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YouTube goes crazy for “Bubbly” high school girls’ amazing retro ’80s dance routine 【Video】

Richard Simmonds Sep 20, 2017
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School dance club’s ’80s get-up and fantastic choreography nets millions of views in just two days.

Japan’s economic bubble of the 1980s is a time sorely missed by many Japanese, as a time when money flowed and expense accounts were there to be abused. A group of local high school students, while too young to have actually lived through the period themselves, have now taken the big hair and big fashion of the ’80s and put it into a dance routine that has taken YouTube by storm, ratcheting up millions of views in mere days.

▼ The girls performing at Tempozan Marketplace, a shopping centre in Osaka city’s harbour, to Yoko Oginome’s song, Dancing Hero.

The wonderfully garish jackets with padded-shoulders, and form-fitting dresses and accessories were all found in second-hand clothes shops, or after digging through their mums’ and grandmothers’ wardrobes, to which the girls then added sequins and buttons. The girls also extensively researched the makeup styles and expressions of singers and actresses from the era to make sure their whole appearance was historically accurate.

The 80 or so girls who make up the full team are all members of the dance club at their high school, Tomioka High School in Osaka Prefecture. They have been practicing the routine since February, in order take part in two national high school competitions in August: the Dance Club Championship where they got first place, and the Dance Stadium, where they were runners-up. The theme and fantastic choreography are all down to the club’s coach, 25 year-old former member Akane, who told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that she was inspired by watching Bubble-period dramas and singing contests on TV.

▼ Performing at the Dance Stadium national competition where they were runners-up.

The routine has had thousands of Japanese YouTube users complimenting the energetic performances and, for those old enough, reminiscing about the good old days. Some decried the lack of high heels as being out of place with the rest of the ’80s aesthetic but given that the girls probably want to keep their ankles intact as they jump about, they can be forgiven. Japanese comedienne, Nora Hirano, who has built a career in stand-up and numerous television appearances out of her bubble-economy and nostalgia-based comedy routines, also praised the girls on her Twitter page after seeing the video.

▼ Hirano’s success shows how much nostalgia there still is for the ’80s in Japan.

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A post shared by 平野ノラ Nora Hirano (@noranoranora1988)

The two videos have racked up a combined total of over five million views in the space of a few weeks since their performances. The girls have been surprised by their sudden rocketing to Internet fame, but the dance club captain, 18-year-old Saya Hayashi, said that they were just very happy that people had seen their dance. Perhaps if these girls keep up with the practice, they might be able to compete with their elders, mothers and grandmothers, who’ve shown us they can still jive, hip-hop style, no matter what their age.

Source: Asahin Shimbun via Kinisoku
Featured image: YouTube/Sankei News