Dance Video Index

In this database, you will find 200 dance videos which were collected in the 2023 fiscal year under the auspices of the EPAD (Eternal Performing Arts Archives and Digital Theatre) .

Overview

• Title
• Performer(s)
• Year performed

• 100 Light Years of Solitude

  Inspired by García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" to explore a state of solitude,
  Yumiko dances the life of a unique creature, born on a planet 100 light years away from ours.
  Imagining that this creature is the only one of its species on that planet,
  it enjoys unfolding its life until it realizes its destiny... to exist in solitude.
  If only we excavate and evolve the uniqueness of our own presence in the solitude,
  we can fully unify with the collective and ultimately with the Universe.
  
  -Premiered in October 2006 in Porto, Portugal. Special Thanks to Paulina Almeida, Armazem22 in Porto for the residency.
  -Filmed in Mexico City in 2017.
  -Supported by Escénario Danza Teatro Ritual (Mexico City)

  

  Performer(s)

  Yumiko Yoshioka

  Director/Choreographer

  Yumiko Yoshioka

  Venue

  Teatro de la Danza

  Year performed

  2017

• The 1st night of the Gala Performance to Celebrate Kazuo Ohno’s 100th Birthday: “Hyakka Ryouran”

  Starting in October 2006, when dancer Kazuo Ohno turned 100 years old, a year was dedicated to "100 Years of Kazuo Ohno", with exhibitions, performances and other events around the world to celebrate his 100th birthday. Among them was the gala performance "Hyakka Ryoran", which brought together 23 dance groups from Japan and abroad, including a video performance by Pina Bausch, and two highly-charged days of performance were held. On both days, Kazuo Ohno appeared during the curtain call in a wheelchair pushed by Yoshito Ohno.
  
  First night performers and the titles of their works:
  Yukizono Yoshimura's "Kanega Misaki" (jiuta: Tomiyama Seikin) / Yukio Waguri's "Lightning Rod Shop" / Mitsuyo Uesugi's "To Mr. O" / Yasuhiko Takeuchi's "Moegara" / Manri Kim's "The Dragon of Jiuzhaigou" (cello: Michihiro Morisada) / Akaji Maro's "Summer Time" / Kayo Mikami's "Dance of the Sparrow" / Mitsutaka Ishii's "Homage to Ohno-sensei" (art: Koji Ogushi) / Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's special video work "To Kazuo Ohno" (Pina Bausch's video work is not included in this video) / Min Tanaka's solo / Lucie Gregoire's "EYE" / Maeja Kim's "Salpuri" / Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio students
  
  -Arts Fusion 2006 in KANAGAWA Part1

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Venue

  Kanagawa Prefectural Youth Center : Hall

  Year performed

  2007

• The 2nd night of the Gala Performance to Celebrate Kazuo Ohno’s 100th Birthday: “Hyakka Ryouran”

  Starting in October 2006, when dancer Kazuo Ohno turned 100 years old, a year was dedicated to "100 Years of Kazuo Ohno", with exhibitions, performances and other events around the world to celebrate his 100th birthday. Among them was the gala performance "Hyakka Ryoran", which brought together 23 dance groups from Japan and abroad, including a video performance by Pina Bausch, and two highly-charged days of performance were held. On both days, Kazuo Ohno appeared during the curtain call in a wheelchair pushed by Yoshito Ohno.
  
  Second night performers and the titles of their works:
  Takou Fujima's "Heisei Banzai" / Himawari Dance Troupe's "Scarlet Burning Flame, Transformation" (choreography: Naoe Yamaguchi) / Tadashi Endo's "Homeward" / Kei Takei's "The Woman Washing Rice" (music: Yukio Tsuji) / Tomiko Takai's "Dedication to Kazuo Ohno" / Ismael Ivo's "As Galinhas" [The Hens] / Ushio Amagatsu's "From HIBIKI" / Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's special video work "To Kazuo Ohno" (Pina Bausch's video work is not included in this video) / Akira Kasai's "Death and the Maiden" (live music: Pyrrhula String Quartet) / Hideo Kanze's "Sotoba Komachi" (flute: Hisayuki Isso, drums: Genjiro Okura) / Carla Fracci's "Dance of Fate: Three Solos" from "Isadora Duncan" (pianist: Francesco Sodini) / Yoshito Ohno / Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio students
  
