First Weekend of Genki

This past weekend marked the first of this year's Genki musical rehearsals. We received the script in English and Japanese, did a read through of each, and started working with our Tosaben volunteers (basically dialect coaches) to fix our inflection. We also did some getting-to-know-each-other activities since not everyone in the cast has met before. All in all, it looks like this year's show is going to be great. The story is creative, the script is funny, and we've got plenty of good actors.

My part this year isn't huge; I'm one of the Lost Voice, Pita Pan's band. I've started memorizing my lines and I don't think it'll be too bad. This year's challenge will definitely be choreography. Sasha and I agreed to choreograph a dance so long as we could work together on it, and it looks like we'll be making the dance-off between the Lost Voice and the pirates. We're both a little freaked out because we have to have the dance ready to teach by February 25th, and we don't even have the music picked out. But the directors have suggested a couple of songs, and among them is one song both Sasha and I think could work. We're both trawling YouTube for good dance moves and general inspiration, so hopefully we can make this thing happen. I think the panic has not set in for me yet because I don't fully realize what we've signed ourselves up for. Sasha, on the other hand, choreographed a dance last year and knows exactly how worried we should be. But I'm hoping that between my overconfidence and her talent, we can come up with something.

On a more fun note, after Sunday's rehearsal a bunch of us went to BJs, a used clothing store, to look for costume pieces. Sasha immediately found me a dress that will be perfect for my costume. I'm supposed to be a pop idol, and the dress looks very similar to an AKB 48 costume. AKB 48 is a popular Japanese girl group.


AKB 48 performing.

In any case, I'm quite happy because it's also a very cute dress, and it only cost me 180 yen (about $2.50). I'm going to look for more accessories to add to it, but it already looks pretty good. We also found some good items for Julie's Pita Pan costume, and for a few other people. This year's costumes should be a lot easier in that much of it can be normal clothing. Last year it was mostly kimonos and armor.


Anyhow, from here until the performances in April, I'll probably have Sasha and Julie at my place each weekend. Most weekends this month I only have to be at rehearsal for half of the day, but I'll probably go in early to work on choreography. Sasha and I don't have a ton of time, but I hope we can figure this out. I'm a little nervous because I think Sasha wants me to take the lead, and I really don't know how to string together the steps I've been collecting to make an actual dance. But we'll manage something, I guess. Despite the nervousness, I'm excited for rehearsals to get into full swing.