Ue O Muiete Aruko Ondo (aka Sukiyaki Ondo)

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Thank You Beverly Toyama for capturing this piece of Nisei Week history and posting on Youtube.  Coming up with the music and dance steps and practicing in the parking lot of Centenary United Methodist Church located at the virtual center of Skid Row-kyo.  At the Nisei Week Festival Closing Ceremony and Street Ondo, starting out with a single dancer (in pink, Michelle Nagata) dancing the electric slide to "achy breaky heart".  (Then Loryce Hashimoto joins Michelle and  starts to dance.)  More dancers seem to spontaneously join in until the entire street is filled with dancers as if they were facing off in a street dance battle..  Then the music transitions into a Ondo song.  The song is Gokegin Ondo and all the dancers transition to dancing the electric slide with ondo hand motions.  Nisei Week history in the making.  A Ondo Flash Mob  Line Dance that was spectacular to watch...  "Happy Nisei Week !!!"

Our friend in Ondo,  Noriko of Bon Joy Dance Circle  joined us on stage at the OC Cherry Blossom Festival.  What we did not know at the time, she was videoing the event.  Thank you Noriko for posting the videos on Youtube.  LTDC  highly recommends anyone interested in great Ondo / bon odori dance instruction subscribe and follow Noriko on pretty much all social media platforms as well on  Youtube at " noriko.sandiego " or "  B O N J O Y ♪ 盆JOY "

If you had to rank Ondos,  "One plus One" would be "Two", no pun intended.  Now in regards to Pop Ondo, this is the "go to" dance.  Virtually any song can be matched with the dance steps to one plus one.  LTDC until recently used "feel it still" as Pop Ondo music for 1+1.  With the release of the hit movie "Top Gun Maverick" LTDC switched to "i ain't worried" while doing a workshop at the Anime Expo Chibi in Ontario CA.  in Japanese folk dancing, the dance steps and movements are supposed to tell a story.  Matching 1+1 to the Top Gun song meets folk dancing standards.  Dancers are flying jet fighters in formation and are having a fun dog fight.  Some dancers go right, some go left.  Some dancers spin, some do not.  The dance steps and the music fits...

The LTDC has been performing Ondo Demonstrations at this event since the very beginning's of the festival (originally called the Huntington Beach Cherry Blossom Festival.)  "Sakura" is Japanese for "Cherry Blossom" so "Sakura Ondo" is a very appropriate ondo to demonstrate at this festival.  Since it was a demonstration, the LTDC  taught this dance using a  "follow the leader"  technique oppose to teaching "step by step."  At Ondos you will often see LTDC members help those that need help with the steps.  It's what we do...

Music video by Rayko Diggs and Lolita Dark.  Skidrow-kyo Mission's Little Tokyo Dance Club helped in the making of this music video.

Big City Girl's Ondo danced at Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute.  Past Nisei Week Queen Erika Olsen (represented the Pasadena JCI) was the choreographer for the ondo