There are a lot of big festivals in the world: Carnival, Oktoberfest, Burning Man. The list goes on and on …
and somewhere in the middle of that list is the …
“Numata Kindergarten Dance Festival”.
This is the first of the BIG 3 Events on my calendar: the others being the Numata Matsuri and Kinder-Olympics. My calendar isn’t very big I guess.
I was lucky enough to get free tickets to not one, but two venues this year.
I hear all of you pulling your hair and screaming “No Way!” and “Some people have all the luck!” … and all I have to say is, “Yes Way!!!” and “Yes, I’m usually this lucky on a regular basis!!!” … and yes I usually reply to statements with more exclamation marks than the statement maker used.
It was a 2 day non-stop, full-on, dawn to dusk/dusk to dawn, spectacular, extravaganza that lasted for about 2 hours on Saturday afternoon and 1 hour and 45 minutes on Sunday morning.
The first venue was at the city’s Culture Center. I don’t know who figured out where the center of culture in this city is, but I think it should be a lot closer to my place.
I was a bit late, so the crazy crowds were already stacked and racked inside.
If it was your first time at the big festival, you’d probably expect a lot of kimono wearing fan waving mumbo jumbo … and the dancers didn’t disappoint.
They rocked the house with all their amazing hand and foot work. It was like yoga, but with a pulse!
Next came the parasol toting kimono wearing group. There was a lot of twirling and intricate walking around done.
“Who let the dogs out? … and the parasols?”
Then there were incredible vaudevillians to entertain the crowd. I think the one on the left tried to do a cartwheel!!!
The “Egg Cap Kids” came on to liven up an already ecstatically frenzied crowd.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more out of hand, “The Rockettes” showed up to show off their fancy dipping and side-to-side moves … while wearing red shoes and everything.
All the dancers’ fluid movements were accompanied by music from the era before words were invented.
It was like poetry and music combined, but without any poetry stuff.
I guess the dancers were so great they made the songs speechless!
When everyone thought it was all over and were ready to take their video cameras and accost strangers on the street with video highlights, the “White Hair Shakers” came out.
And then it was all over and everyone left sweaty and in silence … probably because they’d been dancing in their seats and lost their voices from screaming so much … or were thinking about what to eat for dinner and why the heating in the hall was turned so high.
DAY 2 … tomorrow!
I Am The Cheese 
Ross, this looks like an event I would like to go to. A lot of energy and pizazz! The kids are adorable with their expressions! The costumes are great! I could just feel all the energy! Lucky you! Thanks for sharing with these cool photos!
What grace and lyricism! Haiku in motion! Kindergarten Nijinskys (Nijinskies?)! Seeds of Baryshnikovs! La Pavlova pales in comparison…
Thanks for making me understand so well the meaning of Japanese shorts. Poor Vaudevillians!
Your photos are most excellent! Bravo! Bravo! How do you stand so much emotion?
So that’s what you do on weekends! Looks like a great time!
I wonder what most of the moms are thinking when a tall middle aged white man arrives with his camera in hand? LOL.
can’t go…no can’t go, but thank you for bringing it to me. xxoo. children entertaining tends to make me cry…ahh motherhood.
Kelly, you bring up a very interesting point. Ross, how do you answer that one? LOL
Oh my how edibly cute! I love the egg cap kids and the teensy kimonos and those white haired yeti kids at the end are my sort of children. Can’t wait for the next instalment!
The pics are adorable! The children look so small and uniformed. I like the vaudevillians and wish I could have been there to see the yoga with a pulse.
Thanks for all the comments.
Doraz: The costumes and choreography are always great.
nathaliewithanh: thanks. It was all very emotional.
Kelly Pettit: I don’t usually bring my camera to this stuff, but I did for the blog’s sake.
Most people know who I am … and if they don’t, they soon figure it out when all their kids or grandkids come up and engage me in witty conversations … and then hang off my legs.
I did feel a bit odd pulling my camera out of my pocket though.
It’s really kind of sad I felt like that.
sweetiegirlz: you missed a good one.
Epicurienne: they were all really cute. I liked the Rockettes with the red shoes the best.
Tammy: all the kids were really good performers. The place was really packed: I was lucky to have a reserved seat.