Door County Folk Festival
Yasuyuki "Tombo" Koyama
(Kobe, Japan)

Mr. Yasuyuki “Tombo” Koyama discovered folk dancing in Santa Barbara, California in the spring of 1973, while spending two and-a-half years living in the United States. He accidentally encountered the dancing at Santa Barbara Beach Park, and initially only watched and took photographs. After a month or so he decided to join in and began learning folk dances for a year, mostly by watching others. He became friends with Mr. Luis Goena and other Santa Barbara dancers and danced every Sunday afternoon for the remainder of his time in the United Sates.

Once back in Kobe, Japan, “Tombo” looked for and found International Folk Dancing at the YMCA Folk Dance Club. He joined this group which continued meeting for several years until closing after being relocated to a smaller facility. Tombo and the remaining members then started a new club called the “Kobe Folk Dance Company”.

Since the fall of 2015, Tombo and his friend and colleague, Mr. Yasuaki Nakashima, have been running a new club called “Let's Folk-Dance Classics”. This group of about 15-20 regulars meets once a month, on third Saturdays for 3 1/2 hours doing 40 to 50 dances at each meeting. They enjoy doing line dances from the Balkans and Israel. Occasionally, they meet at other times for special events. “Tombo” and Paul Collins met online at the end of one of the “Late Night Global Dance After-Parties” in the fall of 2020.

(Dance Instructor/Leader, Virtual Dance Room Team)
Back