[Blog] Last stop of Danskarusellen, and a well deserved award!

Yesterday, 3rd of April, Zyka Yosakoi performed at the third and final stop of Danskarusellen 2016.

The event took place at Skarpnäck Kulturhus in (you guessed it) Skarpnäck. It featured the great dancegroups from the two previous tour stops, and all their amazing, creative performances. Well, except one group that couldn’t make it and one of the original choreographies that mysteriously went missing this time.

Which choreography, you ask? Well… it was ours…

“Wait, what? No Bankuramou? But why!?”

Calm down. Let me explain. We wanted to perform Bankuramou, but found ourselves in an increasingly tricky situation when a growing part of our Banku dancing team was unable to make it to the stage. Howl studied for exams, our leader Oushou went on a trip to Italy, Wholock had guard duties and sickness struck Peanuts when we needed her the most.

We ended up with only half of Zyka, including our trusty -to new to dance- member Ewok. Helping us as staff and morale support.

We were full of dance energy!

Since most of us normally dance in the same middle column, trying to perform Bankuramou would feature us in a never before seen (and best left unseen) L-formation.

But just look at us. We were full of dance energy! In spite of our predicament we mustered our courage, and with the strength of ten thousand dreams still in our hearts, we prepared for our plan B: Changing choreography (overnight!) to the always uplifting sou-odori, Za Festival!

And the show was a blast! As we danced, we spread our joy and energy to the crowd. Some couldn’t help themselves, they started waving their arms in dancelike patterns and shout our kakegoe with us. And that’s what Yosakoi is all about.

We didn’t win the competition though. We won’t be representing Stockholm in the finals at Karlstad. That honor was given to the talented k-pop group UNIQUE, and the awesome BLACKOUT EMPIRE. We congratulate them on their victory and wish them luck in the finals!

But Zyka also found a reason to celebrate! One of the special awards went to Zyka’s very own member, Park! “For showing the passion and joy of dancing and boosting her whole teams performance” she won the Best Stage Personality-award!

Park! “Best Stage Personality”, Danskarusellen 2016

It was an award most well deserved. All of Zyka is very proud!

– ヒッチ

Hicchi

Bankuramou at the second stop of Danskarusellen!

On the 19th of March Zyka Yosakoi performed at the second stop of Danskarusellen, this time at Blå Huset in Tensta. We had lots of fun, both dancing and watching the other groups’ performances. So many great performances!

We also managed to for the first time get a video of Bankuramou, our very own original dance!

So for the first time, here you go. Enjoy!

 

Performance at Etnografiska Museet!

On the 5th of December we did our last performance of the year, this year held at Etnografiska Museet in Stockholm. The performance was done together with Andrew Hickman and Hino Tora Taiko.

All of us had lots of fun and the performance went well. It felt good to end the year with a performance we were so happy with and with such a good audience. We hope that we will get the chance to perform at Etnografiska Museet again soon!

Group shot before the performance

You can find more photos from the performance over at our photo page!

Group shot with Hino Tora Taiko and Andrew Hickman

We now also announce that we once again will participate in Danskarusellen! We are hoping for as much fun as we had last year and looking forward both to seeing all other great dancers and getting to show Bankuramou on a stage. You can find more information about our participation in Danskarusellen here.

[Blog] 29th of March – Danskarusellen at Nova in Vallentuna

Two days ago, on Friday the 27th of March, we performed at our third Danskarusellen event, this time at Nova in Vallentuna. It took a while to get there, especially for those of our members who live south of Stockholm, but it was all worth it. There was a real stage for us to perform on, and for once it wasn’t all that small. We did end up hitting each other a bit but we have had worse so it really wasn’t much of a problem. Yosakoi need more space than many other dances I think, especially since it’s not very easy to change the places according to the shape and size of the stage. That’s a good thing with still being quite a small team I guess, when we grow bigger (which we hope to do soon, come join us everyone it’s great fun!) we will have even more trouble fitting on small stages.

Anyway, besides us there were many other teams participating in the event. It was fun watching the others’ performances while waiting for our turn, everyone was so good! In Danskarusellen you belong to a group of teams who mostly participate in the same events. This makes it possible for us to see how the different performances in our group get better and better with each performance. It’s also different to see how some teams have completely new choreography while others, like us, only make smaller changes between the events.

Here is our performance from the event. The first part is Hatsuyuki and after that comes a sou-odori medley.

 

Unless we go to the region final, which we yet don’t know if we will, this was our last performance with Danskarusellen. It has been great fun participating and I think it the criticism we have received after each performance has helped us develop as a team. No matter if we go to the final or not we have given our best and had a great time, and for us that is the most important part.

Next up in our schedule is Körsbärsblommansdag in Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. We are planing on doing two new sou-odoris there so look forward to that! We are also continuing to work with our next self-made dance. It’s looking great at the moment and all of us are really excited about it! The theme is set to be presented in May and the dance in the end of summer or beginning of autumn. While it will be sad to put Hatsuyuki behind us it’s going to be fun to have a new dance to show. I can barely wait!

– 王将

Oushou

[Blog] 17th of March

Today Zyka had a special practise! We did a Juliana. Juliana is when you dance lots of sou-oudori after each other. It’s a good way of remembering all the dances you have learnt but don’t dance so often. It is also good fitness training because dancing so much is hard work. But mostly it’s a lot of fun! Learning new things is fun, but energetically dancing the dances you know is also fun. In a Juliana you get to do both! It is a good way of learning new sou-oudori that some in the team knows but not everyone.

Having a Juliana now was good timing because from next practise we will be busy practising for our last performance in Danskarusellen the 27th of March. Danskarusellen have been both fun and challenging. We have also for the first time received criticism from a jury about our dancing. Getting a knowledgeable outsiders point of view and opinions gives us the chance to develop and dance even better.

-WHOロック？

WHOlock