Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, Kintsugi incorporates the broken pieces into the aesthetic of the restored item, making it part of the object’s history, resulting into something more beautiful than the original.

I approach dance and play-related injuries with the same philosophy. An injured body is neither "broken" nor meant to be discarded. Rather injuries elucidate where our bodies are weak and our technique less than ideal. Performing arts medicine professionals help dancers and musicians better understand where the weakness in their technique and the kinetic chain occurs and how to strengthen these areas. Much like Kintsugi, injury recovery guided by a performing arts medicine specialist helps performing artists transform their bodies and their art beyond their original state.

Judo Buyō - The lost art of Judo Dance

Judo Buyō translates in English to Judo Dance.


Judo Buyō began in the 1960's by Kodokan Judo, the founding Judo association, at a time when women were not permitted to participate in Judo matches. To allow more participation from women, Judo Buyō was created. Women performed the Judo Buyō during the opening ceremonies.

After women were allowed to compete and women's Judo matches were developed in 1978, Judo Buyō died out. Even in Japan, it is a relatively unknown dance/martial art form.

Recently in 2014, Japanese Judoist Keiko Nagasaki revived the art form. As a 7th dan Judo master, she has been teaching Judo for 40 years. She created a troupe composed of 12 women judoka and began performing the dance before matches in her hometown of Kanazawa.

The differences between the Judo Buyō she danced in the past and her revived Judo Buyō are her modifications. The dance was originally composed of basic Judo movements. She now includes more complex Judo movements including throws, break-falls, and rolls. She has also re-adapted the Judo Buyō's purpose and uses the dance as another method to practice and share her love for the sport of Judo.

Keiko Nagasaki's journey to revive Judo Buyō was documented in June 2015 by the Japanese broadcasting corporation, NHK world: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/3/20160615/

Additional photographs can be found here: https://zendoukan.jimdo.com/柔道舞踊/

As a side note: Buyō is a separate tradition and refers to the traditional Japanese performing art of dance and pantomime. It developed in the early Edo period (early 17th century) from kabuki, a traditional Japanese theater drama incorporating dance.

References:

• Stevens J. The way of Judo: a portrait of Jigoro Kano & his students. Boston: Shambhala, 2013. 230p.
• History of Kodokan Judo [Intenet]. Japan: Kodoan Judo Institute; [cited 2017 Jan 7]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://kodokanjudoinstitute.org/en/doctrine/history/
• All the Right Moves [Internet]. Japan: NHK World; 2016 Jun 15 [cited 1027 Jan 7]; [about 2 screens]. Available from: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/3/20160615/

The saut de chat: ballet terminology - isn't it all the same?

I picked up our Performing Arts Medicine journal, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, today to stay up to date on the current research and became very confused. An article used the term saut de chat to refer to a grand jeté developpé. After years of studying ballet across a mixture of Italian, French, Russian, English, American traditions, I'm familiar with variations in "ballet language." So I decided to do some investigating.

It turns out that that saut de chat is a commonly used term to describe grand jeté developpé. To avoid confusion, the movement is illustrated below. This ballet jump is performed/practiced as part of grande allegro exercises. A high degree of flexibility and strength is required to achieve a full split position in mid-air.

I learned this step as it is described in words- grand jeté developpé- big jump that starts from an unfolding leg. Gretchen Warren, a leading author trained in the Royal Ballet tradition, also calls this step a grand jeté developpé. Gail Grant, another leading author in ballet terminology, calls this step a grand pas de chat from the Vaganova tradition. This was also the terminology used by the Balachine tradition as noted by Barbara Walczak and Una Kai. Anecdotally, this step has also been referred to either correctly or incorrectly as the grand jeté pas de chat, pas de chat jeté, Russian pas de chat, Italian pas de chat.

As a medical professional, I would describe this as a jump involving anterior leg hip flexion and anterior knee extension from a flexed position with simultaneous posterior leg hip extension with knee in extension.

All this to say, movement and spoken language are fluid and highly stylized. That's why choreographers and dancers have their signature styles.

(Note: this is not to be confused with pas de chat which is the step of the cat and in the Cecchetti Method requires starting from a 5th position. It begins with raising the foot in raccourci derriere, at the height of the jump with both legs in high passé, landing on the starting foot with the other foot in raccourci devant, closing in demi-plie in fifth position.)

Women in Medicine Local Conference

Today we had our local AMWA Women in Medicine conference run by Eliza Chin, MD. Our guest moderator was Saralyn Mark, MD.  Both women have written books on the subject and are staunch supporters of women through their advocacy efforts. It was a pleasure and honor to be able to network and support my fellow sisters in medicine.