UNK Students to perform at Roman |
| Posted by Administrator on Dec 10 2008 at 3:22 PM |
Photo by Reo Sakamoto
From left to right: Manami Nakai, a visual communication and design major, Tomomi Sawamura, a visual communication and design major, Ikumi Sawada, an exercise science major, and in front Shoko Honda, a speech communcation major, practice their dance. The groups of two and five dancers will perform 11 dances at the Roman on Dec. 6.
By Reo Sakamoto
Guest Writer
The two-time winners of the campus Fame competition in 2006 and 2007 will dance again for a show at The Roman at 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 6.
The groups of two to five dancers will perform 11 dances in the two sections at 9:30 and 11 p.m. Most of the dances will have their own costumes.
Shoko Honda, a senior majoring in speech communication with a dance minor from Kumamoto, Japan, is one of the two leaders of the large dance team.
Honda said, "There are 19 dancers in this show. We all have worked hard, and I am proud of our effort toward the performance. I'm sure this show is going to be amazing."
Honda started dancing when she was 12 years old. She was selected to go to a hip-hop dance studio in Japan when she was 13.
"I learned many dance movements at the studio for two years and half. I recognize all I learned over there is the base of my dance style," she said.
However, Honda said her experiences when she was a high school student and came to America changed her dance life. When she was junior in high school, she decided to come to the U.S. for a year.
Her host mother Charlotte Wendel was an owner of Southwest School of Dance (SWSD) in Marshall, Minn. Wendel's specialty was classic/modern ballet and jazz dance.
"It was hard at first for me to accept ballet and jazz dance because those were very different from hip-hop. Also, I struggled often times because I had to keep up with schoolwork while I was learning new dance styles, and they were both in English, which was the most difficult thing to learn at the time for me," she said.
Honda said that her dancing style has changed since she learned ballet, and her hip-hop dance got much better. From ballet and her host mother, she learned how to use body muscles and how to showcase her dance.
"I realized that even though the dancing movement between ballet and hip-hop look completely different, they affect and interact each other," she said.
The SWSD dancers participated in the 2003 DANCEAMERICA National Finals. Honda and her team won the first place in the ballet production and a couple of the second places in the modern dance division.
After Honda came to UNK, she started to dance hip-hop with Japanese students.
"They really love dancing and enjoy it. So, I am glad that I dance with them here," she said.
"This show is going to be my third performance. They all work hard and have enthusiasm about dancing as much as I do. Without their help, I could not plan on this performance," Honda said. "I thank everybody involved in this show, especially Ryan O'Connor and Ikumi Sawada for helping organizing the show, and Chika Noda for making awesome flyers. This show is going to be amazing, so I would like everyone to check this out."
