This is Luce Twinkle Wink☆ practicing! A close look behind the scenes just before the unveiling live that marked the start of Luce's second chapter!

On February 15, 2019, the anime song idol unit "Luce Twinkle Wink☆" (hereinafter referred to as "Luce"), which sings anime theme songs such as "Urara Mazecho" and "Gamers! (hereinafter referred to as "Luce"), an anime song idol unit that sings theme songs for anime such as "Urara Mazecho" and "Gamers!", held an unveiling performance of a new member, Ms. Miura Sakimoto, at their regular performance "Tsukuru-Chi Friday Regular Performance" held at the AKIBA Culture's Theater.

I have already introduced the performance on this site, but before the performance, I actually went undercover to cover a dance lesson with the five members, including the new member, and I hope you will enjoy it and remember the unveiling performance two months ago. I hope that the audience will enjoy the performance, but most of all, I hope that they will sense the process of sharpening Luce's sharp dance, the passionate efforts of new member Mio Sakimoto, and the charm and future of the newly born Luce.

Luce's dance lesson was held on a certain day at a certain place in Tokyo, and as the performance was coming up, they were in the process of confirming the finished product. The basic flow of the lesson was that after dancing through the song, Kanami Sawaguchi, the teacher in charge of Luce's choreography, would point out any corrections, correct them, and then dance through the song again.

The practice songs were "Fight on!", "Twinkle "5" stars! ☆", "Setsuna Halation", "1st Love Story", "go to Romance>>>>>", and "Koiiro Kougou Kikou". We started with careful stretching. The young dancers started by stretching their legs 180 degrees, and then leaned forward and flattened their bodies on the floor. Even though she is a young woman, her flexibility is the result of her daily training. Luce's efforts and the reason why she is able to dance were confirmed right in front of me. Finally, the dancers were asked to stand still for one minute with their outstretched legs raised from a seated position. The session ended with an abdominal workout, which was well-received by the audience, who were convinced that the members' stomachs were getting ripped.

After stretching, the five members moved to the same standing position as in the live performance. As they sang and danced to the first song, "Fight on! She gave an example of a throw-kissing gesture and told them to be more expressive, even if it did not match the song or the lyrics. Not all of the audience at an event or live performance will be able to see you right in front of them. This is a necessary point to convey the message to those standing in the back of the venue. From there, the audience began to check the details of the song.

In the introduction, Mr. Sakimoto pointed out that when the dancer turns left or right while bouncing on one foot, he already changes direction at "1, 2" instead of at "1, 2, 3, 4! It was also pointed out that the arms were stretched out to the sides, to which Saki Fukasawa advised, "You should feel like tightening your sides. In addition, after splitting into three and two, the students jumped after receiving a punch, and the instructor told them that the jump was a "yosho jump. In other words, jumping from a waiting posture without any preliminary movement is correct, but the jump is made to be a momentary jump. It is true that "Fight on!" is a song with attractive game-like movements. I learned that it is the lack of preliminary movement that gives the feeling.

Next, Dr. Kanami spoke up and said, "I want to teach you that the position of the feet never changes. The place was the rustic part of the song, where the dancer stands on one foot, points forward, and then repeats the stance with the opposite foot, but the request was to keep the place where she is standing still. Here, Yukino Usami said, "The board is only the length of a pair of shoes. If you fall off the board, you will die. The sharpness of her expression caused everyone in the room to smile for a moment. After that, Mr. Sakimoto practiced on the spot, but even though he cleared the position of his feet, it did not lead to a sharp standing posture. As I watched, I saw that the other members had their toes pointing forward when pointing and their toes pointing slightly to the left side when lifting their right foot. I guess they did so so that they could stop with their feet firmly, because it is easy for the body to flow when the feet are pointing in the same direction as the forward/backward movement. However, after repeating the exercise many times, Ms. Sakimoto naturally mastered that foot orientation without being told by anyone.

Next, the teacher lined up the four senior members in order to align the lifting and height of their feet, and said, "I want it to look like a pendulum. At this point, he asked the members, "Is it okay if I bend (the left leg)?" He asked the members, "Is it right to bend (the left leg)? The reason for this was that the members' legs, except Sakimoto's, seemed to be stretched out when pointing to the pistol shape. After receiving answers from Usami and others that they had been taught to bend their legs, the four members were told to be aware of this point. Then, I asked them to keep that point in mind.

