Dance Dance Danseur - Vol. 11 Ch. 95

[MangaDex]

 

[Castane]

When ballet dancers think you are cringe it means you need to get a grip, Junpei

 

[ciera]

Thank you for the release

 

[EdTheAlchemist]

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[Yumiiiiii]

junpei is gonna make nakamura-sensei go bald

thank you for the update!

 

[Lustrist]

these past 3 volumes have not been kind to miyako

 

[Warhawk714]

these past 3 volumes have not been kind to miyako

Hopefully its a fall before she figures out what she really wants, ditches Ruo and rises to the top.

 

[Cidolfas]

these past 3 volumes have not been kind to miyako

Ballet is not kind

 

[Felkin]

A lesser manga would have ended things right there - Ruo leaves, Junpei is left in complete mental defibrillation and either completely fails his performance while giving it as a complete husk of a man OR over-corrects to insanity and just starts dancing like a complete monkey - a complete repeat of one of the arcs at the start of the manga.

But that's not George Asakura's style, now is it? Junpei has emotionally grown far beyond what he was in the first volume - he identified the issue, identified that both, the 'crazy' performance and his original one have their merits. It's an actual conflict for him to weight. And because it's a conflict, he asked for help. The Junpei of vol 1 would never have asked sensei for advice, he would have just went on and did his thing. But this Junpei is now actually a real student of ballet. He knows his limits, understands that his teachers or the judges are no slouches and he's not the center of the universe. He doesn't know better than them so he takes their words to heart. The conflict isn't just "well this other teenager said my performance is boring while the judges say its good" it's much more "That teenager made me realize that I haven't been feeling in the zone while performing as I had before. That spark isn't there anymore in this performance, can I resurrect it? Should I?" Put another way, if when Nakamura sensei said that Junpei shouldn't be listening to some teenager's opinion over expert judges, in a simpler story, Junpei would have just not responded or said something crazy like "well I care about his opinion more, screw the judges!" However he actually pushed back in a far, far more critical way "well I didn't really feel in the zone while performing, maybe there is some truth somewhere in that teenager's opinion? How do I sell myself?". This is an infinitely more interesting and powerful conflict to explore than just teenager rivalry.

And its not like these things are handled bluntly - they're all relatively soft transitions. I think in many weak sports manga the moment when a student finally asks their mentor for advice is some big moment in the story that has been built up, constantly hammered in as this huge mental shift. But in this case, it's just kind of "that was a sweet moment of a student relying on his teacher. Oh right, actually it's also a shift in Junpei, he probably wouldn't have asked this so up-front a while back!". When these things are handled with that touch of subtlety, I feel less hand-held as a reader and so greatly respect the author for it.

Furthermore, I absolutely love how Nakamura sensei handled it all. He acknowledges that this competition isn't the end of the world, that it's still a learning opportunity and is willing to humor Junpei just a bit in his insanity. It's a conflict from the teacher's POV too: "do you have your student perform as he is supposed to by the standards, but he won't be happy with it or do you humor a bit of his eccentricity to see if he can pull it off, or at least feel satisfied in the efforts he had put in". I'm sure that Nakamura in this instance feels this is hopeless and idiotic, but Junpei is still his student and he has to take responsibility for him and there are things that you just can't control, but have to allow to play out while doing everything you can to help. At the same time, it's not like he handled it perfectly - he just said "have it your way" until turning around at the end. A great mentor would have jumped the shark immediately and really made sure Junpei can make the right choice. Here he just leaves him to his own devices to make that conclusion and, well, that's just humans. The teacher isn't perfect, but he's trying and actually really does care. That feels far more real than a 'perfect' sensei. Much like a 'perfect' performance Maybe that's a key point in this story? To not chase just perfection, but relish in some imperfections? Something to think about later down the line/

Lastly, to me it's incredible that now I don't even care what the outcome will be, like at all. It doesn't really matter all that much. It's far more interesting to just see how Junpei is reacting to these challenges and slowly changing as a person. His mental processes that have completely transformed since the initial chapters. That's what it really means to be a truly character-driven story, rather than a plot-driven one. We're in it for the growth here!