  -Arts Fusion 2006 in KANAGAWA Part1

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Venue

  Kanagawa Prefectural Youth Center : Hall

  Year performed

  2007

• Aboriginal

  First solo performance by Namerikawa Goro (1950-2012), one of the founding members of Sankai Juku. The performance was in memory of Takada Yoshiyuki, a Sankai Juku dancer who died in an accident during a performance in Seattle the previous September. This performance lead the way for Namerikawa's career after he left Sankai Juku in 1987 to become an independent dancer. A large stage was built in the huge underground space of Oya Museum using 650 stones, 200 bamboos and other materials and the audience (in order to protect them from the cold as well as see the stage as a whole) watched as they moved around the stage wearing costumes designed by Koshino Junko.

  

  Performer(s)

  Goro Namerikawa/Austro Arts Association Co.,Ltd.

  Director/Choreographer

  Goro Namerikawa

  Venue

  Oya Stone Underground Quarries

  Year performed

  1986

• About Kazuo Ohno

  In this "conceptual performance about butoh" Takao Kawaguchi copies the movements of Kazuo Ohno's masterpieces, exactly as they are in archived footage. Devoted entirely to the copy, Kawaguchi’s performance paradoxically illuminates the charm, scale, and mystery of Ohno’s dance while also bringing his own artistry to light. Since its premiere in 2013, this piece has been performed in 38 cities around the world, and in 2016 it was nominated for the Bessie Award. This recording is of the performance that took place in Tokyo for the first time in eight years, at the Ueno Park Amphitheater in June 2021.
  
  -Tokyo Real Underground (Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL Special 13): 1 April - 15 August 2021
  -'About Kazuo Ohno' premiered in 2013. Concept and Performance: Takao Kawaguchi / Choreography: Kazuo Ohno, Tatsumi Hijikata / Dramaturge, Film, Sound: Naoto Iina / Lighting: Toshio Mizohata / Film Appearance: Yoshito Ohno/ Costume: Noriko Kitamura / In Cooperation with Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio
  

  

  Performer(s)

  NPO Dance Archive Network

  Director/Choreographer

  Takao Kawaguchi

  Venue

  Filmed at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage

  Year performed

  2021

• ABSENCE

  ABSENCE is a Butoh work created by Juju Alishina in 2005, featuring two performers. Premiered in Nouméa at the Tjibaou Cultural Center, it introduced Butoh to New Caledonia. The 60-minute piece has two parts: the first solo depicts the loneliness of an ancient princess, while the second duet with Ippei Hosaka expresses the madness of violence and eroticism through the dance. Highly praised for its deep emotional intensity and captivating beauty, it garnered significant media attention.
  
  - Premiered at l’Espace Culturel Bertin Poirée in Paris in Nov. 2004 and also presented at the same venue in June 2005.
  - The video was recorded in Dec. 2005 in New Caledonia.
  The Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa, New Caledonia, is a unique building designed and conceived by architect Renzo Piano, who also designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It stands as one of Nouméa’s landmarks. Juju Alishina being invited to perform as the grand finale of the annually programmed season at this venue marks a significant milestone in her Butoh career in France.
  
  Organized by Centre Culturel Tjibaou, Nouméa, New Caledonia

  

  Performer(s)

  Dance Company NUBA

  Director/Choreographer

  Juju Alishina

  Venue

  Centre culturel Tjibaou

  Year performed

  2005

• Admiring La Argentina

  First performed in 1977, this is the masterpiece that brought Kazuo Ohno international fame as a butoh dancer. 'La Argentina' refers to the innovative Spanish dancer Antonia Mercé, who left a deep impression on Ohno when he saw her perform at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo in 1929. This piece was an ode to her.
  
