Being in soul2soul has been quite an experience. It\u2019s interesting how, despite language barriers, mutual passions can bring people together. I\u2019m pretty sure that thought has been published somewhere. It\u2019s sounds too clich\u00e9 to not be written somewhere. However, that doesn\u2019t make it any less true. During my first time at a soul2soul rehearsal, I felt like I was back in America. People were being loud and crazy, which I\u2019m quite used to during dance rehearsals. This may simply be a case of Japanese students interacting in a comfortable environment, rather than a performer thing because up to this point most of the interactions I had experienced with native Japanese people had been mediated by KCJS. Thus, those students were probably acting more \u201cproper\u201d to make socially acceptable first impressions.<\/p>\n
As for actual practice norms, I found them to be quite different. First of all, as mentioned in my previous blog, the idea of streetdance and hip-hop dancing is different here than in America. In America, the two words are interchangeable and distinct styles are categorized as simply sub-genres of hip-hop\/streetdance. In Japan, however, the genres are much more segregated with the term hip-hop encompassing its own separate genre, a genre that consists of moves that don\u2019t fit into the other more defined styles. Therefore, practice is never held as a complete collective, but rather as smaller factions, in which all hone in on one specific style. This is different from what I\u2019m used with my dance groups back home, where we\u2019d cycle through different styles based on the interests of the group and the styles in which the current group members were particularly proficient.<\/p>\n
The senpai-kohai relationship was also very interesting to witness. It would always be really clear when a senpai was nearby, for it was difficult not to notice the people around you essentially dropping what they were doing, so to speak, to greet a senpai with a full \u201cohayou gozaimasu\u201d and a very prominent bow. It was also interesting how, many times, I would be greeted the same way, especially since I wasn\u2019t really quite uchi to the many of the members who greeted me that way as well.<\/p>\n
Moving from soto to uchi, I\u2019ve noticed, is far more difficult than I expected. I don\u2019t fully feel that I have quite achieved that yet either. I feel like this has a lot to do with the disadvantages of being the new guy, especially among people who practice together over ten hours a week, as well as the language barrier which sort of enhances the difficulty of breaking the uchi barrier. I found myself at times unable to fully express my feelings in Japanese in an effective manner. The experience made me appreciate the extensive command I have over the English language. My vocabulary may not be as impressive as a typical English major, but it is definitely preferable to the frustrations of being simply unable to say what you mean or feel in the most appropriate manner. It also made me much more sympathetic to non-native English speakers.<\/p>\n
Come performance time, I found that soul2soul was virtually exactly like my groups back home. Members would sit in the audience and cheer on their friends, and afterwards celebrate with picture-taking and a night out together. Even though I was not able to become as uchi as I had hoped with the group, I found that performing with them really made me feel like I was a part of something. Perhaps I had gotten farther into the uchi sphere than I had thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being in soul2soul has been quite an experience. It\u2019s interesting how, despite language barriers, mutual passi … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080