日本人フラメンコ舞踊家、歴史あるコンクールで外国人として初優勝

【マドリードＡＦＰ＝時事】スペインを代表するフラメンコ・コンクールの舞踊部門で、日本人の萩原淳子さん（４８）が外国人として初めて優勝し、フラメンコ界で話題を呼んでいる。（写真はスペイン・セビリア在住の萩原淳子さん。同国を代表するフラメンコ・コンクール「カンテ・デ・ラス・ミナス」の舞踊部門で優勝した）
　スペイン南東部ラウニオンで８月に開催されたフラメンコの祭典「カンテ・デ・ラス・ミナス」の閉会式で、「ラ・ジュンコ」として知られる萩原さんの名前が発表されると、拍手が起きるとともに一部からは野次も飛んだ。
　萩原さんは２０年以上住んでいる南部アンダルシア州セビリアから電話でＡＦＰの取材に応じ、「とても驚いた」と話し、「信じてはいたが、まさかと思った」と語った。優勝者として名前が発表された時は「頭が真っ白」になり、野次には気付かなかったという。
　萩原さんは、神奈川県川崎市出身。１４歳の時にフラメンコに魅了され、早稲田大学のサークル活動でフラメンコ舞踊を始めた。両親の反対を押し切り、２００２年にフラメンコ発祥の地セビリアに移住した。
　「日本でも技術や振り付けは学べるが、フラメンコは文化であり、生き方そのものなのです」と話す。
　スペインでは一流の指導者に師事。スペイン語にも堪能になり、アンダルシア出身の男性と結婚。舞踊家としてセビリアで徐々に存在を知られるようになり、フラメンコを教える立場にもなった。
　１９６１年に創設され、毎年開催されている「カンテ・デ・ラス・ミナス」は、世界で最も重要なフラメンコの祭典と見なされており、バイレ（踊り）に加え、ギター演奏、カンテ（歌）、楽器演奏の計４部門がある。
　批評家たちはそろって萩原さんを支持した。
　オンライン新聞セビージャ・インフォのフラメンコ批評家は、「他の出場者より好きだった理由が３点ある」として、「古典を重んじていること。観客にこびずに踊る姿勢。そして鍛錬を積んでいること」を挙げた。
　萩原さんは、「踊っている時は自分が外国人とか、日本人とかは意識していない」と言う。「ただステージに立ち、ギターと歌を聴き、感じることを自分の踊りで表現するだけ」だと話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/03-18:50）

Japan's Junko Hagiwara has caused a stir in Spain's traditional flamenco world by unexpectedly winning the prize for best dancer at the country's leading flamenco festival -- the first foreigner to do so.
The announcement that the 48-year-old -- who performs under the stage name La Yunko -- was awarded the honour at the closing ceremony of August's Cante de las Minas festival in the southeastern town of La Union was met with a mixture of applause and some jeering.
I was very surprised, I could not believe it. I believed it but I did not believe it, she told AFP by phone from the southern city of Seville, where she has lived for over two decades when asked about her reaction to getting the award.
Hagiwara, who was born in Kawasaki near Tokyo, said she did not notice the jeers because she went blank when her name was announced as the winner.
When I dance, I don't think I am a foreigner, that I am Japanese. I don't think that. It doesn't occur to me. I am simply on stage, I listen to the guitar, the singing and what I feel I express in my dancing, she added.
Created in 1961, the Cante de las Minas festival is considered to be the world's most important annual flamenco festival. It features prizes for best singing, guitar playing and musical instrument performance in addition to dance.
Critics were unanimous in their support for Hagiwara.
I liked her more than her competitors for three reasons: her classicism, the fact that she did not dance for the gallery, that is, for the public, and, finally, her good training, flamenco critic Manuel Bohorquez wrote in online newspaper Sevilla Info.
- 'Way of life -
Hagiwara said she became fascinated by flamenco -- a centuries-old art form that combines rhythmic hand clapping, stamping feet and impassioned singing -- at age 14 when she watched a gymnastics championship in which a Spanish competitor used the genre's guitar music.
I loved the flamenco guitar, the sound and the melody, the rhythm, she said.
There was no internet at the time to help her explore her new interest, so she went to a shop that rented records and borrowed the only available flamenco CD.
I listened to it, but there was no guitar, it was just singing, she recalled.
Flamenco performers often have a very hoarse voice, very deep, and it scared me, she added while laughing.
Hagiwara went on to study pedagogy at Waseda University in Tokyo, where she joined a flamenco club, and started to take flamenco lessons.
But she felt she needed more.
In 2002 she decided to take the dramatic move across the world to Seville, capital of the southern region of Andalusia and the cradle of flamenco, to pursue her passion.
She made the move despite objections from her parents.
In Japan, you can learn technique, choreography, but, of course, flamenco is culture, it's a way of life, she said.
My father got very, very angry. He did not speak to me for three months. And my mother said 'how shameful, how shameful', Hagiwara said.
- Culture shocks -
In Spain, she dedicated herself to flamenco, learning to dance with the best teachers, became fluent in Spanish and married an Andalusian man from the coastal town of Tarifa.
She gradually made a name for herself as a performer in Seville, and has also taught flamenco.
As is the case with many foreigners, she was surprised at first by the lively way locals talked to each other.
I thought everyone was fighting! Hagiwara said.
There were other differences.
In Japanese culture, we place a lot of value on hiding the feeling, and in flamenco, you have to show it. In Japan it is for the inside, and in flamenco it is for the outside, she said.