[JWEB] Kawashima Noel (Noemaru) - 14 August 2022 (Part 3)

[dreamweavernyx]

And the final part~

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That’s it! Thank you for sending in lots of questions!

I had fun answering them all!

I’m collecting questions again until 9pm today, so go now! Send in a ton, okay! ☺️

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Well then, on to the main topic!

First off, World of Dance!

I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t even been 2 weeks since then! 😳

Thanks to the fact that we came in 3rd at the preliminaries in the end of March, we were able to go for the real deal in July, but the level of competition was really high so I was really nervous and excited, and due to that after the performance on the first day I felt really exhausted, though I’m not sure if it was from the relief (of having finished the performance) or something else!

I was like, this is totally the wrong time for the exhaustion to hit 🤫

I almost felt like telling myself, “hey, are you a Jr. that just joined the agency?!”

It came way too early. At least wait one more day, or ideally two more days, before hittingggg. As I said that to myself, I stuck (muscle ache relief) compresses all over myself and went to sleep 😴

I stuck on way too many.

In these 27 years of living, this was the first time I’d stuck on 10 compresses at once and gone to sleep, so it was unreal how off I felt as I slept.

That was no gooooood. That was terrible for my body’s conditionnnnnn. 😱

Thankfully, I used the small-size compresses, though I feel sick just thinking of what might have happened if I’d used the larger ones

Please take due care when you’re using muscle ache relief compresses, okay!

Promise big bro you’ll do it 🥺

Well, I hung on by my fingernails with whatever physical and mental strength I had left, and I thin I was able to give my all in the performances over the three days~

The performance from the competition is up on WOD’s official TouTube channel, so please watch it~! ☺️

As for the results, we came in 4th place among the American teams, 9th place among the international teams, and received the Best Costume award and the Crowd Favourite award (twice), and with that our World of Dance journey safely came to an end✨

Thank you for supporting us, and fighting along together with us!💪

Now that it’s over, I find myself thinking that I’d like to experience something like that again… Well, honestly though, I think even just this alone is more than enough to form good memories! (lol)

The actual competition was, of course, tough, bu even the preparations were really tough! We were way too busy! 😤

We had to mix the music, create the choreography, go to the studio countless times, do DIY (←?!), and do tons of stuff on our own, so we were like, wow, it’s this hard, huh!!!!

We really came to realise how much work gets put in on our behalf on a regular basis! We’re really grateful! ✨

Well, I sort of knew a lot went into behind the scenes stuff, but actually experiencing it was truly another level! I reallllllly think that getting to experience it was a good thing!

Putting together the music was really fun~!💻

I set my heart on the theme (which was one of the judging criteria) being “Travis Japan”, so I started off by remixing a bunch of things, and let everyone listen to it, and then brushed up on the track and edited songs together. From the preliminary steps all the way to the final product took more than a month, I think 🤔

I started work around mid-May, so my laptop really worked hard too!

In order to clean up the track, which I couldn’t do on my own even if I had an idea of how to go about it, I got one of the staff who always helped us out back in Japan to lend a hand, and I’m really thankful that they worked with us despite the time difference 🥲

I wanted to create something that mixed together the original songs of Travis Japan from when we were doing our best in Japan, with the dance skills we’d learned in America, so I decided to do a medley(?) of our original songs!

Well, that being said, I thought of the expressions of the members who’d just be like “Hm, not bad” if I did just a regular medley (←🤪), so because I wanted to surprise them I added Japanese elements, like traditional Japanese instruments, and wrapped Traja up in that like a burrito. Mm, sounds tasty.

I really wanted to include all of our songs, but I couldn’t get GET ALIVE to match with the Japanese sound no matter how hard I tried…😭

I really tried all I could do, like mashing it up with other songs (a technique where you play with the tempo of the music and layer it over another song!), you know~?

Sniff. If only I had a bit more skill.

This thing that I started as a hobby became something I can do for work, and could become something with which I can make other people happy, so I’m really happy about that ☺️

Ufufufu.

I’ll show you a peek of just the markers!

[photo]

We split it up like this to do the choreography, you knowwwww 🕺

We spoke about it more in detail on Travis Japan’s Instagram Live, so please check check! (Man, that’s a lot of katakana words in one sentence.)

It was also the first time in a long while that I had choreographed something! I had lots of fun doing my bit!

Of course, I’d gone for countless dance classes since we came to LA, since dance forms the base (of our skills), and the classes that made me really feel like I love dance, and made me feel like I want to dance, are the jazz and contemporary ones!

Why? It's because I like them!

Simple!

Choreography was also one of the judging criteria, and it seemed like it would be difficult to get a lot of points for this criteria if we’d just stuck to one genre, so I added some jazz and contemporary elements to the hiphop-focused performances of Travis Japan~!

Looking back, we really put in a lot of hard work ☺️

Oh yes! We also did some DIY 💡

So that the masks would fly properly (when thrown)! (lol)

I won’t say too much about it and just show you a photo! Try guessing what got stuck to where🙃 (lol)

[photo]

Being able to watch all the dance performances in the American round, the international round and the finals on the last day really spurred me on!

When you hear the word “dance”, you might have the image of someone moving their body in time to the music, but watching them, I really felt that it’s like art, a kind of art form 🤔.

These performances, created from an imaginative and creative power that I couldn’t even begin to dream of having, at times made me feel like laughing or crying; ultimately, they were really wonderful performances that moved me!

It felt like I was soaking in an ocean filled with all sorts of inspiration!

I realised how important it is to have the skill to properly convey what you want to express ☺️

I resolved that I’d also become someone who can properly convey things, across many fronts! I’ll evolve~!

Our next performance is, finally, the semi finals for AGT! 🇺🇸

We’re having fun putting together the performance, and we’re right now in the midst of trial-and-error for it! We’re excited but also nervous, so I hope we can convey these emotions during the actual thing ☺️

Man, we’ll work with all our might toward the exciting feeling of not knowing what exactly will happen (on the day itself); this is truly happiness!

From now on, we’ll continue running straight ahead towards our dream!

Run along together with us!

There’ll surely be many fun things lying up ahead! ☺️

Yours ever,

Aug. 14th, 2022

Noel Kawashima

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P.S.

Having gone through many many things, here’s something I’ve realised!

I chose this path because I wanted to treasure my excitement!

There were many forks in the path, but I chose this path!

I don’t want to lose sight of that from now on! I’d like to live on while holding on firmly to that!

Next month, a new version of a game I’ve been waiting on for ages will be released, and I’ve become Rank S across all versions of the game*, and at the start of the month I was ranked 1300th in the world! (That’s not related to anything)

[ T/N: Rank X is the highest player rank in the Ranked Battle segment of Splatoon. ]

I lost sight of my fun-loving self for a bit, so from now on I don’t want to turn a blind eye to it while throwing my entire self into my work, but rather I’d also like to prioritise myself!

The good news is, I might be by myself, but I’m not alone!

To anyone who has been worrying over small things lately, or have been down in the dumps. Chin up; if you take your eyes off your feet for a moment you might be able to see a different scenery before you.

I’m always here for you, after all ☺️

I’d be happy if you don’t just face your feet, but face the same direction as me instead and head forward together!

Well then! See you tomorrow!✌️

#Noemaru

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