  -Awarded the 9th Dance Critics Society Prize in 1977

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Kazuo Ohno

  Venue

  Daiichi Seimei Hall

  Year performed

  1977

• After Lunch

  Kei Takei made her New York debut in 1969 with the premiere of 'LIGHT, Part 1' at The Cubiculo Theatre, home of The National Shakespeare Company. That same year, at the same venue, she presented 'Lunch'. Six years later, she presented 'After Lunch', as a follow-up to 'Lunch'.
  
  - The recording was filmed on on 30 June 1975, but it is not known how many days the performance took place.

  Performer(s)

  Kei Takei’s Moving Earth

  Director/Choreographer

  Kei Takei

  Venue

  The New York University School of the Arts

  Year performed

  1975

• Afternoon Feast

  Directed and choreographed by Katsuko Orita, the piece brings out Katsushi Izumi's dynamic compositional ability, and naïvety. As a dancer who takes seriously the chaos of having both Christ and Judaism coexist in the body, the calm period at the end of a century is paradoxically appropriate for Izumi. Tragedy awaits he who leads the organisation of a Feast, only to have to run through the window on stage. The Feast have only just begun.
  
  -Tess Dance Series No. 21. Katsushi Izumi Dance Opera I
  -Participation in the 1980 Japan Arts Festival

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsuko Orita

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1980

• Alice

  Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland", this work was conceived as a journey through a surreal, non-linear world, guided by the White Rabbit. In the white darkness of sleep, a disjointed, dreamlike reality unfolds. A nonsense world full of surprises and humour in search of an Asian Alice.

  

  Performer(s)

  Butoh-sha Tenkei

  Director/Choreographer

  Ebisu Torii

  Venue

  Azabu die pratze

  Year performed

  2007

• ALIEN MIRROR BALLISM

  In a magical place where a mirror ball is spinning, a dance is sung by aliens of all ages and cultures.
  Strange, old-new aliens with chimera-like bodies, that have collected fragments of culture and evolutionary memories hidden in the present day.
  Time that is the present, past and future = timeless. The world is a dance floor with a mirror ball spinning.
  All life, humans and animals, dance. We hereby declare Mirror Ballism.
  
  -Teita Iwabuchi, Body Map: New Dance 2023

  

  Performer(s)

  Teita Iwabuchi

  Director/Choreographer

  Teita Iwabuchi

  Venue

  Kichijoji Theater

  Year performed

  2023

• Alteration of Alterations　

  An open-air performance of 'Letter to Abakanowicz', a collaborative work between Akiko Motofuji and Magdalena Abakanowicz, performed in Abakanowicz's native Poland in conjunction with the opening of her exhibition in Warsaw. Dances by Motofuji, and a group of male butoh dancers were accompanied by bassist Tetsu Saito and two kotos. A requiem performance in a country with tragic history.

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji, Magdalena Abakanowicz

  Venue

  Park Agrykola

  Year performed

  1995

• Ametsuchi

  Presented at the San Franscisco Butoh Festival. Following on from her performance in Poland the previous year, this work developed Akiko Motofuji's international career. The concept came through Motofuji's grandiose image of connecting heaven and earth with the body, which connects with idea improving one's whole life through butoh. Motofuji, who performed the lead role, used a rope to connect heaven and earth, resulting in a work of great scale.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Fort Mason Cowell Theatre

  Year performed

  1996

• ARAHABAKI in Nippori

  Arahabaki is a mysterious deity worshipped mainly in the Tōhoku and Kantō regions. His name has been written in a variety of kanji, and there are various theories for him as the god of the feet, the god of iron-manufacturing, the god of snakes, among others. In 1998, Namerikawa Goro performed 'Arahabaki' outdoors in Hirosaki, and 'Dōkutsu-hen' [Cave version] at the Oya Museum. We can see that these themes were of great interest for Namerikawa, who wanted to explore the origins of dance with a deep knowledge in folklore. Details of the Nippori and Hirosaki performances are unknown, but likely took place around 1995.

