Dance teacher SHE-sensei comments on the Berryz members - CDJournal Mar 2015

――We would like to ask sensei about the impressions you had while you were watching each and every member。

I guess we'll go by order of age.

Captain (Shimizu Saki) is serious.
Even from our first meeting, she'd ask for review sessions after we finished with rehearsals,
And despite being small, we had discussions about the things she was unclear on,
While we had conflicts at times, she's always been serious since back then.

I think that she's a good girl, be it at work or in her private life,
But roughly when she was a senior high student......
She became unexpectedly funny (laughs).
Doing funny faces and using a weird way of speaking, she liked funny things.
She discovered that aspect at the end of her teenage years though.
Since then, I've often messed around with Captain (laughs).
It's just that, her comicality doesn't really show on-stage, does it?
I think that it's not that she doesn't want to bring it out,
But it doesn't appear because she's in charge of all sorts of things.

Momo (Tsugunaga Momoko) is as she is.
That's probably everyone's impression of her.
She's got a high level of professionalism.
While I thought she was just a 'burikko' when she was small,
I think that she probably understands what the guests want the most,
And she studied up in order to understand them.

Recently, the girls have been proposing parts of their setlists at concerts and events,
But it's mostly led by Momo.
Like, how they'd like the stage direction to go.
She's not just making a fuss and having fun, she properly thinks it through.
But while it doesn't mean that the way she presents herself is just 'for business',
It normally does seem that way (laughs).

Also, I like Momo's butt. It's like pudding.
Let me talk about an amusing memory I have concerning her butt:
There was a time when her body was still expanding and growing a little.
As she was sitting down in a lady-like manner,
The back of her sweats ripped with a great sound. (laughs)
Her face went completely red. We had a great big laugh at that.

Chii (Tokunaga Chinami) is also as she is.
She often made mistakes pronouncing her words,
Which gave me a lot of laughs during rehearsals.
When everyone had their heads lined up vertically,
She said that it was a 'tetompole' (laughs).
She actually wanted to say 'totempole', but things like that happened a lot.
She always provided us with something funny when we were tired out.

――Like a breath of fresh air。

And she says good things once in a while.
At times when everyone is humming and hawing,
She'll say things like 'Hey, how about we do this here?'
There are times when that settles it.
That happens about one in fifty times though (laughs).

Maa (Sudo Maasa) is diligent.
She prepares for lessons more than anyone,
So if they're doing some choreography that they haven't done in a while,
Everyone depends on Maa.
I feel that she stimulates them.
Since they have videos, she watches them (to prepare for lessons).
She's never shirked from doing that.
Even when she's really busy, she doesn't cut corners. so I think she's admirable.
Preparing and reviewing lessons may feels like something that should be obvious at first glance,
But thinking about those girls' schedule,
They can't really do it properly each and every time.

Also, at some point she started being in charge of MC-ing.
That was an amazing development.
I think that to talk constantly, you have to think about all sort of things.

At a glance, Miya (Natsuyaki Miyabi) seems scary.
But she's actually quite an airhead.
There are lots of times when she doesn't listen to what's being talked about (laughs).
It's not that she's ignoring it, she just concentrates on something else in the middle of the conversation.
While it's easy to misunderstand, she doesn't have any ill will.

While she has that air-headedness to her,
When it comes to dancing, she fusses on the group.
I met her when she was in primary school,
And she said 'Dancing is the only thing that I don't want to lose to others at'.
Captain was good, but Miya was the most dynamic.

Also, while she brings out her power in proper performances,
She doesn't bring it out during rehearsals for some reason.
Thinking about it, I'd say 'She doesn't want to show her full seriousness to the members'.
In short, 'she doesn't want to reveal the extent of her abilities'. That's when I got it.

There clearly is a difference between rehearsals and performances.
While I wondered if it was stamina, perhaps?
But at performances, she showed more stamina than anyone.
Even though fundamentally she's got the least stamina,
Perhaps it might be due to adrenalin,
But she has more power to shift the mood than anyone else.

It's just that she does cut short the moves in her own way (laughs).
But she stills brings it to a conclusion.
When it comes to that girl, she does that when she goes beyond a certain point.
When she cuts too much corners, I have to point it out, 'You're looking a bit sloppy'.

It seems like she's also really careful about her facial expressions.

I don't think I gave her much guidance on expressing herself.
However, when it came to medium-tempo songs and ballades,
We'd discuss about the contents while performing them.

I'd like everyone to know that she's got air-headed aspects.
I think you only get the impression that she's strong (laughs).
She's really straightforward.
For better or for worse, she's extremely honest.

(Kumai) Yurina will resolutely go at her own pace.
While she looks like she's got her head in the clouds... she's the only B-type.
It's often said that she's an archetypical B-type.
When everyone's discussing things, she doesn't really state her opinions,
But not having an opinion is an opinion in itself.
Because saying that 'It's fine', makes it really seem so.
You realise that gradually.
But more than anyone, she won't let her pace get broken.
Despite being bad at talking though (laughs).
That unwavering pace gives the audience a sense of security,
And her presence makes you feel all warm inside.

However, she's the first to arrive at her wits' end.
She was always teary-eyed at the Budokan rehearsals,
Asking 'What do I do, what do I do' at the place where we were practising,
Not even understanding where she should position herself......
It was adorable (laughs).

But she somehow got it under control as we got to the real performance! Such a pro.

Next is (Sugaya) Risako.
I started thinking of her as a grown-up when, in a good way, she started accepting things.
Everyone goes through that stage of puberty where there are things where they don't want to do.
Having passed that, now she's at the point where anything goes.
There are lots of girls who hate doing things if their hearts aren't in it, but whatever it was, she didn't complain.
She was often originally put at the centre though.
For adults, you'd think that wherever you are, you'd be able to draw attention,
But children simply think that they'll be seen if they're in the middle.
When it comes to stage direction, she accepts everything,
And while she was the youngest,
I felt like had become an adult very quickly.

Also, remembering what I was talking before about facial expressions,
When it comes to singing medium-tempo songs, ballads, she has this habit (scrunches up forehead) (laughs).
It's reduced a bit recently, but we often used to talk about the contents of the lyrics.
Miya had that point in time as well, but in Miya's case, she made that sort of face because it was just a matter of her finding it difficult to hit the right note (laughs).
It wasn't a case of her having difficulties interpreting the lyrics (laughs).

Based on excerpts from the interview found here and here.