My stage debut of traditional Japanese dance

On Oct 16, my dance teacher’s annual dance recital of traditional Japanese dance was held in Hachioji.
My teacher’s students are predominantly Hachioji’s geisha and we had been preparing the dance for the recital for about half a year.

She also teaches the Nagauta (長唄) shamisen, which is a type of traditional Japanese music, to various students.
Her students’ Nagaura shamisen recital was also held on the same day.

I have been practicing the “Hagikikyou (萩桔梗)” dance, which is a Hauta (端唄) song, for 3 months.
Hauta is also a type of traditional Japanese music, which is generally less than 10 minutes in length.
The theme of Hagikikyou is a painful love story and the dancer has to deeply express the female character of the story, who is falling in love.
The Hagikikyou song is slow and poetic so it’s very difficult for beginners to dance.
I started practicing the Hagikikyou before August, however I couldn’t dance it well without a lot of hard work.

Indeed it was my first dance recital, so I didn’t have any knowledge about what I needed to do.
So I had to ask my geisha mother and sisters about some details. For example, what kimono should I wear on the actual day and which style of Japanese fans would be suitable for the Hagikikyou dance in the recital.

At first I asked my geisha mother about the kimono, and she agreed to my request to borrow her kimono which has a design suitable for Hagikikyou.
I also asked my teacher about the Japanese fan.
My teacher said to me that she was not able to decide before seeing my kimono, because the harmony of the kimono and Japanese fan is important.

When my teacher and I were talking about that, my geisha sister, who is from a different okiya, overheard our conversation. Several days later, she lent some Japanese fans to me. My geisha mother also lent me her Japanese fan.
I took those Japanese fans to my teacher’s place for the final dance lesson before the recital.
My teacher selected some of them and said to me that she would decide the best one on the actual day of the performance when she saw which one best matched my kimono.

On the actual day, I went to the okiya at about 8am, put on my geisha mother’s kimono, and went to the hair salon.
Even though several days before the recital, we had rehearsed on the same stage, I gradually became tense.

On that day, I also had a rehearsal for a shamisen recital on Dec 5.
The shamisen rehearsal was scheduled to be held from 10am-4pm which clashed with
the dance recital that was scheduled to be held from 12am-5pm.
So I consulted both of my teachers about that, and asked my dance teacher to make my turn as early as possible.
My shamisen teacher said to me that he wanted me to attend the shamisen rehearsal after my turn at the dance recital as finished.
The dance recital was held in Hachioji, and the shamisen reherasal was held 15 minutes on foot from Asakusabashi station, which is about 1 hour by train from Hachiohi station so thought that I would be very busy travelling between the two places.

At first I thought that it would be better to change my kimono before the shamisen rehearsal, because I didn’t want to get my geisha mother’s beautiful kimono dirty.
While I was worrying how I would do everything efficiently, my geisha mother suggested to me to wear her kimono to the shamisen rehearsal, which would make everything a little easier.

This year’s dance recital was smaller than last year.
Last year I helped with the operation of the recital even though I was not a pupil of my teacher at that time.
However since starting to study under my teacher, my role has changed and there were some different things I need to do when helping with this year’s recital.

This year we used recorded music instead of live shamisen music for some songs.
For my song, I also used a recorded music so that I didn’t need to pay extra for professional shamisen players and singers.
This year my teacher called only 2 professional Nagauta singers for some of the songs.
I think it’s more expensive for the performers whose songs needed professional Nagaura singers.

30 minutes before the opening of the recital, some people starting arriving to watch our recital.
When I saw them, I became more tense.

My turn came soon.

I thought I would not be able to dance well, however as soon as my turn had finished, my teacher run up and hugged me. She praised me because I was able to dance calmly.
I was very glad.

After my turn, I apologized to the other performers that I would not be able to stay and support them, and left there in a big hurry.

By the way, the closing party of the dance recital was being held from 6pm, which my dance teacher had asked me to attend.
I thought it’s very tough to move between two places in one day, however I really wanted to attend the party so I also left the place where the shamisen rehearsal was held in a big hurry, and was able to arrive at Hachioji station at 5:40pm.
I was relieved.

My dance teacher was surprised when she saw me at the closing party.
I saw her tears in her eyes. She delightedly introduced me to two professional Nagauta singers.
I imagined that the reason why she was so glad was that I had never been absent from her lessons even when I was sick.

I really enjoyed that closing party, and I was able to meet and talk with some Nagauta students.

I think the studying traditional Japanese culture is more than just study of the subject.
We can also learn traditional Japanese manners and develop personal relationships through such study.