a volunteer performance at an old people's facility, and our final regular festival of the season at Hatsudai.

Performance Report: Shinjuku Awa Odori

I managed to get my outfit washed and dried, just. It was a cool weekend, which made Koenji very comfortable, but was less than ideal for laundry.

So today was the second time we'd been invited to perform at Shinjuku Awa Odori, a popular Tokushima themed restaurant with live shows every night. Under normal circumstances, the Koenji Awa Odori Association teams would perform there in rotation, but as they were all tied up for the weekend, they reached out to some other 'seicho' teams to fill in. Remember how I mentioned preferential treatment?

Unlike regular festivals, this was a private performance which customers were effectively paying to see, so it comes with a different set of considerations. The performance space is quite narrow which meant we had to limit our numbers. We only had about 5 minutes of actualy performance time, and had to schedule in time to teach the dance, give out prizes, and create a photo opportunity for anybody that wanted to be seen with us. The order of proceedings is all decided in advance, which allowed us only limited flexibility, but that's in no way unreasonable. They have a pattern that works, and it's up to us to accommodate it.

As our usual routine is about 10 minutes long and we only had 5, we had to rethink it a little. We quickly got changed into costume and that left about half hour to figure it all out. We were all experienced members though, so it wasn't hard to find 5 minutes worth of fat to trim.

This much space

Space considerations were another factor of course, but we could mostly work around those by being really careful.

By 18:30, we were ready to go, and pulled off the partially improvised routine with little issue.

We did feel it was a little lacking though, so we revised and reinstated some parts during the break between performances. By 20:30, we had a solid idea of a much better routine, which went smoothly... for the most part.

Well, there was a miscommunication beween one of the dance parts and the musicians, that left them waiting for a cue that never came. It was unfortunately quite awkward, like 25 seconds of dead air on the radio. Still, once things got back underway, I'm sure the audience forgot all about it.

After the 20:30 performance had ended and a prize for best dancer had been awarded to a happy audience member, the secondary room out back had several tables of guests seated, so we repeated the process back there for their benefit. Rather than performing on a single stage though, it had two stages spaced a couple of meters apart and a moderately wide isle, which brought a whole new dimension of space consideration. With a little thought though, it practically rescripted itself, and we were able to perform the entire piece without a hitch.

With both part 2 performances, dance off, awards, and photos finished, it was already 10 o'clock, so I honestly don't know where the time went. It was overall a very good experience though, and the closeness we all felt with the audience was much more pronounced than at festivals—it was like hanging out with old friends, almost.

Next performance is next Sunday, by invitation of the Indonesian Embassy!