Continuing (and finishing) the story of Anthony's performance at last weekend's Kyoto Intercollegiate Festival (Part I)....

I'd left off with Anthony and his classmates waiting in front of the stage for their turn...

Once the college girls were done, I was shocked to find out that the preschoolers would perform on the ground in front of the stage, and not on the stage itself. Remember from Part I that I'd arrived half an hour early to secure the perfect vantage spot for the stage, which turned out to be a horrible vantage spot for the ground in front. I quickly dragged my stuff — the tripod and its video camera, the chair I was standing on, my monopod and camera, and the assorted camera bags and other stuff — to try to get a better view, but it was too late because the crowd had already gathered.

The girl directly in front of Anthony, Hina-chan, wore a wonderful, vivid smile on her face the whole time, so at least I could enjoy that.

It turns out that they were doing a simplified version of the event's signature dance that I mentioned in Part I, and the college girls were doing it with them.

Many of Anthony's preschool events, such as the recent sports day, involve cute age-appropriate dance numbers. I never feature them on my blog because Anthony's participation has always been... how shall I say... less than enthusiastic. He likes dancing and horsing around, but he's never really gotten into the dance numbers at school.

Until today. The number they were doing now was fast-paced and genki, and he was really into it. His sense of timing was perfect, and he was enthusiastic. It was wonderful to see.

And occasionally, I actually could see him....

The dance seemed a bit more difficult than I'd expect for the ages (4, 5, and some 6-year-old), but for the most part they all kept it together and had a good time. But sometimes, they had a good time while not keeping it together....

Perhaps because Anthony had others in front of him that he could follow, or perhaps because he was next to the orange-shirted older kids (aged 5 and 6), or perhaps because he's got a superb innate sense of rhythm , he kept perfect sync with the college girls (which was the only way I could tell what they were supposed to be doing at any particular moment).

In the end, they all came together for the big finale....

The girl in the center is Rio-chan, who is among the half-dozen or so from her class who had presented at the ikebana exhebition earlier in the day (hers being a fairy-tail-themed ikebana arrangement).