Legs in shape because of the marinera

How to succeed despite the difficulties

 Mario Kanashiro has got an excellent justification to celebrate. He just upgraded as a Master Trainer for the entire Japan in shaka-dance, dance classes combinating hip-hop, African, music hall  with acardio-vascular workout plan. In this new position, he’s in charge of granting the licenses for trainers who teach it.

“Here In Japan, there is more work life than personal life or to relax,” this Peruvian born in Lima City, on November 12^th, 1990, comments. He had to migrate with his family when he was just 5 years old. Today, he’s an athlete full of charisma and love, but almost a decade ago, he was totally opposite – sedentary, apathetic, selfish. What happened to his life that brought him out from darkness to light?

Until he was 21 years old, he worked in NTT, one of the largest Japan’s phone companies, translating from Japanese to Spanish and viceversa. “I didn’t, had no intrest on any sport neither; in fact, I had no physique.”

Since he was 20 years old, he began to feel the whole right side of his body lulled: “I felt pain from the neck to the right hand, and I was losing power and sensitivity in my right leg and foot.” He attended two hospitals for an exam, but the surveys didn’t find problems in his muscles and bones, as the first suspicious was. In fact, he has them well formed.

There’s ever a before and an after

The surveys showed a rare anomaly in his neck’s veins just around his second vertebra: they were very narrow, complicating the blood flow, so they didn’t favor a good oxygenation of the body. The surgery was the only way to correct it. However, this procedure was not enough for him to recuperate the mobility of his ends. That’s why he had to go to physical rehabilitation, and the sport was the solution: “I started to build muscle in arms and the hand for having strength when I catch by using low weight; I also did stretches”

During the process, he took a zumba class, he realized he could dance –very well—and he liked it a lot: “I didn’t know to dance, it didn’t provocate me, it didn’t call my attention neither, despite I played the electric guitar between 16 and 20 years old… I performed rock and metal, I even play it good today – I’ve not lost the technique.” He followed to develop as a trainee until he prepared to be a trainer, and the rest is history.

“As for playing guitar you must listen to the drums and the bass, your ear achieves sensitivity for bass ranges, and it’s the same guide I use for creating choreographies,” he explains. “I’m going to be 7 years this year, holding dance classes and training that – I continue to do stretches, I do functionaltraining, and I play video-games in my free times to relax.” Inclusive, Mario sometimes trained weights.

The benefits to his organism have been dramatic: “Before, I ran 1800 feet or 3300 feet and I got tired, I run 4 or 6 miles today and I don’t get tired – I developed a good physique,” He smiles.

Growing takes much time

When Mario gave his first class, nobody attended. The next one, two persons attended. Then, five, seven, until he got his first 20-people group. Today, his groups are until… 40 people! Although it depends on the gymnasium he goes to, but his minimum doesn’t fall down 20 people. Even he lives in Nagoya, his work brings him through several gyms across the island, and getting a way was not simple to him due to the Japanese public prefers to support the Japanese trainers. The effort costed him six years.

“When I began, there were teachers who suggested not to attend my classes because I was a rookie, or the people could injury or I knew nothing of fitness,” he remembers. “Today, I’m the teacher of those teachers, and many get wide open mouth when they see the change, because I became better than them.”

“everyday, I can give classes to 80 to 100 people about,” he tells.  “70% of my pupils are women, so in a class, there are 3 men for every 10. When it’s morning or afternoon, the most are 30 to 60, 70 years old, but I have younger people at night, between 20 and 40 years old.”

Mario describes his pupils like in constant learning mode, like they’re attending to the school, and there’s something new to know everyday. “When I give three continued clases, I have the same pupils. For example, the first class is cultural dance, the second is fitness dance, and the third is hip-hop.” The cultural dances are those ones not available at the disco or in its original country, “and we put them difficult steps, so they can take until two months to learn an only choreography.”

And if he highlighted at dance classrooms, his mixed look has noticed too. One day after attending an event, somebody proposed him to be a model.  The only experience he had up to then was to be the cover boy of his high-school in promotional flyers and posters as well when he was a teenager.

“I signed up a talents school three years ago and I started to have many courses becoming to model HiBowl’s clothes. I was modeling until two years ago, but my career as a trainer became more exigent, so I do it very rarely.”

His casting was exigent too. His face or his body weren’t enough. As they learned he knows to dance, they included that test. But maybe the difficult part was an interview before five judges who examined absolutely everything: his best insights, his skills, even how he mannered. From 1000 people, only 80 passed.

