Japanese Professor Kyoko Nakayama, center, and some of her dance students pose for a photo at Aqua Resort Club on Tuesday.
KYOKO Nakayama, a Teikyo University professor and fa’fa’nague or Chamorro dance instructor, is visiting Saipan with her students to help broaden their perspective about Chamorro culture.
Nakayama also heads Guma Famagu’on Tano’ Yan I Tasi in Tokyo, which teaches Chamorro dance as part of Pa’a Taotao Tano’ family of dance troupes. Pa’a Taotao Tano is a nonprofit cultural organization “whose goal is to develop a forum in which cultural practitioners can perform, exhibit and share the traditions of the indigenous people of Guam and the Marianas,” according to a Guam legislative resolution that commended Nakayama for her dance instruction.
Nakayama is a student of Frank Rabon of Guam.
She and some of her dance troupe members are on Saipan as guests of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, which will feature her as a lecturer on Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at American Memorial Park as part of the council’s Community Lecture Series.
Nakayama said she teaches Education for International Understanding in Japan.
With an influx of outside cultures finding their way to Japan, Nakayama sees Chamorro dance as one tool to help her students embrace diversity.
“[The students] know the value of learning other cultures,” she told Variety on Tuesday. “That is very good for them. To appreciate diversity by learning other cultures.”
Her guma’ has also helped the Chamorro community at the military bases near Tokyo stay connected to the Marianas through cultural performances. She and her dancers were among the guest performers at the recent Guam Liberation Day festivities hosted by Chamorros in Sagamihara.
While on Saipan, she and her students are scheduled to visit the NMI Museum of History and Culture and other historical and tourist sites. They will also take part in a special rehearsal with local dance troupes.
On Monday, they participated in an “amut walk” with noted suruhanu/yo’amte Donald Mendiola at Obyan Beach. Mendiola spoke of his traditional healing practice and pointed out how various plants can be used for medicine.
“[The] culture is still living, and not just in the textbook,” Nakayama said of the experience. “It was an awesome experience for me and my students.”
One of them, Kohei Ono, has spent seven years learning Chamorro dance as a member of Guma Famagu’on Tano’ Yan I Tasi. This is his first time on Saipan.
He described the amut walk as “very interesting.” “I was impressed by [Mendiola’s] words and respect for the ancestors,” he added. “I felt the importance of actual experience not on paper.”
For his part, Yuya Azuma, a member for 10 years now of the guma’, said being part of the dance troupe has broadened his perspective.
“I’m interested in other countries and cultures,” he said. “I didn’t know about the Mariana Islands. I [learned about it from Nakayama] and it was a new topic. I got a new perspective. I came here to meet local people and see many things in Saipan and Tinian so I can open my mind and soul and perspective, and deeply understand Chamorro culture,” he added.
