Jiuta Mai

a tenbei fan often used in jiuta mai

Last Sunday I performed at the "In the House Festival." They did a themed event called "The Joys of Japan" and had a dinner made by the fabulous Kikuchi Shozo.  It was delicious!!! and he (and his wife) worked miracles in a small kitchen. Other performers included Alcvin Ramos and Uzume Taiko.  It was a pretty interesting evening.

I decided to dance two pieces that were created to be danced in a small concert situation.  One of them was a jiuta-mai called Kurokami. Jiuta is a kind of music from the Kansai region of Japan (Kyoto and Osaka area) and mai indicates that the dance is slow and circular rather than the lively odori of the kabuki theatre. More info on these styles of nihon buyoh are at an earlier post: http://tomoearts.blogspot.com/2010/03/odori-vs-mai-and-how-it-can-all-be.html

I am not sure whether everyone in the audience appreciated the slooooowwwwneeeessss of the piece, but I know a few did.  It was great to get a chance to perform one of these pieces - and I may need to create some more opportunities to dance jiuta-mai pieces!