Hiroichi Tatekata's Danceable LIFE Vol. 7

My encounter with musicals
Hirokazu Tatekata (Actor, Dancer, Choreographer)

I like musicals.
Thinking about when my interest in musicals began, I remembered seeing a musical on stage when I was a child. I don't remember the story, but afterwards, I apparently played "musical pretend" with my friends, so it must have been really fun. Later, in high school, I even put on a "musical-like" performance at the school festival.
I started dancing seriously when I joined the "Musical Research Club" after entering university. A senior I met there told me, "You should take up dancing," and that's how I ended up joining the Nagura Jazz Dance Studio. Perhaps my height worked in my favor, as I started getting dance jobs while I was still a student, and I feel like I spent the latter half of my university life completely immersed in dancing.

Back then, Japanese musicals had a kind of "division of labor" between dance and singing, so if you could dance, you could perform on stage as an ensemble dancer. Nowadays, musicals are centered around singing, so I feel it's become difficult to perform on stage if you can't sing well.

Incidentally, I continued my activities in the musical theater club while I was a student, so I was extremely busy with my work as a dancer, university classes, and club activities. There are times when I have gaps in my memory because I was so busy. However, the people I met and the experiences I had during my four years at university were very significant and have certainly formed the foundation of who I am today.

I believe there's a certain kind of "magic" in musicals. It might be a common saying, but things that might seem a little unnatural in a straight play can be effortlessly transported to another dimension when expressed through song or dance. I think there's a freedom and excitement in being able to skip detailed explanations and soar to a different world together with the music.
Musical songs and dances possess a mysterious "power" that straight plays lack. Show dances also involve singing and dancing, but I feel they're a little different. I like straight plays too, but I find the world where song and dance coexist to be wonderfully appealing.
The first full-fledged musicals I saw when I was young were Shiki Theatre Company's "A Chorus Line" and "Cats."
Importing a Broadway production, building a dedicated theater, and staging the show over a long period of several years was unprecedented at the time.
I had just started dancing seriously at the time, so I never imagined I would become a professional dancer, but the Shiki Theatre Company's long-running productions changed that for the better. In an era when it was still very difficult to make a living solely from dancing, the long-running system, which allowed dancers to perform on stage for extended periods in a single production, was a groundbreaking system that had never existed in Japan before. As a result, on the days when Shiki held auditions, many talented senior dancers would flock to audition, to the point that the studios would become deserted. Of course, I was still a beginner back then, so I was completely out of my league (laughs).

One of the most memorable stage performances I've been on as part of an ensemble is "Guys and Dolls" (1993, Nissay Theatre). It's known as a Takarazuka Revue production, but the version I appeared in was a Toho production, starring Toshihiko Tahara. I was cast because Mr. Nagura was in charge of the choreography, and the other ensemble members were all dance friends. Mr. Tahara took us out to eat and threw parties at his home; it was just so much fun.

However, since I was just one of the ensemble members, I had no lines and wasn't given a microphone. The more I performed on stage, the more I longed for lines and the opportunity to sing.

Looking back, I realize how fortunate I am to have been given a named role and to be able to sing my own songs.