KSU Yosakoi performed again at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival on Sept 24, at the Johnson County Community College. Here we are performing Soran Bushi, one of the more traditional Yosakoi Dances. We also performed Samurai and Gakko You Kyozai. We all had a great time and were able to enjoy other activities at the festival, including new to this year’s festival, Sumo. Imagine a 600+ lb Japanese sumo wrestler, apparently the heaviest ever in Japan!

Spring 2012 KSU Activities Carnival

           KSU Japanese Yosakoi Dance Club participated in the         Spring Activities Carnival on 1/26/12. Also helping were Maia Williams, Christine Kim, Katherine Zhang, Julie Leone, Ryan Cloyd, and Barbara Johnson. We had a grand time, and even danced, as much as we could, in the space in front of the table. We signed up 15 students who expressed an interest in joining us. Hopefully, they will come to practice and become members!

GKCJF Finale

 

New to the Japan Festival in 2011 was the Grand Finale, where the performers were showcased. All the performers had an opportunity to take a “final” bow. Yosakoi was the first group featured. We were asked to dance in through the side entrance, through the aisles and then onto the stage, dancing to the beat of Taiko drummers! Micah is holding a banner provided by GKCJF on which was written “Yosakoi”.

More on GKCJF

After the performance in Yardley Hall. Relaxed and relieved! We were well received and all is well! In the back –David Smith (pumped up), Micah Weltsch; Middle row–Kayla Dieker, Christine Kim, Julie Leon, Ryan Cloyd.  Front row–Abby Sarvis, Maia Williams, Barbara Johnson,  Yichao (Katherine) Zhang. Great job everyone!

Greater Kansas City Japan Festival 2011

KSU Yosakoi will be performing at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival on Sat., 9/24/11 at the Johnson County Community College.

Naka-kon 2010

KSU Yosakoi performed again at the regional Naka-kon 2010. Leaving Manhattan early, the group arrived at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, MO to perform and give a workshop. The workshop went quite well with help from both captains and members: Barbara, Micah, Frizti, Jordan, and Ashley. After teaching our dance, the group relaxed and explored Naka-kon.

After enjoying dinner of Sushi, Tempura, and Unagi at Kabuki in Crown Center, the group headed back to perform for Naka-kon. The performance coincided with the Anime Costume Contest, so the crowd was very excited to see our group. We danced Yocchore, Shachihoko, and finished with Samurai. After a great and exhilarating performance all made it back safe with the snowy weather.

Group Photo: Naka-kon 2010

2010 Rhythm of Nations Event

This Wednesday, January 27, Yosakoi took part in Delta Sigma Theta’s annual Rhythm of Nations event. Several other campus dance groups also taught portions of their dances to those who came. The Poize Hip-Hop team taught a hip-hop routine to Beyonce’s Beautiful Nightmare, and another group taught a merengue pairs dance. Barbara taught Yocchore to the group, and Micah, Jordan and Greta helped teach and demonstrate the dance. There was a lot of energy at the event, and people were very enthusiastic about the dance. It was an exhausting but entertaining and enjoyable evening to share Yosakoi with other dance groups and dance enthusiasts on campus.

Winter Expo Table

KSU Yosakoi kicked off the semester with a table at the Winter Expo, a place for old and new students to come see what types of interest groups, clubs and organizations are available on campus. Micah, Fritzi, Greta and Donna helped out with the table, which was located in the Union food court. A lot of students stopped by to talk, see videos of Yosakoi performing and sign up for information about the club. About seven people signed up for further information about the club.

Homecoming Week 2009

This week, KSU Japanese Dance Club participated in Kansas State’s Homecoming Week. This is a time when the Greek Houses, residence Halls, and Students Organization come together in the spirit of the college through a myriad of fun events.

This year we participated in the 5k Run, Sidewalk Chalk, Spirit Banner, Paint the ‘Ville, Kid’s Carnival, and the Parade. The team came together this week in these events and excelled in all events we participated in. For Sidewalk Chalk, Historian Ching Her created and led the design of Wille the Wildcat riding Colorado University’s Buffalo “Ralphie” like a bronco. Sectrarty Greta Kliewver organizted the Spirit Banner and Kid’s Carnival. Paint the ‘Ville was organized by our Publicity Chair Jordan Mizell. Special tanks to all the captains who worked on the parade and dances for the Homecoming week.

 The parade, being the highlight, started at the Manhattan Mall and ended in Aggieville. The dancers did a fabulous job and everyone was full of genki! We were a small group this year, but all the viewers were happy to see us once again.

Here is this year’s rankings:

Sidewalk Chalk: 1st Place

Spirit Banner: 1st Place

Paint the ‘Ville: 1st Place

Parade: 2nd Place

Overall: 2nd Place

Greater Kansas City Japan Festival

Saturday Sept. 19, 2009

This year’s performance at the Greater Japan Festival was incredible! The festival celebrated its 12th annual festival with Taiko, Bonsai, Eisa, and Yosakoi. This is one of our groups favorite festival to perform at because the audience always has high energy and wants to learn more about culture. We did reunite with other performing groups and with former alumni of our group.

 We started the festival off with our Dancing workshop were we taught Yocchore. The group of eager dancers were great and had quite a bit of energy. After that, we had our first afternoon performance in Yardley Hall, where we performed Soran-Bushi and Yochchore. The audience was excited and the dances were great. Then we had our evening performance also in Yardley Hall, were we finished off with Samurai and Net De Yosakoi. Both were a solid finish to a great day of performances.

To finish off the day, we went to the new Japanese restaurant “Edoko” at 87th and Pflumm. Food was great and we ate huge platters of  sushi. This has been from our experience of the busiest festivals in recent memory. It proved to be a blast and all members loved the festivals and all the dances.