Taiko Tap at Toho Gakuen

As a Nanba Instructor, I teach Tap Dance at Toho Gakuen College of Music. This school is also the center for Nanba training in Japan, and a number of teachers in the Physical Education Department specialize in applying Nanba to specific courses, such as dance, martial arts, and sports, and because it is a music college, we also help students apply Nanba movement to improving their finesse and performance skills as musicians.

Getting ready to attend the Japan EXPO in Paris in July, I am working on finding Tap rhythms that work with Japanese music. Part of my performance there will be Nanba Tap.

This 1′22″ video is a glimpse of the fun improvising and finding ways to weave the Tap rhythms in with the Japanese Taiko drum, played here by fellow Nanba Instructor Koya Sensei.

Nanba is perfect for improvisation, because you focus on how your body feels inside, and connect that to what is happening outside. The basic principles of Nanba help you find physical finesse in whatever you do.

This is a 3′45″ video clip from my  Nanba Tap Class at Toho Gakuen, where I teach Tap Dance to classical music students. I am speaking to the students, but here is a summary in English of what I said in Japanese.

Do you ever get nervous before a performance? I think most of us have experienced stage fright, when we have to perform in front of people under pressure. We feel like our nervousness is not only obvious to everyone watching, but that it might seriously spoil our performance.

We tend to believe that being nervous will prevent us from doing our best, and might even lead to serious humiliation if we fail.

Have you ever heard of whistling in the dark? It is what you are supposed to do if you find yourself afraid in a dark place. The problem is that it is easy to whistle when things are going fine, but almost impossible when you are nervous. How do you get yourself out of trouble when you are in trouble?

Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine, who has college age kids like you. When he was in Junior High School, he was a 13-year old nervous kid who had played the trumpet for only about six months, but for some reason decided to try out for the band. There were over a hundred kids auditioning for the band, and to his horror, the band leader insisted that each student audition in front of their peers, the entire group!

Names were drawn at random, and each student had to perform. It wasn’t so much the audition itself, as doing anything in front of his peers that terrified him, teen-aged boys looking for any chance to look cool or make someone else the fool.

My friend was nervous to the point of fear, and prayed that his name might not be called. But no one was to be spared this ordeal, and when his name was called, his hands were shaking badly as he put the trumpet to his lips. He was sure that everyone was watching his every move, and that he would not only fail the audition, but would be the laughing stock of the school for months to come.

Somehow he managed to play to the end of the song, but instead of ridicule and laughter, he was overwhelmed by applause and congratulations!

His nervousness and hands shaking had inadvertently produced a beautiful vibrato effect in his trumpet playing, something he had never been able to do in practice sessions! He was suddenly a hero in front of his peers, and not only passed the audition in colors, but was awarded first chair in the band!

It is the same in Tap, when you dance in front of others, or when people are watching you dance, it is easy to get self-conscious. When you perform on stage in front of a large number of people the pressure is even greater, and you may find yourself like my friend, caught in less than positive imaginings of what might go wrong.

However, if you learn how to use the vibrations of your nervousness, the vibrato of your body’s energy and excitement, you can actually end up performing better than you do in day to day practice.

In any case, nervousness is nothing to fear. Stage fright can actually be in your favor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In mid-May, I took a group of Waseda University students who are members of my Shunsoukai (瞬想会, Quantum Leap) Group, (my Physical Finesse Dojo, and we did a Nanba Run around the Nippon Budokan.

This shows a warm up exercise we do to lighten our step before a Nanba Run. If upper and lower body are not coordinated you cannot move this fast. It also keeps you floating like a butterfly, and makes you a faster runner.

After an incredibly enjoyable warm up session, we made our 5 km run in about 40 minutes. Though none of the students were experienced runners, the group managed the Nanba run smoothly without muscle soreness or fatigue.

Nanba shortens the learning curve and increases both speed and endurance for any runner.

Here is some photos from the warm up session.

Real Nanba Roadrunners! Catch me if you can!!

We also tracked it with Nike+iPod, and here too are the results.

Some months we do a Nanba Walk, visiting  areas of Tokyo that have interesting history.

Nanba is the Art of Physical Finesse, and Nanba Walking is a fundamental way to practice it. Nanba is found throughout the Japanese traditional arts, and has applications which range from martial arts, to music, to physical exercise, and daily movement.

The benefits of Nanba Walking are increased energy, increased efficiency in performance, greater awareness and enjoyment of body movement.

We conduct training each month in Nanba Movement, where you can meet and learn directly from the founders and chief instructors in this method. Check the Events Page for information on Training.

Although Nanba movement is natural and sustainable at any age, it is an art which is easier to learn when you follow certain fundamental principles. To make Nanba easier to understand and practice, I produced an article which summarizes the Seven Secrets of Nanba Walking, which you can download here.

Seven Secrets of Nanba Walking

At Toho Gakuen, where we teach Nanba movement, we created a video which demonstrates Nanba Walking, and to which I added captions to illustrate the Seven Secrets. I posted a video on YouTube, which you can watch to better understand the principles in the article. The music was improvised on the piano by a student at Toho Gakuen, where we apply Nanba Movement to music, dance, and martial arts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.