Red Bull Dance Competition: Another Strong Sign for Sapporo, Japan
Dance Battle in the Sapporo Streets Gives Sapporo "Wings"
Japan is red-hot right now. I have lived in this country for years, and it is fun to see a place you love being loved by others. While Tokyo has always been one of the cultural capitals of the world, some smaller cities in Japan have hosted some big-name events recently:
This last weekend, Sapporo hosted the Red Bull Dance Your Style Japan Finals.
Everybody knows Red Bull, and everybody knows: "Red Bull gives you wings." Red Bull is one of those brands that has done an absolutely epic job of creating events that bring their image into direct contact with the action. They are constantly associated with what is traditionally cool, and very often, they create cool of their own.
I won't pretend to know the full history of Red Bull, but reaching back into my own memories of Red Bull events I think of Flugtag - a wild, barely serious, custom-build aviation event that ends in a "splash."
Since my earliest experiences with the world's most famous energy drink, I have seen the brand's events evolve from cardboard planes dropping into the San Francisco Bay to world-record setting wingsuit flights. Recently I saw a video of Brian Grub wakeskate behind a drone, in an infinitely pool, off a jump from the top floor of the Address Beach Resort hotel (in Dubai), and then transition to a freefalling basejump, and 'chute down to safety (an "astounding 294 metres" below). That is not easy to describe, but that is very Red Bull.
Always a spectacle. Always spectacular.
A few weeks ago I heard from Tomo Tachikawa (a PR pro here in Japan) that the Red Bull Dance Your Style event was to be held in Sapporo. That event did indeed jump off this past weekend, in the street between PARCO and the Mitsukoshi Departo (just above Odori Station); a very central part of Sapporo, which hosts a lot of local events, but rarely anything world famous or "western."
Red Bull choosing Sapporo is a great sign for this city.
As the Red Bull Dance Your Style Japan Final kicked off - it was hot. Literally hot, about 30°C, and culturally hot, as the red and blue of Red Bull signage met the intensity of a the dancers.
Above: Nene facing off with Illbilly Dude in a first-round “battle.”
That section of Minami 1-Jyo Dori was partially shaded in the shadow of PARCO, but the dancefloor was all blazing sun. Inside an over-size Red Bull-emblazoned Jeep (one of the sponsors of the event), DJ Moka was camped out behind a laptop delivering the sounds that drove the event and the dancing.
While Sapporo has almost two million residents, it can still have a small-town feel much of the time. Having the Red Bull crew on the street did indeed bring “the energy.”
Above: Dancers Rinka and Maika.
Red Bull Dance hosts these "dance battles" in cities around the world. Recently, Red Bull Dance held a similar event in Singapore. Each regional event generates a winner, and that dancer advances to the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Finals - which will be held in Los Angeles in October of this year.
The location on the street of the Sapporo Red Bull Dance Your Style competition, amidst the downtown shopping crowds, was a picturesque choice for the event. The tall buildings on either side, and rows of sycamore trees, framed the stage. The crowd was probably close to 500 people, but was comfortable and communal - it was easy to walk right into the action.
As walked around, I took some snapshots. There was a temporary skatepark on the street behind the DJ; more aggressive teenage boys mixed with some younger kids wearing helmets. In that same area, several of the dancers were "back stage" stretching and warming up. I was shoulder to shoulder, in that mix.
For such a big name, Red Bull created a very “local” feel here in Sapporo.
The "battles" kicked off at 2 PM, and went on - working through eight sets of 1-on-1 sessions, with two competing dancers in each round - lasting almost three hours. A mix of music piped out over the dancers heads and into the crowd, ranging from pop to hip hop. It's a battle, and there were moments of intentional intimidation, but also a strong spirit of community among the dancers (several of which seemed to know each other).
It was a family-friendly affair. The crowd had a great time.
Above: Dancer Nene takes her turn in a head-to-head battle with Yuta.
In the end, a dancer named Yuta, was crowned the winner, and will head off to LA in October to compete against other dancers from around the world in the World Finals.
(For more shots of the dancing, see this gallery of pictures from the Red Bull Dance Japan competition in Sapporo, and also here on Instagram.)
It was inspiring to see Red Bull put all that attention on this "little town." Over the last six years or so, I have spent a lot of time in this city, and have been surprised (to some degree) to watch it grow up, and grow so quickly.
The shinkansen development project is one example of growth in Sapporo, and for Japan more broadly. The high-speed train service has been delayed (now scheduled for 2033?), but is well underway. The few blocks around Sapporo Station have been torn up, torn down, and under construction for several years now, as that neighborhood is retro-fitting in anticipation of the impact of the expected traffic as the new trains begin to arrive. Local initiatives like Startup Hokkaido welcome the modernization.
Today, as I walked the space between Sapporo Station and the Tanukikoji shotengai, it is amazing how many of the tallest building on Sapporo Eki Mae Dori are new, or in the process of being replaced. It is no exaggeration that 20-50% of that downtown strip between Sapporo Station and Susukino Station will be brand new before the high-speed train service to Honshu is completed.
This city is transforming incredibly fast.
To some degree, this is the state of Japan right now; the “Lost Decade(s)” are over and the world is watching. Tourism in Japan is on fire, with waves of visitors coming, breaking records month after month. Tokyo is exploding in popularity, of course, but so also are many other cities.
Osaka Japan has the Osaka World Expo going on now. In June, Osaka hosted the X GAMES Japan skateboarding and BMX event. The new man-made island of Yumeshima, Osaka (same location as the Expo) will soon have a major international Integrated Resort Casino.
Smaller places like Fukuoka are in the news; an example of a young, healthy city in Japan where the population is actually growing. Taiwanese company TSMC is a-buzz in business headlines as they bring their semi-conductor movement in Kumamoto City (with a similar semi-conductor project in Rapidus in Chitose, Sapporo). All of this attention and energy are contributing to the first increases in real estate prices in Japan in over 30 years (with Sapporo real estate appreciation. near the top of that list).
Big, international brands like Red Bull, the X GAMES, and TSMC are making substantial investments in Japan, distributing their business and cultural capital well beyond Tokyo. While the attention from these companies is good for Japan in many ways, it seems fair to assume that those companies see potential in the future of the people of these cities. As global brands extend their attention deeper into Japan, these “akachan no machi” - like Sapporo, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto City - gain more prominence on the world stage.