Yachiyo Inoue: Tradition in Full Bloom

Overview

Kyoto celebrates spring with Miyako Odori, a 400-year-old dance festival featuring the geiko and maiko of Gion. The choreographer of this month-long event is Yachiyo Inoue, the 5th generation master of Kyomai, a school of dance characterized by elegant and highly stylized movements accentuated by stomping. Kyomai is suffering from a lack of successors. But Inoue is striving to keep the tradition alive with new dances that incorporate elements from other genres, as we'll hear on Face To Face.