Lisa and I had been planning a trip to Japan for many years. Lisa is a fan of taiko drumming and I enjoy go, the world’s oldest board game. Both are quite popular in Japan. At the national square dance convention in Long Beach this past summer we learned that square dancing is also popular in Japan.
Sensing an opportunity to do something truly unique, we searched the web for square dance clubs in Japan and sent emails to three that we found. All three extended warm welcomes and insisted that we come dance with them while in Japan. We were about to learn what Japanese hospitality is all about.
The first club we danced with was the Tokyo Square Dance Club. They have 200 members and nine callers. They dance every Saturday night, and I counted 12 squares the night we were there. They dance Mainstream and Plus, with rounds as well. Each tip had a different caller, and the combination of unfamiliar callers and thick accents made it very hard for us to understand the calls. But everyone was friendly and helpful, repeating the calls for us when we didn’t understand them. They presented us with guest badges and a club banner. At the end of the evening they did an interesting thing: Everyone formed a giant circle and the caller said, “Alamande left with your corner,” and then, “Grand right and left grand.” Now everyone did a right and left grand that extended all the way around the circle, saying good night and thanking everyone along the way. A nice way to end the evening!
The next afternoon we visited the Chiyoda Square Dance Club, Tokyo’s largest club with 280 members. This just happened to be their 37th anniversary bash, and the two-day event was attended by over 700 dancers from all over Japan. Mike Sikorsky flew in from Arizona to call the event along with a few local callers. We counted over 50 squares when we stepped out onto the dance floor. Dancing with Chiyoda SDC was a lot of fun, but really tough. Although a Mainstream and Plus club, the dancers were overall more proficient than any crowd I’ve ever danced with. The calling was feverishly fast, and situations arose that I’ve never encountered dancing in the U.S. For example, we frequently began a Relay the Deucey with the boys on the inside, and boys often led the exchange in Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears. The dancing was great fun, and the banquet that we got invited to after the dancing was nothing short of amazing.
Our last stop on the square dance tour was in the city of Kyoto at the Kyoto Square Dance Club. Square dancing in this area is just getting started—this club is only three years old and has 28 members. We had two squares the Sunday that we were there, and most tips were Mainstream with a few Plus. This was a more personal experience because you could talk to each person who was there. It was less frenetic, but everybody still strove for perfection. Again our fellow dancers were gracious hosts, taking us out to lunch and a tour of a famous temple in the area after the morning dance.
There are an estimated 13,000 square dancers in Japan, mostly in the Tokyo area. Square dancing became popular after World War II, when Americans on bases would square dance and the locals picked it up. Today there are more women dancers than men, so women put on a simple sash to indicate they are dancing boy for the current tip. Since most people travel in Japan by train, women in Tokyo typically wear street clothes and change into square dance attire when they arrive at the dance hall.
Square dancing significantly enriched our trip to Japan by introducing us to many local people sharing a common interest. Before the convention last summer we never would have imagined that we would square dance in Japan. But in retrospect, it was a wonderful way to bridge language and cultural barriers and learn more about the distant land we were visiting.
Roger & Lisa Schrag
