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(Photo Credits: Kizuna Staff)

Hello! My name is Laura and I live in Winnipeg, Canada.

I started Yosakoi roughly 3 years ago and had the opportunity to participate in the 2018 Kochi Yosakoi festival with the Sakuramai Poland International Team. Dancing in the Kochi Yosakoi festival that year was the hardest thing I have ever done, both physically and emotionally. Yet the thrill of dancing in front of so many smiling people and feeding off of the energy of the International team called me back, and I found myself signing up to be a part of the Kizuna International Team in 2019. I’m so happy I did.

Some of my awesome Kizuna teammates (Photo Credits: Kizuna Staff)

Being a part of the 2019 Kizuna International Team introduced me to so many wonderful people from all around the world. Before the Kochi festival, we trained together at a local sports camp in Ino Town. Dancing, laughing, sleeping, and eating with everyone for those 3 days in training camp added such an amazing level of friendship to the team. It was also extremely fun meeting the people of Ino Town and doing a language exchange with the local elementary students.

Decorating paper fans with elementary students from Ino Town (Photo Credits: Kizuna Staff)

When the festival started, I was once again testing my limits physically and emotionally. Dancing for 3 straight days in the high Japanese heat is no small feat. Yet everyone on the team was full of smiles and pushing to do our best throughout all of our performances. In the end we danced our routine over 42 times at many different venues around Kochi City.

Still smiling on the last day of the festival @ Kochi Castle Stage (Photo Credits: Kizuna Staff)

And even though I ended up with many blisters on my feet, I was so happy to be there again, in the beautiful city of Kochi, celebrating this amazing Yosakoi dance style, surrounded by such wonderful people.

I honestly can’t wait to do it all again in 2020!

- Laura