the SQUARE DANCE and
the BON-ODORI

Well, square dancing is so much of that western folk dancing where the idea of the dance is usually the man and woman as a pair swing around together, physically very active with all sorts of body gyrations and muscle movements.

I noticed something that first summer back in Japan at my town's natsu-matsurri. The Bon-Odori. was very different from a Square Dance: I think in general, most folk dances around the world are based on a circle formation. So, that is one thing similar between the Bon-Odori and the Square Dance. But beyond that, the two dances are more different than similar. For example, and I will just list them, you can expand on the details of what is meant by each,

partners looking into each other's eyes holding, touching, hanging on, swinging out sweating together eyeing past the partner to the pretty face across the line rhythmic motion together, in sync changing partners! coming in contact with every dancer - the short guy, the fat lady, the colorful dresser, the slick dude, the golden blonde, the kid....where did all these folks come from?

I mean, with the Square Dance, the caller's voice and the fiddler's tunes are in the background, the dancers dominate the scene.........in the Bon-Odori, the whole thing is dominated more by the yagura-daiko setting up the beat to which everyone so perfectly follows, always moving in unison - a regular, slow march around a center, in wa-formation. The dancers don't touch each other, seldom have to look at each other, they dress alike so in a way, each person is anonymous for the sake of the collective aesthetic. Individuality is out, it's how well you dance as a unified, well-rehearsed team.

There are exceptions of course, but you get the idea, they are fundamentally a different style of folk dancing, I think. Two different social behaviors, one very Japanese, one very American.

sk