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Saipan Awaodori Team sends 3 members to Japan
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- Saipan Awaodori Team members Sheena Saures, left, and Zacarias Sakisat, middle, with the rest of the Japanese Awa Odori performers playing the snare drum and the kane bell, respectively at the annual Awa Odori Dance Festival in Koenji Tokyo, Japan. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)
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- Zacarias Sakisat playing the kane bell at the annual Awa Odori Dance Festival in Koenji Tokyo, Japan.
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- Jaybriana Manalo posing for a picture with Japanese Awa Odori performers at the annual Awa Odori Dance Festival in Koenji Tokyo, Japan.
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- Jaybriana Manalo performing the Awa Odori during the annual Awa Odori Dance Festival in Koenji Tokyo, Japan.
The Saipan Awaodori Team sent three members to Japan to join the East Asian country’s annual Awa Odori Festival in Koenji, Tokyo. The local group has been dancing with a larger group since the first week of July and the members would be staying in Japan until Aug. 31, 2016.
The three members of the Saipan Awaodori Team are Zacarias Sakisat, Sheena Saura, and Jaybriana Manalo with roles of playing the kane bell, the snare drum, and the last being the sole dancer of the three.
Manalo is now back on Saipan due to the start of the school year at Saipan Southern High School. Saura is a student at the Northern Marianas College.
The next dance for the Awa Odori Festival in Japan would be from Aug. 26 to 28. The Saipan Awaodori Team would be dancing with the Tokyo Tensuiren Group.
The Awa Odori dance, when literally translated to English, means “fools dance.” Awa means fool, while odori means dance. The annual Koenji Awa Odori Festival is the second largest Awa Dance Festival in Japan, only second to Tokushima Prefecture’s Obon Festival.
