Ryukyu dance and kumiodori

Each new Ryukyu king was confirmed by envoys from China, who stayed close to half a year, and the court entertained them at a series of banquets. For the investiture of King Sho Kei in 1719, the official Tamagusuku Chokun created kumiodori, a drama of chanted verse and dance set to Ryukyu classical music played on the sanshin. Kumiodori later spread to the aristocracy's own gatherings and, after 1879, to commercial stages. UNESCO added it to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2010.

Ryukyu dance divides into classical dances perfected at court to classical music, and zo-odori, which dancers created from the Meiji era onward to folk songs and in the clothes of ordinary people. The heart of the classical repertoire is the onna-odori, the women's dance, which shows deep feeling through restrained movement of the feet and hips. When the kingdom ended in 1879 the court dancers lost their stipends, moved from Shuri to Naha and built playhouses there. After the war, under American rule, these arts held people together, and Japan now protects Ryukyu dance as an Important Intangible Cultural Property.

The National Theatre Okinawa opened in January 2004 to preserve and promote kumiodori and the other Okinawan performing arts. Its main hall seats 578 with an open stage, and it presents kumiodori, Ryukyu dance, sanshin music, Okinawan theatre and folk arts. A late-winter trip lines up with the trainees' kumiodori on 4 March 2027.