"when things get tough, this is what you should do: make. good. art."

[larryhammer]

A little while ago, I developed an obsession with watching YouTube videos of yosakoi dance troupes. This is a genre that fuses traditional Japanese folk dances with modern moves and music, typically performed only in competitions. It developed in Kochi in the 1950s but has spread throughout Japan, with major competitions in Tokyo, Sendai, Sapporo, and Nagasaki, as well as the mother-affair in Kochi.

The typical rules allow for a lot of variation in the music and choreography, not to mention costume, which means there's a lot of experimentation, but a typical performance is five to eight minutes long in three movements to fast-slow-fast music, with melodies that at least allude to the original folk songs it developed from. A defining feature, I should mention, is that dancers have percussion instruments, typically hand clappers but sometimes drums etc.

Some performances I've bookmarked, in no particular order. Most are by a handheld camera from the audience, so expect occasional jittercam and highly variable sound levels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqDHN-LTcYw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXH6CYC-bWY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGYvSRT8J9M
    (another of the same troupe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKL55SaNVjg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niaXI6SgfaQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTuMRvSmCQI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTpkpWuUVOI

If you want more, click around in YouTube's suggestions, or search for either "Yosakoi" or "よさこい"

---L.