THE JAPAN NEWS

 

 “Get out of your comfort zone!” said Chika Takai, a smile lighting up her face as she encouraged Japanese dancers hoping to become NBA and NFL cheerleaders at a workshop held last month in Meguro Ward, Tokyo.

The session was organized by Takai, captain of the NBA Atlanta Hawks’ cheerleading squad. Entering her fourth season with the team, she feels more strongly than ever the need to pass on to Japan the skills she has gained from her career in the United States.

Takai demonstrated her fitness abilities to the class while explaining the mechanics of muscle movement. She also talked about how to keep motivated and be chosen at tryouts based on her experience with the NBA team. Her bright, humorous comments often drew bursts of laughter from the participants, who were glued to every move she made.

“I want to share what I can do for Japanese dancers and cheerleaders,” Takai said in Japanese in a recent interview in Tokyo. “I’m planning to expand this workshop tour in Japan in the future.”

This summer, about 370 dancers took part in 17 classes held in Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama and Niigata prefectures.

Originally from Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Takai, 28, joined the 30-member Atlanta Hawks dance squad in 2015 after being chosen amid fiercely competitive tryouts on her first go. In addition to a dance routine, the screening process included an interview to judge candidates’ communication skills and a written test on their knowledge about the team. Hundreds of women auditioned, seeking a limited number of spots.

So what enabled her to clinch a place on the team? Takai answered after a pause: “My passion. I’m such a passionate person. I pour so much energy and passion into everything.”

 

At the tryout, she helped her struggling rivals learn the routine, an act that totally baffled her American husband. “This is a competition. No one does that,” he shouted. “If they make it and you don’t, how does that work?”
Takai, however, is firm in her convictions. “If I don’t help others simply to protect my position [and win the audition], it only shows a lack of confidence. That’s what a weak person would do. I don’t want to be like that,” she said.

This attitude and work ethic are what earned her a coveted spot on the dance squad. And her success didn’t end there — she would go on to become Rookie of the Year and was the Veteran of the Year in her second season.

As so-called “ambassadors who connect the team, fans and the community,” the NBA dancers visit hospitals and attend local events, taking their enthusiasm beyond the basketball arena. They aim to “create a special moment for the people who are there with us,” Takai said.

Atlanta Hawks games start in October and run at least through April, and longer if they make the playoffs. The team’s cheerleaders perform different routines at each game and are often required to learn various sets of new choreography in a limited time.

Behind their lively performances lies a strenuous training regimen that can be “quite stressful,” Takai said. However, her bubbly, energetic character helps lighten the mood during tough practices. Her peers on the dance squad have even begun using some Japanese words — for instance, they respond to her instructions with “hai,” meaning “yes” in Japanese.
Staring at the ceiling in bed

Takai’s first encounter with dance came by chance when she couldn’t get into a popular swimming school as a first-grader and instead decided to follow a friend to a modern ballet class in her neighborhood.

 

Takai admitted she didn’t always enjoy dancing in her younger years, but her attitude changed after entering high school when she took up “Americanized dance” — including street, hip-hop and jazz styles — and started performing in shows.

“Apart from attending classes at school, I was totally immersed in dancing. Dance became every part of my life. I wanted to live as a dancer, and it was so obvious that I didn’t even have to tell my parents,” she recalled.

Working as an instructor and performer after graduating high school, she began thinking about going to the United States to take lessons from a dancer based in Atlanta whom she admired. However, not wanting to be separated from her parents or leave her cozy hometown in Saitama Prefecture — “I was a complete coward,” she said — she decided to visit for just three months.

Then, just a few weeks before embarking on her long-awaited journey, she suffered a cruel twist of fate: She was diagnosed with a type of purpura — an intractable disease that prevented her from dancing for almost a year because she was told staying still was the best treatment.
“I was so devastated because I was ready to depart at long last,” Takai recalled of the time in 2013.

Virtually bedridden, she spent her days and nights staring at the ceiling of her room, trying to figure out how such a thing had happened to someone in the peak of health.

According to Takai, many performers in what she called the “unkind” Japanese dance industry would work long hours at late-night rehearsals and events for little money. The strain of the industry had affected her eating and sleeping habits before she became sick.

“The harder I tried as a dancer, the more my health suffered. I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’” she said of the overwhelming frustration she experienced while battling the disease. She thought: “I got sick, but I still want to live as a dancer. So I’ll either have to continue this same lifestyle, or do something to change the industry here.”

The unexpected and unwanted break from dance gave Takai time to carefully consider her next move. Instead of a short-term trip, she decided to move to Atlanta in 2014 to learn firsthand about the more well-established dance industry in the United States. She knew she would need to gain experience and build her career before people would take what she said seriously.

“Returning to Japan with only a tiny bit of American flavor wouldn’t bring about a major change,” she said.

Dance as a tool to help people

In her fourth year in Atlanta, Takai is busy majoring in physical therapy at college, hoping to expand the potential of dance to the field of rehabilitation — an idea that struck her at the time of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

“At the end of the day, entertainment isn’t something that’s terribly indispensable to life,” she said of how she felt after the calamity. She began to want to use dance “as a tool to assist people’s lives,” stressing the therapeutic effectiveness dance can generate physically and psychologically.

Takai admitted there are plenty of people who excel in individual categories such as dance, cheerleading and physical fitness. She said the key is figuring out how to combine individual strengths and skills to create an original talent that transcends categories.

“Being versatile is vital. I wasn’t a cheerleader from the beginning. In my quest to find my potential, I try to discover new fields where I can expand myself,” she said.

To develop her skills, she began entering fitness competitions in the United States, winning titles in several divisions. Takai also plans to devote herself to promoting Danceletics International, an original program that combines fitness training with dance and cheerleading.

Starting this autumn, Takai will begin another season as captain of the Atlanta Hawks’ cheerleaders. However, she said it could be her final season, adding, “I’ve done all I can do in my career as a cheerleader.”
She’s always looking ahead, envisioning what she can do next year and the year after.

“You should never lock yourself into your own world and assume that is where you have to live,” Takai said. “Uncover what’s preventing you from getting out of where you are and expanding your sphere. That will be the trigger.”

She knows one thing for sure: “Without dance, I wouldn’t be here. I am not a coward when dancing.”