“I’d like following to model clothes, but as I do sports, I’d like to model sportswear or dancewear, as much as I’m becoming known across Japan. If the chance to feature it appears, it would be great.”

 Bad times serve to improve

Mario sustains his better achievement until now has been learning to dance. Critics he had in the beginning pushed him to learn more, to get out his town and having classes, to perfectionate his style, to give his best to his pupils: “I take the critic to improve my work,” he affirms. “If the pupil says you something not to like, it’s not to bother but for you to improve.” He adds if when his work began he was very criticized, it was because he interested to many people.

“We live because of the clients – if there are no clients, there is no class, so you ever have to know how to listen to them,” he states. “There’s still people who prefers a Japanese teaching Latin music instead of a Latin teaching Latin music. I did mind it very much, but I learned now that if the people want to learn Latin music with a Latin guy, and they want to have my class, so have it. If not, they miss it.”

His veins narrowness faced Mario to his lifetime plan, and the answer was to encourage, although that was not easy in the beginning: “The doctor said me raw straight on my bare face that if I did not do the treatment, I was becoming worst. Then initially, more by the pushing of the doctor instead of myself, I went to the gym.”

Despite he overcame his condition so successfully, some sequels are remaining – his right hand is weaker than his left hand (so he prefers to carry stuff with the second one). Sometimes, he feel  an inner itch in the right arm followed by a redness, what can happen when he drives his car or when he’s holding a class. Fortunately, he attends his controls every two years (initially, they were monthly and they were elapsing progressively), and he continues to meet the doctor who encouraged him to take the control of himself – Sensei Izumi.

 You grow when you validate and share what you learn

“My another achievement is my trainee has become a trainer, that has taken the same motivation and the same opportunities,” he comments proudly. “Four of my pupils are trainers now.” He specialized in shaka-dance, got his license, and became to give classes with that same discipline’s creator Samira Talha, across Japan in July 2019. And Talha herself was who chose him to go with her: “ I felt happy and nervous as well, because I never thought  I was to work so.”

While we were producing this story, Mario was upgraded to Master Trainer. “I couldn’t believe it, but I understood that everything turns around, that it was because of the time I hhad dedicated to my work,” he says us in exclusive. “When I see in retrospective, I realise that everything happened to arrive to this very moment, and I follow to learn. Samira says us that we must follow to study and go up, despite the position we get.”

“Up to before my illness, I used to be very selfish and negative. I got angry to the people who loved me. When I got sick, I knew what my family and my friends –two— were, who never missed me to visit, despite I knew a lot of people. That was when I realized who loved me and who didn’t, and I started to value more my family and true friends, I started to change because I felt I might give back all that love.”

Business are business… until certain point

“When I began to work, I had no explanation about why the people paid 500 yens, equivalent to 5 dollars, to have a class, when I was not sure if I was doing it well, until a female pupil said me that she came to my class because she felt she was learning. Then, I realised I was rounding myself with people motivated to learn, who saw me to make a new step, and asked me how to make it,” he meditates. “I understood  that for the people, it’s important what I can teach them.”

“That made me to opened my heart, and I turned back to believe in the people, because I left to believe in the people,” he adds. “And that made I valued myself much more, because inclusive I came to think I wasn’t important.” His pupils affirm Mario has a very special energy, that allows him to empathize and feel comfortable with any person, even who envy him, and even them who have come to enter his classes for getting him out of the way, unsuccessfully.

“That’s why we never have to give up, ever have to follow learning,” he says. “There are people who can do some things and can’t do other ones, but to get them, you have to practice them. That learning and that love I put it on is what the people like.” Mario also encourages his pupils to develop their own style instead of copying his, and to practice it hard until getting it. “And they play their part.”

“Another issue is this is a business for real, and there are teachers who study to make money, but you have to identify in your work what thing is actually money and what thing you have to study to have a profession. I can have one only person in my class, as well as having 40. Of course, if one attends, I can dedicate 100%, and if more arrive, I have to deliver it, but ever focused on giving my best.”

In fact, Mario shares his art on his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts. So if your want to learn more about him and he does, contact him, no matters wherever you are.

A medicine called rythm

Why shouldn’t just a dance morning be… just a dance morning?

By ChulucanasGym. Photos Courtesy Fuerza de la Juventud.

Last July 10th, a Group of boys and girls called Fuerza de la Juventud (Youth Power) summoned Piura City’s population to spend dancing in the  morning .

Their objective was to get the people involved into a healthy activity but they didn’t go deep more reasons. However, they got 50 men and women joined the idea. They also got Bodytech accepts to monitor it.

