Dance in Japan

What are the qualities of Japanese dance?  What do people wear?  What kind of movements do they do?  Do people dance alone, or in a group?  What inspires Japanese dance?

Grade Two students reflected on what they know about Japanese dance.  Many know that people often wear kimonos.  Students said that it's usually delicate and performed to Japanese students.  We're off to a good start!  But there's a lot more to learn . . . .

We began by learning a version of Bon Odori from Hokkaido.  Here you can see a video of your daughters performing it.  If you're familiar with our SOLO Taxonomy, you can see how they progressed through the various stages, gaining more confidence with each repetition.

Now students are learning a popular fishing dance from Hokkaido called "Soran Bushi."  Here's the link to the videos we watched.  They may enjoy practicing this dance at home.  This dance changed some of their thinking about what Japanese dance is like.  This dance is powerful and sharp.  It mimics the movements of the fisherman pulling in the nets and collecting the fish.  They dance a smooth wave movement along with a funny monkey dance.

Jenni explains how to do Soran Bushi.

Do you know how to do a Japanese dance?  Please come and share one with our students.