A group of 30 children from Okinawa flew to the United States in April to show their traditional performing arts skills in Washington as part of the city's Sakura (cherry blossom) Festival.

The trip was the second overseas tour for Miyarabi-kai, a group of second- to eighth-grade girls, following a performance in North Carolina in March 1999.

Members of the audience, who included former Okinawans living in the United States, clapped and chanted along with the girls as they performed on the sanshin (a traditional Okinawan instrument with three strings) in the attire of the former Ryukyu Kingdom.

"I'm glad that people really seemed to enjoy our performance," said a beaming Kurumi Hirakawa, the 14-year-old leader of Miyarabi-kai. Kurumi is the daughter of a sanshin teacher who launched the group in Ishikawa, Okinawa Prefecture, in 1996. Kurumi and her friends began by performing old children's songs and Okinawa folk songs. Now the group's large repertoire includes Ryukyu dances and dramas.

Miyarabi-kai members practice for 90 minutes on Monday and Wednesday nights in the living room of Kurumi's home. The group has performed over 50 times on a volunteer basis at local festivals and nursing homes and other welfare facilities. In February 1999, a month before the trip to North Carolina, however, the group asked friends and members of the public to make donations to pay for their air fare.

Photo: The children performing a traditional Okinawan dance. (Mainichi Shimbun)