Challenge to jiuta dance

Name of the organization or individual

Jiuta Mai Lab 21

subsidy category

Traditional Arts Practice Grant

Grant Type

single year

Fiscal Year 2025, Phase 1 Traditional Arts Practice Grant

The trainees practicing with all their might

Practicing face to face with the instructor

A friendly exchange continued during the break

❮❯

Business Overview

Many people are not familiar with jiuta dance, and it is often thought that it is too difficult to learn, and it is a workshop where you can enjoy practicing and experience traditional Japanese culture.
We started with an explanation of jiuta dance for beginners. First, we learned how to bow, basic movements, and how to use a fan. Then we finished the famous jiuta song "Kurogami" in five lessons.
The lecturers were led by Kanei KANZAKI, the grand master of the Hori school Kanzaki school, and assisted by Takamizu KANZAKI.
There was a wide range of age groups from 20's to 70's, including students, and there were also participants from remote areas. Half of the participants had no experience at all, but they worked hard and managed to learn and dance to one piece, which seemed to give them a sense of accomplishment. In addition, the fact that they were able to proceed with the practice in a comfortable manner from start to finish may be said to be an achievement for people to become familiar with jiuta dance in the future.
It is hoped that the experience of holding recitals for those who wish to perform and dancing in local performances of Matsunami Shachu will lead to their future.

Period of Activity / Project

[Trial course] Sunday, January 18, 2026 - Sunday, April 19
[Recital] Sunday, May 17, 2026

Venues

Tessenkai Nohgaku Training Center (Minato Ward, Tokyo)
Akasaka Kaikan (Minato Ward, Tokyo)

Profile

[Jiuta Dance Lab 21]
In 2025, Jiuta Dance Lab 21 was formed by people who had been performing jiuta dance in the Kanzaki school of the Hori school.
The goal is to make jiuta dance, which has a delicate sense of Japanese traditional beauty and expressive power that is relevant to today, known to many people. For this reason, he began to work on music that was not limited to traditional jiuta performances, easy-to-understand staging, and collaborations with other genres of performing arts, aiming to create a dance that would reach the hearts of audiences living in the modern world of the 21 century.