MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
No experience is necessary for the annual ondo street dance, which takes place on First Street in Little Tokyo on Aug. 20. Practices will be held on July 18, 20, 25, 27 and Aug. 1.

The 66th Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival will hold its ondo street dancing and closing ceremonies on Sunday, Aug. 20. To help prepare the public to have fun and learn some ondo dancing, free ondo classes will take place every Tuesday and Thursday on July 18, 20, 25, 27 and Aug. 1 from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the Japanese American Community & Cultural Center. Please bring sensu (folding fan) and uchiwa (round fan) to practices.

The 2006 Nisei Week choreographer is Madame Fujima Kansuma, who will lead the ondo, has choreographed two dances “Sho Tokyo Ondo” and “Wa ni natte Odoro,” which she hopes everyone will enjoy and bring the joyful spirit of the ondo to all who participate and watch.

Madame Kansuma founded the Fujima Kansuma Classical Japanese Dance School more than 65 years ago and is its artistic director. She has trained countless students in this traditional performing art, many of whom have become instructors themselves. As a young girl, Sumako Hamaguchi went to Japan to study dance under the great teachers of that time, Onoe Kikugoro VI and Fujima Kanjuro VI. There she was conferred the title Fujima Kansuma and earned her shihan, or teaching credential.

After she returned to Los Angeles, she opened a studio in Little Tokyo and began teaching classical Japanese dance.

Madame Fujima Kansuma

Her relationship with the ondo dance began when she was eight or nine years old and saw a group of people dancing on Central Avenue and First Street, in front of what is now the Japanese American National Museum. What struck her first was that there were many boys dancing. She always felt badly for her father because he did not have sons and now there was something she could do like the boys. She joined in and soon many of the spectators were cheering her on. As she reminisces on this experience, she believes that it wasn’t her great dancing, but the spirit with which she danced that made the crowd cheer. She hopes the 66th Nisei Week Ondo will provide the same spirit and joy that she experienced so many years ago.

The Nisei Week ondo, which will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, is free to the public and consists of dancing Japanese folk dances danced on First Street in Little Tokyo.