Mademoiselle Cinema and Me - On Its 30th Anniversary
Many dancers have taken part in Mademoiselle Cinema over its 30 years. Tamami Takenoshita, its longest-serving member, shares her thoughts.
Mademoiselle Cinema and Me - On Its 30th Anniversary — Tamami Takenoshita
More than 20 years ago, after entering university and graduate school to study dance, I was struggling to work out how to create an environment where I could keep dancing after graduation. That was when I saw Mademoiselle Cinema, in which Tomoko Katsube (勝部知子), a senior from my university, was dancing. My first impressions of Mado's work were simple: there are all kinds of dancers, and I like the music they use. But, first of all, seeking a place where I could regularly develop my body, I tried joining Naoko's class.
I felt how difficult it was to make a living from dance alone, but seeing people in Naoko's class and Mado dancers continue dancing while working, I decided on a direction for life after graduation: it might be hard, but if there were people living this way, perhaps I could too. Then, in the summer of my first year of working life, I was invited to take part in a Mademoiselle Cinema performance for the first time. It was Mado's 10th-anniversary performance. Mado dancers live wearing three hats: work + dance + staff duties. At first I was desperately trying to get used to the duties at my workplace, and felt the difficulty of balancing the two, but once I grew accustomed to it, that life became my everyday routine.
Fortunately, I have been blessed with the circumstances and physical strength to continue until now. Women's ways of living are affected by their stages of life, not just in dance but in any kind of work. Quite a few Mado dancers have also become unable to continue for such reasons. Others have left the company because they wanted a different setting or to dance in their own style. I feel these have been 30 years in which the lives of all the dancers who became involved through one connection or another crossed little by little, and together we kept the thread going and grew. As for me, I secretly kept going with the goal of continuing at least until the age of Erika Nowada (野和田恵里花), who died at 44.
I have passed that age, held on despite injuries here and there, and, before I knew it, this year is my zodiac year. Nothing lasts forever. Yet whenever a lesson or a performance brings a new discovery—including the joys and frustrations—I rouse myself to try a little longer. Mado is taking on new challenges in 2024 too. Please keep supporting Mademoiselle Cinema, now in its thirties.
Tamami Takenoshita
Excerpt from Voice of Session House 2023
