Last night’s tenth biennial Mitani Kyozo Ballet School recital, filled with class, style and flair, was by all accounts a success. Kyozo-san, who has been the Asami Maki Ballet’s artistic director since 1994, is a former ballet dancer. His school’s recitals are accompanied by professional make-up artists, stage sets and lighting, and professional dancers dancing with the students and teachers in everything from short individual routines to well known dances from popular ballets as well as ballets reduced to a few key dance routines.
This was Sachan’s second ballet recital. 
This year she performed in two different routines with other second graders with whom she has been dancing with for almost four years now. Their first routine was performed to Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter Song. I have been unable to bring myself to ask Sachan if she knows what a typewriter is. The girls did a great job on this routine, as well they should have given they have been working on it since July! High on the amusement scale is watching a group of second graders try to pull off a shoulder roll each time the percussionists recreate the sound of the typewriters return lever being hit and moved. The girls have come a long way since the last recital when there repertoire of moves consisted largely of being cute, some échappés, some plies, being cute, skipping, toe points, being cute and skipping; did I mention being cute? This year their moves have expanded to include: glissades, pas de chats and even single rotation pirouettes.
The second routine was the neco-chan dance. “Neco” (ney-koh) is Japanese for cat. “Chan” (chahn) is the diminutive used with children 
and people you are close to. Cats are highly beloved animals in Japan, and are frequently called neco-chan, even by adults. This routine was performed to Tchaikovsky’s No23 Pas de caractere (Puss-in-boots and the white cat) from Sleeping Beauty. The footwork for this routine, which has only been worked on since September, was much simpler than the footwork in the first routine. But adding an extra level of complexity was the arm positions they had to hold. Its one thing to preform those moves with arms outstretched in positions that aid their balance. Its quite another to see them hold a cat pose throughout their entire routine. The nice thing about a bunch of black and white cats chasing each other around a stage and staring at each other is that you expect a bit of erratic behavior and steps. It was still interesting to see how well the girls could control their balance with the restricted arm movements and which ones have a better sense of where their bodies are in space.
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