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AT: So kind of going off the whole dance topic, I saw that you also practiced the kagura, the traditional dance form, or Japanese dance form. And so I was kind of wondering what got you, or what inspired you to do that? How'd you get the idea to do that? And maybe what you took away from that whole process of learning it?

GG: Yeah, so that's... the woman who I mentioned, Kazuko Yamazaki, who's, I guess in traditional Japanese dance, they have names. So she also goes by Kaya, that's like her professional dancer name. But yeah, so I've been working with Kazuko Kaya, we have this year-long grant. Technically, the grant is for the study of kagura, but she, she was basically just like, "I'm gonna teach you all sorts of things, not just kagura," but we are learning that as well which, just in terms of what that looks like, it's very like, it's like a... yeah, it's like a ritual. It's a ritualized dance. It's a dance that's often done in, like at a Shinto -- I guess they do it in Buddhist temples too, but it's definitely something that you would see at like a Shinto shrine in Japan. And what we've been practicing is like, we have these little... [Interruption] We, yeah, so it's, there's ritual kind of bells. And there's like a... yeah, bells and a ribbon and kind of a hakama, which is different from a kimono. And you would perform that at a Shinto shrine. And it's very, but it's very kind of like, it's pretty simple. It's pretty... the dance itself is pretty simple. It's very sort of like meditative. And in the Seattle area, I think it's in Granite Falls, there's the only Shinto shrine in North America, I don't know if either of you are familiar with that place. I think it's called the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of North America or something like that. But Kazuko has a relationship with that temple and she's been doing kind of the... I think they call it like mikomai, that's what kagura is. The, yeah, "mai" is dance and "miko" is like, I think the shrine. So she's been like the -- she's been "mikomai-ing" there for a while and has a relationship with that priest, who I guess is actually a white guy. He's like the only non-Japanese Shinto priest in the world or something, or one of very few, but his wife is Japanese and together they've started this, like, Shinto community in Granite Falls. I haven't been there yet, but part of our grant is that I will be volunteering with her to do these mikomai dances, and it's really interesting. I grew up with Obon and stuff like that, but my introduction to Shintoism really only came when I visited Japan for the first time. I didn't grow up with a lot of those, with those traditions, probably because like, yeah, there's not really like Shinto shrines here. And even though probably a lot of what we do as Japanese Americans, maybe there is Shintoism, Shinto elements in it, it's not, I don't know, maybe this is completely my perception, but I feel like we get more of like the Buddhist elements like with the Obon, Bon Odori, and stuff like that. And there's lots of Buddhist temples in the Seattle area.

So anyway, it's been, yeah, working with Kazuko on that has been really interesting. She, she has her PhD in the anthropology of dance, and she's a classical Japanese dancer. And just learning more about how dance is a part of Shintoism has been really interesting. Because she's also an anthropologist, I feel like I learn just a little bit about the history of Japan in some way. And it's really interesting to me showing up to do this dance and this work particularly as a mixed person and as a Filipina woman as well. Because she's talked a lot about how Shintoism has this history in Japanese mythology and the early history of our people, but what's really struck me is how it was really used to justify the atrocities of Imperial Japan. And we're talking about how the word kami -- and that's a big word with Shintoism -- often when it's translated, people think, oh, it's like God, like a theistic God, whereas, in Japan, it's like, right, there's like the kami in everything. But then Kazuko was talking about like, the kamikaze. And like the young men who really thought that they were doing like the bidding of the deities and of the emperor and how that Shinto mythology was really a part of carrying out the atrocities that impacted my Filipino family members, for example. And just, yeah, and that she... Kazuko was also saying that when the emperor got on the radio and said that the war was lost, how people were so shocked that the emperor had a human voice, and that they really thought that he was divine, a deity. And so, so it's been really interesting to like... Kazuko and I are both Buddhists, and I think when we approach this Shinto dancing, we -- Kazuko talks about this is a time to contemplate your place in the universe. And, I think also, we just use the dance as like a mindfulness practice, but I really carry that complexity, too, that, like, this dance...

AT: Oh, I think you muted yourself. Oh, okay.

GG: So I think this dance is also connected to Shintoism, which has like, a complex, a complexity with all that, with that history of the imperialism. And it's been really rewarding to get to go deeper in that way.

AT: Yeah. That's really, that's really awesome. And so let's see, where was my... I know that dance is obviously very central in your life, and I was wondering if you connect that to activism in general or I guess just how you consider dance within your life as part, whether it's something used to express yourself or as something to kind of, yeah, as a form of activism or if you -- just what it means to you and how you've kind of grown up with that.

GG: Yeah, I don't think that my dance started out as activism, but I would say that it is now. Sometimes I call myself an "activist artist." And I think that one thing I've seen both through my own art making and through like the, just working in the arts as an administrator, too, I see how art really has the power to connect to people I think in a way that sometimes history or other forms of activism can fall short. And it's not always fun being that person who has to bring the reluctant people along, but I think sometimes storytelling and stage performance really can be the thing that makes people have a change of heart about some of these issues that are important to us as Asian Americans and as people of color. And I think just the... I think even just showing up on stage, even if my dancers and I weren't doing anything, any story that was particularly related to Asian America, but just the fact, even if we were to just show up and do a completely neutral dance, but just with our Asian bodies on stage, like that in itself feels like kind of a radical act. And, yeah, and I think that, I mean, and oftentimes I am telling stories that are activism because I've done a lot of storytelling about the incarceration, and not just like trying to tell that story, but kind of trying to reclaim it and take it back and to express my anger and then also my hope for the future in a way that also is trying to encourage other Asian Americans to process. I think that there's a lot of outpouring of art and storytelling that's happened from the younger generations because we are really carrying those pent up, that pent up sadness and rage and all of those difficult emotions from our elders and ancestors, and it's coming out in us. And so I think it's like, it's both for those -- it's both to kind of... art as activism and my art as activism, I think it's both to change the hearts and minds of people who are not from my community, and it's also for, kind of more importantly, it's also for my community who has not seen themselves reflected at the ballet or the opera, or whatever it is, and to try to hold a mirror to some of their experiences and help them to connect to their own humanity and their own feelings. Which I think is activism because we've been told in so many subtle and loud ways that our feelings and stories and experiences don't matter.

AT: Yeah, I think that's really cool especially because dance is so rooted in that othering and that racism that you're using that to reclaim history and kind of show that radical stance of Asian Americans onstage and dancing. Yeah, I think that's very cool.

GG: Thanks.

AT: Yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2021 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.