  Performer(s)

  Goro Namerikawa/Austro Arts Association Co.,Ltd.

  Director/Choreographer

  Goro Namerikawa

  Venue

  Nippori Sunny Hall

  Year performed

  1995

• ARAHABAKI: Cave version

  Although originally based in Tokyo, Namerikawa Goro, who performed 'Aboriginal' at the Oya Subterreanean Cave in 1986, moved to Oya in 1996 to focus on his own stage productions. Seeking to create a form of movement which is guided by the space, and stage where the body can be entrusted to the space, he once again created a performance at the Oya Museum, where he felt the breath of ancient times. The flyer read: "The Universe as seen by the Ancients, the Prometheus of the Soul". 'Arahabaki' refers to a mysterious deity, mainly workshipped in the Tōhoku and Kantō regions.

  

  Performer(s)

  Goro Namerikawa/Austro Arts Association Co.,Ltd.

  Director/Choreographer

  Goro Namerikawa

  Venue

  Oya Stone Underground Quarries

  Year performed

  1998

• Asian Theater Festival Documentary – Manila, Philippines

  The second Asian Theater Festival, which was first held in Seoul in 1982, took place in Manila. The video includes the opening ceremony and parade, as well as performances by Sanjukta Panigrahi, an odissi dancer from India, Theatre SAE DKI from Indonesia, Lan-Ling Theatre Workshop from Taiwan, and the Dae Ha Dramatic Troupe from Korea, along with various groups from the Philippines. From Japan, the Yokohama Performance Group and Byakko-sha participated, presenting their 2-3 hour performance, "Geikotsu no Mori" [The Forest of Whale's Bones]. The footage also includes a performance by Byakko-sha at the New Bilibid Prison on the outskirts of Manila.
  
  -Asian Theater Festival and Conference

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Cultural Center of the Philippines, New Bilibid Prison (outskirts of Manila)

  Year performed

  1983

• At the Foot of a Hill

  A duo performed by Akira Kasai and Kazuo Ohno at 'Modern Dance: Transcendence and Disclosure of the Body' produced by dance critic Miyabi Ichikawa. Based on 'The Story of Venus and Tannhauser' by Aubrey Beardsley, with Kazuo Ohno performing the role of Venus. The performance was recreated in March 2020 along with 2 other Ohno/Kasai duos, with Ohno's role performed by Takao Kawaguchi, and Kasai's role performed by Mitsutake Kasai.

  

  Performer(s)

  Tenshi-Kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akira Kasai

  Venue

  Seinenza Theatre (Tokyo)

  Year performed

  1971

• August 27, 1979 – The Girl Can’t Help It

  The first film of Yoshiko Chuma shows simple motion and action in front of the landscape in Maine, USA.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yoshiko Chuma

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshiko Chuma

  Venue

  Maine, USA

  Year performed

  1979

• Autumn Poem

  Akiko Motofuji generally only created one new performance each year, but for 1996 she presented a new work on the invitation of the Torii Hall in Osaka. For the small and intimate hall, Motofuji created a poetic piece in which she quietly recollected life, as though pondering on an autumn evening. Her performance appeared to narrate a deep monologue, making use of the ballet and modern dance techniques she developed over the years.

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1996

• AWAI [Bi-duality]

  Premiered at Waseda Hoshien, Tokyo, in 1988 and also later performed in Paris and Edinburgh. Part of the 'Shozoku wa Mizu' [Costume is Water] dance series.
  The performance used mirrors and fluorescent light tubes. In the programme for the premiere performance were the words 'I would like to hunt for blue fish of (sexual) self-love that has sprouted little by little in my dance as a play of affection between the ankle joint and lip, or as an ileus (intestinal obstruction) of the sense of touch and being touched, in the lake of my body'.
  
  - Masaki Iwana Solo Butoh Dance

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Masaki Iwana

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1989

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