Shall We Dance - Prologue

[Jean W. Williams]

On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Carole Cavanaugh wrote:

> Thanks for the translation. I think I now remember something in the U.S.
> version about how rare it is for Japanese married couples to embrace or to
> express love. Am I remembering correctly?

This is the same article that appears on Japan Echo I think.

As I recall, the point was made in the export version that these
swirling/whirling European couples were married couples.  The voiceover
said Japanese would be too embarassed to be caught dead doing such a thing
or saying "I love you".  So it really isn't ironic in the sense that
Sugiyama and his wife never do dance in public - only in the back yard -
and never do come right out and say "I love you" -- though it is implied
that they may take lessons together in the future and I suppose that they
come to some sort of understanding that is demonstrative of their love for
one another, though they don't explicitly say so.

Jean Williams
Dept. of Performance Studies
Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
jqw3827 at is2.nyu.edu