Kaho-chan said, "When you lift your right leg, your hips are the best.

She then said, "When you raise your right leg, your hips are best with Kaho-chan. She then asked them to repeat the same point, with Kaho Higaki in the center of the group, while she praised the way they twisted their hips and lifted their hips.

In this way, while improving the quality of Ms. Sakimoto's choreography, the older members brushed up on their choreography. In fact, not only Ms. Sakimoto but also Mr. Fukasawa had not been able to ride "one board" in the first pass through, but they corrected it, and the dynamic "front kick" that is typical of Mr. Fukasawa was restored. Also, during the interlude. Kanami said that the more times the dancer performs this part, the better he gets at it. Then Ms. Usami looked at Saori Itayama, Fukazawa, and Higaki and said, "We used to have a habit of doing that at one time, didn't we?

After the detailed corrections were made, as if to check each step, the teacher asked them to "take notes" when the instructions for the entire piece were finished. As the quality of each song improved, Kanami always took an interval after each check to give the students time to take notes in a notebook or on their phones. If I have a chance, I would like to see the notes filled with the know-how to become a luthier.

In this way, we finished up "Fight on!" and an hour had already passed. One third of the three hours scheduled for practice that day had passed. Moreover, the next song was "Twinkle "5" stars! ☆". I was surprised to see this song in the set list and worried whether they could finish 5 songs in the practice time, but as it turned out, they finished 5 songs in 3 hours, perhaps because "Fight on!" had less total practice time (hence they might have taken time to practice it first).

A detailed description of the dance lesson would take up an enormous amount of text, so I will skip the rest, but anyway, it was a very dense three hours. One of the most interesting things was the surprisingly large number of by-products of the new members. For example, the chorus of "Twinkle "5" stars! ☆", where the five members who had lined up in a horizontal line before the chorus formed a star as the five vertices. The teacher decided that it would be difficult for Ms. Sakimoto, who was second from the right, to move to the far left at the "Precious story" section, so she and Ms. Fukazawa swapped positions for the chorus. The teacher and the five members had to update the formation one by one.

However, this worked out well and the formation was refined in a simple and smart way. In the following fall chorus, when Usami-san and Fukazawa-san, who were paired with each other, danced with Itayama-san in between, the movements of the three of them would fit together nicely. Then, when Itayama-san, who was in the center of the group, moved back to the very back, he changed his position to look at the front of the group, which led to a sharper group. Although the adjustment may have been made to accommodate Ms. Sakimoto's level, it was an opportunity to review not only the detailed choreography but also the formation itself, and it is likely that the new formation will be maintained even after Ms. Sakimoto catches up with the level of the group.

In addition, while the five members of Luce had previously seemed to be on equal footing, even if there were differences in their roles, the addition of Ms. Sakimoto seems to have given the four members the attribute of "seniority. I felt that Ms. Usami showed more of her innate leadership skills. Whenever she changed the choreography or formation, she would say to the teacher, "This is what we are going to do next, can we change it like this? or to the members, "If you want to rotate around the outside, you should do one, two, one and put your feet on the floor while you rotate. Even though Ms. Kanami's role was to determine the choreography and formations, it was Ms. Usami who knew the choreography, the flow of the formations, the lyrics, and so on. If this was born out of a sense of pride and responsibility as a leader, it is truly mind-boggling.

Of course, the other members must have shone as respected seniors to Ms. Sakimoto. It is a well-known fact that Itayama-san's choreography is beautiful, but it was often shown to Sakimoto-san as a good example of positioning. When she stopped, or the height and position of the dancers during the movement, etc. On the other hand, another member who was often cited as a good sample was Higaki-san. In particular, the aforementioned position of her hips, or "ochiri" as Ms. Kanami described them, was praised many times. I think Ms. Higaki's performance is remarkable for the sparkle she brings to a song or a part of a song. Perhaps it is a reflection of her character, which unconsciously pursues cuteness, but as an idol, Ms. Higaki's character should be a learning experience for Sakimoto-san. In terms of expression, Ms. Fukazawa always thinks she looks like an actress. Her dazzling facial expressions, which are one of her main attractions, are still there from practice, and the gap between them and the dynamic choreography she displays may provide a good stimulus to Ms. Sakimoto.

