ICYMI, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Have an Official Dance

This month marks just 24 months (squee!) until the next Summer Olympics, set to go down summer 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. And what better way to get in the Olympic spirit starting RIGHT NOW than to learn a surprisingly intense choreographed dance?

The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee based this ditty and its accompanying moves on the theme song for the 1964 Summer Olympics, aka the last time Japan’s capital city hosted the Games. But the lyrics have been updated to include references to the accomplishments of Paralympic athletes, the song got a new arrangement designed to appeal to young people, and this choreography was specifically chosen to be easily performed by people with or without disabilities/physical limitations. Win-win-win!

Yuichi Kodama, who directed the music video, said: “We’ve tried to bring fresh life to the Tokyo Gorin Ondo song with a more uplifting arrangement and updated choreography. I have a good feeling that fun summers are on their way, and that this song and the dance can help take our minds off the stresses of daily life.”

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori added: “We are expressing the wish that many people, old and young, men and women, will dance and feel happy when the Tokyo Gorin Ondo 2020 song is played. A video is available on our website, through which people can learn the song and the dance routine. We hope that people around the world can thus have a glimpse of Japanese culture.”

Well, what are you waiting for? We’ve only got two years to go, so it’s high time you started perfecting that samurai-warrior-helmet port de bras!