Japanese dancers find samba salvation in quake tragedy

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Wright, Yasuyoshi Chiba, 14 Feb 2015

Megumi Kodo (centre) from Kobe is set to perform as a solo dancer in Brazil's 

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

When she sways to the sensual beat of samba, Megumi Kudo also heals the wounds in her mother's heart from a huge earthquake that shattered their home city in Japan 20 years ago.

This year's festive menu for the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro has special poignancy for the Kudos, with daughter Megumi set to perform as a "passista" dancer with the famed Salgueiro school this weekend, continuing a tradition that has now spanned two generations.

Megumi Kodo (centre) is set to perform with

 the famed Salgueiro school, continuing a

 tradition that has now spanned two 

generations (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Megumi's samba-teaching and costume-designing mother Taeko will watch proudly in Rio's packed sambadrome -- after the pair first dance together in a smaller group.

"I remember the day the earthquake struck. At our house, a door was damaged and would not open," Taeko reflected in a soft voice, recalling the January 17, 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake in the southern Japanese city of Kobe.

"A dark and sinking feeling just washed over me."

More than 6,000 people died in the temblor, which left a $100 million trail of damage. It was Japan's worst quake since the 1923 Great Kanto disaster that ravaged Tokyo.

Emotional void

As she sat sewing glittering beads and sequins onto one of her daughter's 15 Salgueiro costumes, Taeko, 54, recounted the emotional void that filled her after the disaster.

The former softball pitcher scanned a newspaper ad as she sought to channel her grief.

"It read, 'let's dance samba,'" Taeko told AFP.

Megumi Kudo at Imperio Serrano Samba

 School in Rio de Janeiro (AFP Photo/

Yasuyoshi Chiba)

"I knew nothing about samba, but from the first class, it was a lot of fun and I could forget my pain."

Months later, a 150-strong samba delegation came to Kobe from the dance's heartland, Rio de Janeiro. The two cities have had a twinning arrangement for nearly half a century.

"When I saw the Brazilian dancers, their natural moves and their joy it hit me: Samba is a really fun thing."

Her 29-year-old daughter Megumi caught the bug as her mother began offering samba classes and turning her hand to designing intricately-decorated outfits for dancers.

"Megumi asked me to let her visit Brazil and I let her go," Taeko said.

"When she returned, her dancing was powerful, the feeling coming from deep within."

'One of the family'

Since taking the plunge in 2005, Megumi, a trained careworker, has now made seven visits to Rio, even staying in a favela, or slum, the first time.

Megumi Kudo with the school's

choreographer Carlinhos before a lesson

at their school in Rio de Janeiro (AFP

Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

"I started at Kobe's Megu Samba Palace aged 10 as my mom sought to overcome her sadness after the quake," she said.

"I want to change people's appreciation of samba. It's not about showing off bare flesh but creating an artist."

In her home city, Megumi is a seven-time samba competition champion competing for a school called Feijao Preto, or black bean.

The homage to a Brazilian food staple being twirled in samba parades 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) away amuses her fellow dancers.

Although Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan, Megumi's fellow citizens are still a rare sight at samba parades.

"Samba is essentially black culture. I had to work so hard to gain their respect in the beginning," she said.

"I quickly sought out Carlinhos, Salgueiro's head choreographer. He is so talented and I asked to do a test."

Megumi Kudo (centre) with her mother
Taeko after a show in Rio de Janeiro
(AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

The diminutive Carlinhos recalls: "She was raw -- but she's got talent and merits her place."

Salgueiro president Regina Fernandes put it simply: "She's one of the family."

The Kudos rallied round last year when Megumi had her purse snatched and required treatment after her assailant knocked her to the ground, and she cut her head.

Taeko said some of her most rewarding experiences have come from entertaining residents at old people's homes.

"Sometimes, elderly people who usually just sit vacant will shed tears or even mark out time to a samba rhythm. It moves you," said Taeko.

"We want to show the passion of samba. Rather than just a hobby, people dedicate their life to it."

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Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”