The countryside of Chiba is changing. At New Year, it was on fire. At least, there was plenty of fire in a dance performance at Nakadaki Art Village in Isumi.

Nakadaki Art Village is just over a year old. It has been formed on property belonging to FCCJ member Gregory Clark, who hopes it will develop into a cultural centre in rural Chiba that will attract not only local people, but also people from Tokyo to its events. That is exactly what the New Year event did.

The star of the show was the fire dancer. I have seen fire dancing before, although not so often in Japan. Fire shows seems to be quite common on islands and beaches frequented by backpackers in Southeast Asia, but they are rare in Japan. The show was different from any I had seen before. First of all, the dancer was female, which is unusual. Then, she seemed to have developed her own style by combining elements from many different dance forms, as can be seen from the way she uses her hands and fingers.

There was also live music – lively music – provided by a band called Lapuna, which featured guitar, drums and didgeridoo, an interesting and surprisingly effective combination.

The other unusual event for a New Year was the full moon, in fact a blue moon. ❶