Greetings from Japan!

Back in October my friend Yurino, who owns a ballet school in Japan, contacted me and asked if I wanted to dance with her in her studio's annual spring performance. The date happened to be right at the beginning of my 7 week layoff, and so I (of course) accepted. I've been wanting to go to Japan for a long time, and what better way to get there than to perform. The country and culture feels very different (shoes on, shoes off, shoes on, shoes off), but I've found the people that I've met to be very kind, and the city to be beautiful in a very different way from what I'm used to.

Here are some shots of Yurino's school (Yurino's School of American Ballet):




Fortunately for me, Ansa is here too! After rehearsals she has been taking me around town (I'm staying in Nagoya, where Ansa is from) and showing me the sights. Here is a picture of Ansa and my friend Yurino:


This is the poster for the show (I'm told my name is in the bottom right corner, but I can't read it, so I have to take their word for it):

So far the trip has been about 20% rehearsal and 80% leisure time, which has been awesome. Yurino and I are dancing the Flower Festival Pas de Deux choreographed by Bournonville, which is pretty short, but is a LOT of little jumps and not much Por de Bras. It's something I've never danced before, but is a ballet that a lot of classically trained dancers at some point in their lives have come in contact with, so I'm glad that I'm getting the chance to add it to my repertoire. Tomorrow I'm going to take a class here (we've just been warming ourselves up the last few days), and I'm really excited to see what that is like. I'll post more as my trip progresses.

Sayonara,
Steven