On the second day of our stay in Tokyo, the plan was to have Aina join one of Kumi sensei’s morning ballet classes. Kumi sensei is a family friend. Ari and his family used to live in Japan when he was still in elementary school. At that time, Ari’s younger sister — Nia — and Kumi-san went to the same local kindergarten, Togo Yochien, in Harajuku. They even attended the same ballet school back 30-something years ago. While Nia eventually lost interest and stopped doing ballet after her kindergarten years, Kumi sensei continued and became a professional ballet dancer and teacher. Amazing, no?
Today, she was teaching at Studio Ailes in Meguro, not too far from where we’re staying. When we reached the studio, it was still pretty early in the morning and seemed that no one was there yet. Jessi was still on her way there, so we’ll have to figure out how ballet classes work in Japan by ourself. Then we heard someone moving about inside…
Ari, who last met Kumi sensei when he was about the same age as Aina is now (and Kumi sensei was probably around 5 years old!), had almost no recollection of what she looked like. So with his broken Japanese, he called out to introduce himself, wasn’t quite sure if we were actually talking to Kumi sensei or someone else. Luckily, she quickly introduced herself first, to clear up the awkward situation… and we all broke out laughing. Whew!
Aina took 2 classes: the Intermediate Open Class and the Pointe Open Class. It was actually an open adult class (it was the only one that was available while we were in Tokyo), so Aina was the only kid there. Ari felt a bit weird sitting there, so he didn’t stay long. Right after Jessi arrived, he went downstairts to smoke and walk around the area. Jessi and I stayed upstairs, watching and busy taking pictures of Aina…
There was one young lady who was very good and very strong in the Intermediate class. She was placed right next to Aina, so she could copy her easily. Jessi and I kept going “whoa” and “wow” at her, because she was so good. A few days later, when we all had dinner with Kumi-sensei, she told us that when the girl was around 12-13 years old, she won the YAGP Final in New York… She is now 22 years old. Ha, no wonder she was so good. Aina thought it was cool that she got to share a barre with a winner of YAGP New York… 😀
Meanwhile, as for Ari, he was busy taking pictures of the neighborhood…
For all the photos while we were in Tokyo, they are in Tokyo 2017 photo album. Other entries of this trip is at Japan 2017 Trip: Ballet Competitions.
