KSU Yosakoi Reunion/Finale

KSU Japanese Yosakoi Dance Club is scheduled to perform at the 2015 Greater Kansas City Japan Festival on Saturday, Oct 3, 2015. Invited and performing are some past members of Yosakoi since the club was founded by Seiki Ikeda in the spring of 2015. This performance will be our 10 year reunion and finale. Please come and join us in our celebration!

KSU International Talent Show Spring 2014

Yosakoi added a little flare to their usual routine by performing without lights, using purple glow sticks! In some ways, using glow sticks was challenging, in the timing was important to make a grand impression. Mistakes were obvious! Still, we enjoyed the change and performed once more with red glow sticks at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival in October, 2014.

Homecoming Week October 2013

Following the GKCJF, Yosakoi participated in the Homecoming Week festivities. Here we won 1st place in Sidewalk chalking. The theme celebrated the 150th anniversary of Kansas State.

 

We also placed with our entry in Paint the Ville on the window of Varney’s in Aggieville.

Greater Kansas City Japan Festival 2013

Our usual stint at the GKCJF was lots of fun.  GKCJF is one of the largest Japanese festivals in the midwest.  We performed Yocchore, Samurai and Soran Illusion.

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 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!

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.