The Art and Elegance of Geisha Dance

This winter, I got to experience Geisha dancers in Tokyo. You have to show lots of respect, and I think that’s exactly what the Geisha show in their movement. They were very unique, and it was interesting to see how little movement there was compared to our dancing. It was honestly a little scary how serious they were!

Geisha dancers are swans lightly touching the water. They just float along with the music, which makes their dancing so enjoyable to watch. Dances are performed to traditional music played by a fellow Geisha or jikata (musician), telling stories of love, sorrow, and nature. They can show different parts of peace or nature while using their kimono, body, or fans. One of the most popular styles of Geisha dancing is Nihon Buyo. It’s very classical, yet graceful, and they aim for perfect body poses.

The term Geisha means “art person.” This is why they have the great abilities to sing, dance, play the shamisen, and make conversation. This performance was originally for men in tea houses, restaurants, or business parties. They were thought to have emerged in the 17th century as a form of labor, although some girls did volunteer. Usually, a girl at an early age was given by her parents for a sum of money to a Geisha house, which taught, trained, fed, and clothed her for a period of years. Then she emerged into the society known as karyūkai (the “flower and willow world”) and began earning money to repay her parents’ debt and her past keep.

Besides providing entertainment and social companionship, Geisha sometimes maintained sexual relationships with their clients. In the 1920s, there were as many as 80,000 Geisha in Japan. The number, however, dwindled down to only a few thousand because of the patronizing by wealthy businessmen.