Surrounded by the four of them, Ms. Sakimoto still looked nervous during the rehearsal. It was during the "Twinkle "5" stars! ☆", more than an hour later. It was before the chorus and during the confirmation of the chorus. When Dr. Kanami tried to confirm the flow of Ms. Usami, Ms. Fukazawa, and Ms. Itayama through the song, she said, "(Raise your hands lightly),

He said, "(Raise your hands lightly) Before that, may I?　...... (crouching down) Is this a lie?"

Everyone present was stunned, "A lie? and everyone in the room was stunned. For Ms. Sakimoto, it was an expression to confirm whether Ms. Higaki and Ms. Sakimoto, who were at both ends, were kneeling or in the "wind" of kneeling, but it was also a moment when her charm was glimpsed in that unique expression.

Everyone present broke into a smile. Afterward, Kanami-sensei told her, "Just collapse and kneel down, and you'll be fine. Ms. Sakimoto nodded broadly, but at this point, Mr. Higaki pulled the conversation back, saying, "Was I lying? Sakimoto-san denied it in a panic, but Usami-san got in on the act and told Higaki-san, "Don't lie to me. Mr. Higaki then turned the topic to Ms. Nami, saying, "The teacher was lying. The teacher replied, "Me? I'm sorry." The whole scene was just like a club activity at a girls' high school. A very good atmosphere was created.

The way Ms. Sakimoto desperately tried to catch up with the teacher could be seen elsewhere as well. In front of the chorus of "Twinkle "5" stars! ☆", when Itayama-san and Sakimoto-san were asked to switch places in a line, the teacher said, "Will you switch? and to Sakimoto-san, "Have you ever done diagonals? and "Have you ever done it diagonally down? to Sakimoto-san, and "Have you ever done it diagonally down? The word "diagonal" refers to the part in the chorus where the singer repeatedly points to the ground and the air as if stabbing at them. I felt that Ms. Sakimoto had soaked the music and choreography into her body until she could converse with Ms. Kanami and the senior members at the same linguistic level.

As the three-hour lesson drew to a close, I couldn't help but admire Ms. Sakimoto. The anxious feelings I had before the lesson had dissipated. The graduation of former member Megumi Nishikiori was announced on October 7, 2018, and recruitment of new members began in November of the same year. Since then, the selection process has proceeded at a rapid pace, but Ms. Sakimoto was not accepted as a new member until the end of the year. After going through the routine, she was finally able to attend her first lesson, which was on January 19, 2019. Since then, she had been practicing on her own to memorize the choreography in her body, while repeatedly participating in hard lessons on January 20, 24, 30, and 31, and hurting her body every day without giving it time to recover.

Moreover, Ms. Sakimoto had recently reported on her blog that she had graduated from college, and this coincided with her graduation exams. The way she approached the luce was aptly described as determined, backwater, and ghoulish. She was putting her whole body and soul on the line. Of course, one can only guess at the extent of her hardship, but Ms. Sakimoto is now dancing in front of our eyes in a manner that makes her worthy of being called a member of Luce. That single fact cannot help but strike a chord. And I am sure that all those who were present on the day of the unveiling of the new member must have felt the same way. I would also like to applaud the four members who switched to the formation with the new members just one month after Megumi Nishikiori's graduation performance on January 14, 2019.

⇒This is the last and the best stage with these 5 members! Megumi Nishikiori's graduation live "Luce Twinkle Wink☆Graduation Live 5ru☆! ～Goal~" report

Now, regular performances, office performances like Jewel Beat! or at idol festivals, Ms. Sakimoto and the five Luce members' performances are being polished and polished. We can sense changes that are incomparable to the lessons and unveiling performances that we covered undercover. Luce has once again begun to sparkle at the top of the five peaks, and I am confident that in the near future, the sparkle will shine even brighter than before.

(Reporting and writing by Koji Shimizu)