culture@dailylobo.com
Sanae Higashimori Wright spent four years saving money from yard sales to fund Sunday’s celebration of Okinawan Japanese culture.
The Okinawan Cultural Dance & Music Performance at the UNM Continuing Education Center on Sunday featured two-and-a-half hours of traditional Okinawan dance, from comic depictions of flirtation to pensive ponderings on a fall moon.
The last full performance Sanae put on was more than 10 years ago. It’s time consuming to plan, fundraise and rehearse the performance, she said.
“It takes a lot of time to prepare; it takes a lot of commitment,” Sanae said. “It’s because of our love of our heritage. Of course language is different, but the feeling is international, and if we are really excited about it, I’m sure people who receive our preparation, they’re excited about it.”
Okinawa is a small island in southern Japan, and Senae said it is renowned for its cultivation of the arts.
“On the mainland, the pride and treasure of household is a sword,” she said. “In Okinawa, it’s a musical instrument; that’s our pride.”
Senae, who is originally from Okinawa, said she moved to Albuquerque after meeting her American husband and then became invovled with an Albuquerque Okinawan society. She and other society members went to Colorado to watch an Okinawan dance performance and immediately decided they had to bring the art to New Mexico.
Senae had never danced before.
So she and her friends drove to California on three-day weekends to learn from master Nosho Miyagi. In 1996, they opened a New Mexico branch of Nosho’s school, Miyagi Ryu Nosho-Kai, and have held two full performances since then.
“Each dance has a story behind that,” she said. “Each dance you have to change costumes. Enormous time is put into practice to synchronize, so if you don’t have enough members to get quick enough — that way the audience won’t get bored — behind the scenes there’s so many people.”
Out of 20 dancers, two were not born in Okinawa, and two others were Japanese-American.
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“This dance is open for everybody; it doesn’t matter what the race is,” she said.
Dancer Kazuko Katsuyama was one of two dancers born on mainland Japan, but she said she has adopted Okinawan culture as her own.
“The heritage is 600 years old; it’s a long time,” Katsuyama said. “Generation to generation, that’s the most important, the dance was very attractive. They have big passions, get together, let’s go for it. Very happy, always open, always smiling — that’s Okinawa.”
Dancers from California and Texas bought their own plane tickets to perform and stayed in rooms paid for by Wright’s garage-sale money. They received none of the $10-per-person entry fees, but donated it all to the UNM Children’s Psychiatric Center, a 35-bed facility that houses physically and emotionally abused children aged 5 to 18.
Senae said their 2002 show sold out, and although this one didn’t have the same turnout, the audience still seemed to enjoy it.
In the back row of the auditorium, a young girl imitated the hand gestures made by the dancers. After the finale, three women in the front row started crying.
Audience member John Wright said he went to the performance to get a taste of Japan without actually visiting the country.
“This is new, but I’m into foreign things, like foreign movies, music — stuff like that,” he said. “I like accents. I want my daughter to have a British accent — I don’t know why. I think it would be cute. I just like trying new things; it’s exciting to me.”
Senae, who danced in the performance, said the traditional Okinawan music has a slightly different tonality from western music, making it more peaceful and almost melancholic.
“There is an old saying that ‘the ones we meet, they are brothers and sisters,’” she said. “There’s sort of a spirit, you can feel it every time. During World War II, one out of five were killed. We have such a sad story, but what made us survive this far? Dance and music.”
