“Expanding Possibilities Through Breakdance: A Special Dance Space for Children with Disabilities and Their Families” Thoughts of Takahashi, Representative Director of Japan Adapted Breakin Association
Through its social contribution activities, Chugai Pharmaceutical aims to realize an inclusive society in which everyone can play an active role with vigor. We would like to share the thoughts of Shunji Takahashi, Chairman of the Japan Adapted Breakin Association (JABA), which conducts activities to nurture “a uniqueness that nobody can imitate” that makes the most of the physical characteristics of people with disabilities, based on the conviction that “dance can make people happy.”
Profile of Shunji Takahashi
Shunji Takahashi (Dancer name: SHUNJI)
Professional dancer and dance producer who has traveled to 17 countries around the world to conduct a wide range of activities designed to draw out the possibilities of dance. While a member of the breakdancing crew, MORTAL COMBAT, he also took on the world as a solo performer, taking advantage of his world-class threading style. He has won over 100 dance contests, including world championships, and has performed more than 80 times in 17 cities across five countries. He established the Japan Adapted Breakin Association in 2019. As Chairman, he is carrying on activities to connect people with disabilities to dance.
The door opened into a room filled with smiles and bodies bouncing to the rhythm of the music...
At a complex in Sakai, Osaka, a dance class was in progress. This dance class is for children with all kinds of disabilities, including physical, intellectual, mental, visual, and hearing, run by Japan Adapted Breakin Association (JABA) with the aim of connecting people with disabilities to dance. It teaches breaking (breakdance) that emphasizes the dancers’ originality, with no restrictions.
There are multiple instructors, and the children are divided into groups, one group per instructor, for the lessons. Each group is taught a different dance, and the children can choose their favorite lesson.
Dynamic dance, that involves putting hands and feet on the floor. Finger dance, an elegant expression in which only the top half of the body moves.
And most surprising of all, there is even a group for the children’s parents and carers. These adults are dancing to popular J-POP tracks with smiles that are just as wide and bright as the children’s.
It was easy to see that the children, their parents and carers, and even the instructors, were enjoying this space from the bottom of their hearts.
We talked to Shunji Takahashi, Chairman of JABA, who is also one of the instructors.
---- Could you tell us about yourself and about how you came to establish JABA?
The establishment of JABA came about from my time as the representative of YOZIGENZ, which is an organization that discovers rare dancers (dancers that perform in minor genres or who have unique skills). In that role, I encountered dancers with disabilities who had unique, interesting styles. One day, I was asked by someone who worked in the welfare area if I would teach a dance class to children with disabilities. I thought it sounded interesting, so I set up JABA and started holding dance classes with the philosophy of “dance can make people happy.”
---- Why do you think a dance class for people with disabilities is needed?
It is because often, regular dance schools will not accept children with disabilities. I think it is a real shame that such children’s desire to dance should be crushed because of that. That is why this class is needed.
However, I don’t think that this is all that is needed, so I am in the process of creating certifications for dance instructors to teach people with disabilities and accessibility certifications for dance studios.
When more dance schools offer classes for people with disabilities, it will open up more options. I also like the convenience of being able to check the accessibility level of dance studies online.
I want to see a future in which dance schools and dance studios widely accept dancers with disabilities.
---- The children and their parents really seemed to be enjoying themselves in the class. Have you ever felt that the children and their parents have changed since starting to come to the class?
Parents who initially just watch over their children during the lesson gradually start to entrust their children to the instructors and enjoy dancing themselves. When I see the smiles on their faces as they dance, I feel a great sense of reward in what we are doing. Parents of disabled children are frequently unable to take their eyes off their children. This is tiring both for the parents and the kids. I love that the parents and the children can exist independently from each other, even if it is only while they are dancing.
---- That’s wonderful. One parent said that, since starting to learn dance, their child has become more punctual in everyday life as well. What kind of changes have you noticed in the children yourself?
Not so much change as growth. I see it when children who started learning dance in our classes become able to take lessons at regular dance schools. We have had many such children.
For other children, our classes are enough. There are also children who do both ... attending regular dance school to learn the more technical aspects, while still coming to our classes to enjoy the community. For my part, I am happy for the children to use the existence of our class any way that they want.
---- Could you tell us about your future plans for the organization and for you personally?
I don’t really have any. I have always done what people around me have asked for, and I will keep doing that. That was the case with the establishment of JABA. I founded it as the framework to meet requests for a dance class for people with disabilities.
It is my own personal creed that, if I am doing something now that I would not have even imagined doing last year, then I have succeeded. So, if I am doing something next year that the me of right now has not even thought of yet, then I will be successful. It means that I will have taken a great leap forward.
---- Is there something that you would like to convey to society?
I would like people who are in a position of being able to give others choices to keep offering those choices. And I also want people in the general position of being given options not to arbitrarily limit their options based on assumptions.
I mentioned earlier the example of regular dance schools not accepting children with disabilities. If those children decide as a result that they can’t learn dance, then the potential for them to dance in their lives after that will be extremely limited. That would be such a waste. But if they keep looking without narrowing the possibilities, they will be sure to find a place that will accept them, just like our dance classes. This is not limited to dance; the same can be said about anything that happens in life.
I want the children to realize their own potential more and the parents to notice their children’s potential more as well. If everyone makes these realizations, even just one at a time, I believe that it will make society better.
I want people to embrace challenges more, without assuming that they aren’t capable.
And I want to see a society in which it is easier to embrace those challenges.