Thanks for the translation, as always!

 

[Nemodormiat]

A lesser manga would have ended things right there - Ruo leaves, Junpei is left in complete mental defibrillation and either completely fails his performance while giving it as a complete husk of a man OR over-corrects to insanity and just starts dancing like a complete monkey - a complete repeat of one of the arcs at the start of the manga.

But that's not George Asakura's style, now is it? Junpei has emotionally grown far beyond what he was in the first volume - he identified the issue, identified that both, the 'crazy' performance and his original one have their merits. It's an actual conflict for him to weight. And because it's a conflict, he asked for help. The Junpei of vol 1 would never have asked sensei for advice, he would have just went on and did his thing. But this Junpei is now actually a real student of ballet. He knows his limits, understands that his teachers or the judges are no slouches and he's not the center of the universe. He doesn't know better than them so he takes their words to heart. The conflict isn't just "well this other teenager said my performance is boring while the judges say its good" it's much more "That teenager made me realize that I haven't been feeling in the zone while performing as I had before. That spark isn't there anymore in this performance, can I resurrect it? Should I?" Put another way, if when Nakamura sensei said that Junpei shouldn't be listening to some teenager's opinion over expert judges, in a simpler story, Junpei would have just not responded or said something crazy like "well I care about his opinion more, screw the judges!" However he actually pushed back in a far, far more critical way "well I didn't really feel in the zone while performing, maybe there is some truth somewhere in that teenager's opinion? How do I sell myself?". This is an infinitely more interesting and powerful conflict to explore than just teenager rivalry.

And its not like these things are handled bluntly - they're all relatively soft transitions. I think in many weak sports manga the moment when a student finally asks their mentor for advice is some big moment in the story that has been built up, constantly hammered in as this huge mental shift. But in this case, it's just kind of "that was a sweet moment of a student relying on his teacher. Oh right, actually it's also a shift in Junpei, he probably wouldn't have asked this so up-front a while back!". When these things are handled with that touch of subtlety, I feel less hand-held as a reader and so greatly respect the author for it.

Furthermore, I absolutely love how Nakamura sensei handled it all. He acknowledges that this competition isn't the end of the world, that it's still a learning opportunity and is willing to humor Junpei just a bit in his insanity. It's a conflict from the teacher's POV too: "do you have your student perform as he is supposed to by the standards, but he won't be happy with it or do you humor a bit of his eccentricity to see if he can pull it off, or at least feel satisfied in the efforts he had put in". I'm sure that Nakamura in this instance feels this is hopeless and idiotic, but Junpei is still his student and he has to take responsibility for him and there are things that you just can't control, but have to allow to play out while doing everything you can to help. At the same time, it's not like he handled it perfectly - he just said "have it your way" until turning around at the end. A great mentor would have jumped the shark immediately and really made sure Junpei can make the right choice. Here he just leaves him to his own devices to make that conclusion and, well, that's just humans. The teacher isn't perfect, but he's trying and actually really does care. That feels far more real than a 'perfect' sensei. Much like a 'perfect' performance Maybe that's a key point in this story? To not chase just perfection, but relish in some imperfections? Something to think about later down the line/

Lastly, to me it's incredible that now I don't even care what the outcome will be, like at all. It doesn't really matter all that much. It's far more interesting to just see how Junpei is reacting to these challenges and slowly changing as a person. His mental processes that have completely transformed since the initial chapters. That's what it really means to be a truly character-driven story, rather than a plot-driven one. We're in it for the growth here!

Thanks for the translation, as always!

I like to think that bandana sensei going along with junpei's idiocy is kinda foreshadowed when he was talking to chizuru about kotobuki's body not being suited for the role of a prince and then sensei pointing out that the student's wish is above anything else

 

[Painasbread]

This teacher is the goat. Leaving Miyako alone when she needs time ? Encouraging his student in his failures ? Author knows the good pedagogy and it shows.
Well done !