Daily report day 2 / 8 January 2011

Today I observed in the afternoon a technical sword dance training and in the evening the rehearsing of a sword dance and a sword fight. Again I was touched by the way the actors trained. They work hard and  only take a short break in a training of more than 8 hours. They are very supportive to improve their work.

Fumio instructs and corrects all the time. He works with the individual skills. The working atmosphere is light and concentrated in the same moment. The focus is on details and movements are repeated many times. Observing the training of the choreography it seems very simple but every movement is complex and has its own tempo and rhythm. During the rehearsal I can see in a long stretch the improvement. For a non expert in sword dance I find it difficult to notice the small differences during the rehearsal. I can notice the development from the beginning to the end.

At last the actors of the dance scene are placed in two rows  and the pattern contributes to the dynamic of the scene. Fumio tells me the scene will be performed in old costumes. The women will be dressed like warriors. Watching the choreography I can imagine the sword dance will be impressive.

From my experience in my own theatregroup the actors would find it hard to repeat for such a long time the same movements. We trained every week 3 hours Aikido, 3 hours acting and 1 day rehearsing the play. O-Getsu Ryu has a schedule in which every day trainings and rehearsals are planned. No matter if actors have jobs and families. The members of Coyote  managed to cope with these aims and schedules for a long time, but we were not able to hold on. Family affairs and working careers took over and did not allow to spend enough time to keep up with the needs of our artistic work. It is wonderful to see it works here in Tokyo in the artistic work and aspirations of O-Getsu Ryu.