Kids Web Japan

Yumika in her memorable first stage appearance.

Dance debut

Yumika was three years old when she started taking lessons. Her grandmother is a certified instructor in the Kawafuji school and has a dance studio at home. Seeing this made Yumika want to learn. One day, she told her grandmother that she wanted to study dance, and her lessons began soon after.

When she was five, Yumika appeared on stage for the first time dancing "Sakura, Sakura," a work about cherry blossoms. As Yumika recalls, "Dancing was fun, but the wig I had to wear for the performance was heavy and tight, and my head hurt so much I started to cry. After I started school, though, I got used to the costume and didn't cry anymore. I get nervous when I have to go on stage, but I still like doing it."

The Kawafuji school organizes two nationwide performances a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Yumika always takes part in these, as well as recitals organized by her teacher. All told, she goes on stage four times a year.

Getting ready

Japanese dance is strongly linked with the Edo period, and dancers must often dress up as figures from that time. Each role requires its own type of kimono, wig, and such footwear as zori (Japanese sandals) and geta (wooden clogs).

Makeup time

Before a performance, dancers put on their makeup. In Japanese dance, the face, neck, back, and fingers are usually painted white. The foundation, a paste made by mixing a powder with water, is applied with a brush. "It's cold but feels good," says Yumika. After her makeup is applied, she is ready to get into her costume. First she puts on the kimono undergarment, and after this she is helped into her kimono. Once this is done, she puts on her wig and is ready.

Yumika is helped into her costume.

"Inuyasha"

Yumika dances as Inuyasha.

When Yumika was in sixth grade, she gave a performance of "Inuyasha" at the Kawafuji school's summer recital. The dance is based on a manga of the same name written by Takahashi Rumiko, which was later released as an animated TV series and won widespread popularity among elementary and middle school students. In the story, Inuyasha, who is half-demon, half-human, and Higurashi Kagome, an ordinary middle school student, go back and forth between the present and the feudal age in search of the "jewel of four souls." Yumika is a big fan of the manga, and her teacher made the story into an exciting dance using men's steps so that she could play the role of one of her favorite characters in her last performance as an elementary school student. "My teacher read the manga and choreographed the piece, and a costume was made especially for the occasion," recalls Yumika. A wig with long white hair and dog ears was also made, and both the dance itself and the image of Inuyasha that they created were spellbinding.

"Oka (Cherry Blossoms)"

"Cherry Blossoms"

In her first year of middle school, Yumika began to study "Cherry Blossoms," a quiet, graceful dance for women totally unlike "Inuyasha." "I'm really better at men's dances. I like steps with action," says Yumika. "Cherry Blossoms" is about beauty that is short-lived, a concept expressed by a performance that embodies the cherry blossom. "In the dance, you have to stand up straight a lot, which was really hard. It was also really hard to make the pose look attractive," she relates. By studying both women's and men's dances, however, Yumika will be able to improve her dance techniques and power of expression.