THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407150249
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
For 15 days they were treated like pop stars - and began to feel the part.
``People were shrieking and waving. They thought we were movie stars. It was great,'' said Tina Ryals, a sophomore at Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake.
Ryals also attends the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts and is a member of Voices of Virginia, a show choir made up of 30 students from throughout Hampton Roads. Led by their director, Chip Gallagher, 28, choir members toured Japan in late June and early July. They visited Hiroshima and other Japanese cities including Kitakyushu, Norfolk's sister city, and Miyazaki, sister city of Virginia Beach.
Male members of the group especially felt the crush of Japanese fans thrilled to see real, live American teenagers.
``A couple of times the boys had to be escorted out of the building,'' said Laura Barham, a senior at Granby High School in Norfolk.
``We were mobbed. It was horrible. I loved it,'' said Norview High School sophomore John Sechrist, flashing an impish grin.
``I want to go back,'' said Chris Boyd, a junior at Tallwood.
During their stay, the teenagers performed at Japanese schools, universities and civic centers. They attended formal Japanese tea ceremonies and visited Japanese gardens and historic sites.
The cultural exchange trip was arranged last fall by the Japanese Education Culture Center and Hiroyuki Hamada, a professor at Old Dominion University who made the trip with them.
The magnet school is a public high school program that offers selected students training in dance, theater, music, vocal arts and the performing arts. Students attend their area high schools for half a day, then are bused to magnet school programs in Norfolk for the other half. Members of Voices of Virginia are an even more select group of students in the performing arts chosen from the school's nearly 300 students.
For most of their visit, the students stayed in private homes, an arrangement that offered glimpses of real life in Japan.
``Everything over there is so high-tech,'' marveled Abby McDowell, a sophomore at Norview. ``They had remote controlled toilets where water sprays up at you and then air comes out to dry you off.''
Ryals recalled a voice-activated air conditioning system she saw in one host home. ``They just came in, said something to it, and the room got cooler,'' she said, shaking her head.
``And there are no overweight people in Japan,'' said Barham. ``I lost five pounds while we were there.''
McDowell nodded. The visit had changed her appetite, too. ``I couldn't eat the Pizza Hut buffet when we got back; my stomach had shrunk.''
Gallagher, the group's leader, said the experience went far beyond what he'd hoped his students would get out of it.
``I was hoping they'd experience having to tour and do concerts, which is very much a part of the music industry,'' he said. ``The second thing was to experience a really different culture and meet some other people who were really talented.''
The group performed four major concerts in 15 days and other, less formal song sessions throughout. Japanese audiences especially appreciated American music from the '60s and songs by American pop diva Whitney Houston.
The choir met the governor of the prefecture of Hiroshima, mayors of other cities, officials and dignitaries at every stop. Once inside Japan, they traveled on domestic flights, buses and extra-fast bullet trains. And, said Gallagher, thanks to some advance work, the 28 teens were easy to move from place to place.
From last fall until their departure they attended protocol classes on weekends and learned some Japanese. The cultural insights were valuable in two ways.
``The kids were complimented on how disciplined they were and polite,'' said Gallagher. ``And because of the discipline, we were able to travel smoothly together through all kinds of airports and bus terminals.''
In video footage of their tour the teens can be seen sitting on stage in front of an audience of uniformed Japanese high school students. The Americans, all dressed in white shirts, dark shorts and white tennis shoes, sat upright, each with feet and knees pressed modestly together and hands folded in laps.
Both students and parents worked hard to make this trip happen. Japanese municipalities and cities donated $50,000 for the Americans to come. But to pay for the rest, the magnet school students had to raise $43,000 by holding raffles, candy sales and student performances.
Stella Tokar headed the parents' fund-raising group.
``It was very time-consuming. Every spare moment my family had between January and May 1, my family was out there soliciting. But the school and the parents' support group worked very closely together and the community support was wonderful,'' Tokar said. Her daughter, Sonja, performs with the choir.
Parents said the experience of touring will stay with their children forever.
``There is such a fraternity between them now,'' said Darlyne Leete, whose son Philip went on tour. ``It makes me feel like an outsider.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by KRYS STEFANSKY
Members of the show choir Voices of Virginia watch a video of a
performance in Japan. On the screen is Sonja Tokar of Kempsville
High.
BEACH TRAVELERS
Eleven Virginia Beach members of Voices of Virginia at the
Governor's Magnet School for the Arts recently toured Japan (high
school in bold):
Tallwood: Chris Boyd, Philip Leete
Kempsville: Sharalee Dolan, Joanna Gwynn, Deidre Thompson, Sonja
Denae Tokar
Salem: Jennifer Fraser
Kellam: Adrian LaMonaco
Cox: Liz Peebles, Natalie Phillips, Jennifer Wilkins
by CNB