That’s the possitive, but we believe that Fuerza de la Juventud responsed much by spontaneity for ‘doing something’, according to one of its spokesman talked to us, before articulating a possibly beneficial project for a population with high levels of heart disease, diabetes, overweight, depression and anxiety.

In fact, since they joined, they follow isolated initiatives muchly fed by entusiasm –what it’s not bad- instead of strategic planning.

But, as they are a group just stepping on, they can adjust , correct and take ideas, specializing in some in particular. And dance is one of the best  they could have and they should continue in an articulated, plannedd way, with sequential goals… as dance and the whole physical activity are by definition.

Teaches, avoids, heals

Physically, diverse works take care to separate pedagogical, preventive and therapeutic aspects of dance.

Although the human being usually can move by reflexes, dance allows to organize them for make them a rhythm. This means to coordinate the ear and the muscles, eventually the eye too. When we program our reflexes to make rhythm, we develop auditive and space memory and muscles become more flexible for responsing better the next time they are stimulated to move in one or many determined directions.

Preventively, dance implies to sweat, that releases toxines. But few people realize the movement rregulates blood circulation and impacts possitively on all fluids of our body. In consequence, it reduces or controls heart conditions, improves breathing, corrects position, avoids or reduces hurts in muscles and articulations, regenerates the skin much fastly, and slows down the aging.

So, ever you have medical supervision, once those diseases have appeared, dance has shown to be a favorable therapy for recovering processes even the degenerative ones, as Parkinson’s disease.

“It helps to improve breathing because of exercises done before and during the dance, like breathing and body warm-up as arms, abs or legs, and some energy focusing exercises, something similar to meditation,” Picsi, Peru-based coach German Aguirre stresses.

An integrative activity

If physical benefits are significant, mental benefits are the equal. Since dancing is a learning process, each achieve you get contributes with much confidence, and that strengthen your self-steem. Regarding, this also implies to know better your body and its responses, what impacts on loving you more, appreciating you more.

Starting up here, when you focus your brain on dancing well, you bring it upgrade, keeping you far from any mental condition, depression especially, it doesn’t matter a diagnosis neither risky factors leading you to it. The same for anxiety.

And when dancing comes from an individual experience to a collective one, as Fuerza de la Juventud set up, and under an adequate monitoring, it improves your social skills and stimulates values as solidarity, fellowship and respect.

“Group dance has too many benefits because the persons, when joining, first have to meet for work well together so, then it helps they know much different things along the time: combined steps, lifts, maneuvers,, coach German Aguirre points on.

That’s why we consider a dancing morning can’t keep just in a spontaneous and isolated activity, but it must response to a frequent program to improve the life and health of each person, and what rebuilds us like a healthy community in body, mind and soul. The challenge is able for the vote.

Post-produced by Sheyla Benavente.

Read also:

• The dance of life
• Yoga – A Different Philosophy

The dance of life

By Martin Saavedra

At Xpressions Dance Studio, in Sullana City, we saw the dance sequence  what our students embrace their inner through the groove, communicating their emotions and fears on the mirror, transformingh the moment into a living experience shared in group. Photo by Martin Saavedra.

Nowadays, children and youth bring a busy life that is reflex of adults’ life, and the amazing thing is we guess as unavoidable  what a child has the same labor hours than an adult. There is a very important stress degree on them.

Often it is said they are children or youth with hyperactivity or attention lack, but we also could say they are persons with stress – someones become to make anxiety or agressiveness attacks because the rhythm they carry on.

The biodance is especially recommended for them because, throughout the music, the groove and the group, specific living experiences generate those influence possitively on their physical, emotional and mental groth due to its structure is according to a scientific model.

We find out it develops our human potential in five big living lines: stamina, sexuality, creativity, affectiveness, trascendence. Those five lines cover our whole life and their expression and development point out our health and integration degree.

A space is created in biodance for the person to receive the chances to practice and develop in a steady way, favoring to unfold personal confidence and a bigger self-estime. It also results for them into a very much easy relationship with the others from solidarity and resppect because it is organized according to a theoretical moderl and structured be an excercises group  which moves , music and meeting chances generateopportunities for evolution, contributing conditions to each person for finding healthier ways to live, those incorporate health, pleasure, happiness, creativity in all its expressions, affectiveness, self-estime, contact and communication.

Biodance itself is not just about dancing but activating through certain dances  the affective and communication  potentials those connect the human being itself , to the others and to the environment.

It is not about a simple axiological reformulation but a true cultural transference. It is a learning that allows an essential modification for the human being, and it also looks for the persons to access to a new lifestyles.

Read also: Turn it on green

Post-producido por Sheyla Benavente.