Former Morning Musume member Sayashi Riho on studying abroad in New York and taking on new challenges

In a recent interview with Yahoo! News, former Morning Musume member Sayashi Riho talked about resuming performance arts activities after studying abroad in New York.

When asked about studying abroad, Sayashi said, “I was able to study abroad and see a wide variety of dances up close and I felt that there were new things like this and I had to break the range I had in my mind. However, there is also the fact that I am becoming more expressive now, so I want to try different things by force and break free of limited expression of what is typically conventional. Things are also different and I realized that a sense of balance is important. Up until now, I had a strong consciousness of believing in what I thought things were and I’ve always been doing it, so in that sense, I think it would be good if I could think about how to express myself while destroying that old mindset. However, I have to change the proportion of the sense of balance depending on work, so I hope to expand teh range of expression as a dance while learning such flexibility in the future”.

When asked what she wants do now, Sayashi said, “I have a desire and ambition to stand in front of people and perform, so I hope that such an opportunity will be created. Afterall, when I stand o nthe stage and perform, I feel that I am also giving out energy by receiving the energy from the people who are watching, so people who are fans or those who come to live, such people I think shares energy with us, it will be difficult at this time in the world but I would like to have a live performance”.

When asked of how different she is now from when she was in Morning Musume, Sayashi said, “I was able to do it because there was a lot of support from various people, after all it was Morning Musume. I was conscious that my life was made because of that, because of where I was able to work. I was sometimes asked to say, ‘I’m thinking about things as a 17-year-old’ but it’s how people see things or because it’s a person in the entertainment world, you become spoiled. There may have been some complex that seemed like that but I may not be confident in myself unless I become independent. I think that’s the reason why I became aware that I wasn’t myself until I became an adult. The way of thinking now is grown up. I’m not a kid so much that fans are worried (laughing)”.

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