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Event Description
Kingston Multicultural Festival
The festival is becoming bigger and bigger by adding more performers. So, besides our popular Origami table, we decided to bring “Bon-odori” folk dance this year.
Bon-odori is seen at many summer festivals in Japan when men and women wearing summer Yukata-kimono or Happi jacket dancing along with Bon-odori songs which varies per regions while some standard ones may be played as well. Many of us Japanese have some experience when we were young but we needed to refresh our memories of dance forms.
We had some non-Japanese and non-member friends volunteered, so they also practiced before today. We picked one song with the easiest and least forms so that we could remember within a limited time and perform without making mistakes.
During performance, we had our staff invite people from audience to join the dance as we thought it’d be an excellent idea. Unfortunately, though, because the weather forecast expected rain today, the venue changed last minute from T.R. Gallo Park to the Andy Murphy Midtown Center, so there weren’t many audience when we started. Nevertheless, it was great fun. We’re already planning to have a little more complicated forms and more colorful piece next year, so our volunteers can enjoy it as much as the audience. It’s a festival, for everyone, after all.
We’d like to thank to the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History and Arts Mid-Hudson for having us again at this wonderful event. And, to our volunteer members and friends, I thank you all very much for making this event even better.
Midori Shinye
Team leader
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