{"id":2803,"date":"2024-08-10T05:01:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T11:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2024-08-14T03:29:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T09:29:45","slug":"stage-turning-points-ayakaze-sakina-snow-troupe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/10\/stage-turning-points-ayakaze-sakina-snow-troupe\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage Turning Points: Ayakaze Sakina (Snow Troupe)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this feature from Kageki<\/em>, stars look back at their career and pick out roles that had an effect on their growth as a performer. This one was originally published in the June 2015 issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posting outside the usual scheduling in commemoration of Ayakaze’s first retirement ceremony tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Stage Turning Points: Ayakaze Sakina, Snow Troupe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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March-April 2007: Secret Hunter – Debut<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 2010: The Dawn at Solferino (Junior Performance) – Henri Dunant (First Junior Lead Role)<\/strong>
The role that became the foundation of my otokoyaku persona<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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I never dreamed I’d be performing a junior lead at only Ken-3, so I was totally blindsided. Mizu Natsuki-san, who played the main cast role, created the foundation of my current otokoyaku persona. Mizu is totally self-disciplined in everything. I learned so much just looking at her, and made too many new discoveries to list\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was unable to do more than imitate Mizu-san, but I feel like everything I asked her and learned back then has become the foundation of what I am now. After the performance, Mizu-san told me ‘that was good’, so I was happy, but she also pointed out that the shadow cast by the flag Dunant holds was in the wrong place. She didn’t just care about waving the flag, but even planned out where the shadow should land, so I realized I wasn’t at that level of attention to detail. This was when I first learned how fearsome being on stage could be, instead of just enjoying myself and thinking about how much I liked the arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 2011: Romeo et Juliette – Death<\/strong>
The role that made me feel the most discouragement<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I earned the role of Death in the auditions. I had no confidence in my dance or anything, so it was just a constant struggle from the moment rehearsals started. I was struggling with what kind of thing ‘Death’ was, or how I could move to show the emotions of a character who had no dialogue, things like that, so from head to toe my nerves were totally frazzled, and I was preoccupied with the stress of running up against how difficult it was to present Death’s character with my whole body\u2026 But this was also when I started thinking about the expressive techniques of dance. It was my ultimate struggle, but I’m glad I had that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 2011: Beyond the Blaze (Bow) – Odysseus (First Lead Role)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 2012: Don Carlos (Junior Performance) – Juan de Astorias<\/strong>
An important show that broadened my horizons<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned so much from Oozuki Tooma-san, who had the main cast role. One of the things that stuck with me is being told ‘it’s not whether the person in center stage does well that makes it a success, but if everyone in the whole junior cast does well’. By that point I’d been there for a while, but that made me realize how much I’d been desperately focused on my own performance\u2026 I understood that I also needed to pass on what I had learned from my seniors. Oozuki-san is such a warm person, so she’d teach me things even if I didn’t go to her and ask, so my thinking changed on encountering that generosity. I learned that in terms of acting, I need to perform to communicate to the audience, not just based on my own understanding, so this performance broadened my horizons a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October-November 2014: The Charterhouse of Parma (Bow Hall) – Fabrice del Dongo<\/strong>
A show and character I loved with all my heart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my first solo Bow lead, so at first I was full of uncertainty, but I was supported by so many people, especially Director Noguchi, Hiro-san (Itsuki Chihiro) from Senka, and everybody else in the cast, so every day of the performance was happy for me. It tells the story of a young man’s growth until the day he dies, so it was fun to act out the passage of time. I felt like singing was my weak point, so I made it my daily task to sing through all of the songs before the show started, and pushed myself on stage. I was so happy that the audience, cast members, and staff all loved the show, and it reminded me how happy it felt to perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January-February 2015: Lupin III – Jigen Daisuke<\/strong>
A role where I learned how to ‘produce’ myself<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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I really struggled with Jigen\u2014I started out thinking ‘I’m going to play this?’ At first I was too caught up with the picture of him I had so I couldn’t express his emotions, and as I watched the DVD1 <\/sup>over and over all I could do was imitate it\u2026 But Sagiri-san as Lupin III started to draw things out of me, and I started to be able to look at it from more different angles and think about how I could ‘produce’ myself in order to perform my own Jigen. I struggle with adlibs, so it felt so fun to be able to say some naturally in Jigen’s voice, and I was happy that the audience enjoyed it too. I also thought about how I wanted to keep discovering more aspects of myself, so I’m thankful to Jigen (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally\u2026<\/em>
I keep thinking ‘this is such a turning point!’ with every show. As my seniority increases and I learn new things everything feels different\u2026 I want to keep a flexible mind and keep my senses attuned. I want to be a performer who can discover all kinds of ‘selves’ through different roles and shows that come my way, but at the center always keeping that core of ‘Ayakaze Sakina’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1 – The wording she uses is unclear and there’s a lot of Lupin III, so no way of telling what she was watching from this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this feature from Kageki, stars look back at their career and pick out roles that had an effect on their growth as a performer. This one was originally published in the June 2015 issue. Posting outside the usual scheduling in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[13,360,67,42,87,208],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}