maki

• 
• maki Online Now!
• Kansai, Japan

Profile

Thank you very much for visiting my profile! We have started the BJ52 quater on March 20...wow! Amazing!
It's been one month now, and 52 seems very very different from other releases... Challenging, demanding and fun choreos! Thank you Mr. G, you are genious!!

The best description of me may be a 90's party animal graduate, who has got a little decent job and lost a chance to enjoy those stupid parties. I find BJ is fabulous and is a bottle of clear water found in the desert, soaking into my body and soul!

My avatar is a pic of my first dancing experience with Japanese traditional dancing when I was 3-10yrs old, and the picture is of my final stage. Although it looks all the same when we are in those costumes, it has several different styles (we call them "currents"). Our style is same as those seen in KABUKI theaters. My most recent dancing experience was at a Cuban Salsa dance studio for a couple of years.

You know what? KABUKI-style dancing is as dancy as any other dance styles in the whole world and is particularly similar to the Latins!

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I joined to the BJ forum in late Augst 2009, which was the time that BJ instructors at our gym were dumb and dumber who irritated me with unnecessary modifications and arrangements, removing the sexy and cardio sides of the program. I seeked for information outside Japan. Thanks to the help, which made me easier to have talks with an instructor and managers, one of our instructors is now doing amazing job, and many of our participants particularly enjoy his classes (although one of them still doesn't get the essence of BJ).

It may be the time to explain what my messages, "I have to doubt the quality of Japanese BJ instructors, as I find them consumers of the quality programs rather than deliverers" and "I want JP instructors work really hard to get people outside gyms to BJ, so that we can keep on doing BJ with incredible quality choreos and music selections".

Before answering, I first have to give a basic information on JP employment system. In JP, you may not believe this, but a company does not have a right to fire its employees once they enter into employment contracts. This implies that an employee can keep on working without brushing up their skills under certain conditions they create. (The problem that TOYOTA is facing now may have the same root. If the licensee in JP does not want to trace them, it may be the time that they should steer the wheel now.)


SO? What are the certain conditions they create?

Well... I will write about this later... My concern is whether or not I am (we are) able to keep on doing BJ under the current economic climate...
Just let me keep the rest of my old message below, with some addtions regarding BJ50 and 51 situations, for now.


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I'm saying such a thing because, as a participant, I want a variation to choose, not the one that most current gym members want or a duplication of existing programs. BJ has the gravity to pull the huge population of party-animal graduates in Japan!! I wonder why our gyms are reducing their members!! You have got BJ, so why don't you open the doors to breathe some fresh air and get tons of new members!

Our COMBAT, STEP and ATTACK used to be very good attracting a variety of people, and me too, loved them very much. However, they have been changed due to lazy populism employee instructors, who do not mind alter the essence in accordance with requests by old members even if it is a breach of contract.

BJ, too, has been simplified to fit to the old regular gym members who do not want to learn. Some complicated steps are always reduced to basics without caring the actual beat. It is like a kindergarten play room.

When BJ50 was on, Mambo Everywhare was not done authentically, and an instructor always took a lead to just walking around the room for her kindergarten pupils. Our BJ50 ended when bored pupils requested her to do different ones on the 4th week. If done as designed, 50 has the unbeatable quality. I don't think that it is easy to design a program as good as 50.
In BJ51, too, the same reduction has been occuring. Some of difficult-timing body-moves are given up, and pupils are not led to do the choreo, which is just a chaos!

Most JP instructors of our LM licensee take their priority on keeping their own positions in the gym, the small world. As a result, even though LM programs are presented with a variation and quality, instructors destroy them.

I don't want this situation any more. This time, the JP populism should be used to maintain the variety and quality of the program. I am QUITE SURE that a large number of potential Jam Lovers have not encountered BJ in JP. Once we get them, there will not be a problem keeping BJ in our timetable, as their population is even larger than the total of the current gym memebers throughout JP.

If you have a chance to come to JP, show what you can do and inspire the JP instructors, please! Instructors outside JP may think that my information is an exaggeration, and even feel sympathy to JP instructors.

However, the costs to do BJ are covered by the club they are "employed" in a country where the company does not have a right to fire, so they do not share the hardest part of doing BJ with you. This is a huge difference. Any fresh food can go bad in a warm bath.

Please help me to wake them up!