TOKYO >> A 74-year-old surfer and master of classical Japanese dance might seem an unlikely member of a seniors breakdancing group, but Saruwaka Kiyoshie said getting her feet wet in the sport was a no-brainer after it was confirmed for the 2024 Paris Games. As a restless teenager, Saruwaka fell in love with surfing and had wondered why it wasn’t an Olympic sport, until it finally got its place at Tokyo 2020. “And now, breaking is going to be added in Paris, and Japan even has a gold medal candidate,” Saruwaka, who once placed second in a local surfing contest and still rides waves for fun, said at her home in Tokyo.
“I used to see kids breakdancing under the railroad tracks and would think to myself, ‘I’d probably be one of them if I were young,’” she said, confessing that her parents had started her in Nihonbuyo — traditional Japanese dance — at age 5 to keep their feisty daughter out of trouble. “Of course, I never imagined I’d actually be doing it at this age, but when the opportunity arose I thought, ‘Why not? It sounds fun!’” Saruwaka is now a member of Ara Style Senior, Japan’s only breakdancing club made up of older citizens. On a recent Friday, eight members gathered in a community center wearing matching orange and green T-shirts to rehearse for a performance at a local festival in two days.
The team is the brainchild of Reiko Maruyama, 71, an elected official in Tokyo’s Edogawa ward who had been looking to revitalize the community .
