Dance Video Index

In this database, you will find 373 dance videos which were collected from the 2023 to 2025 fiscal years under the auspices of the EPAD (Eternal Performing Arts Archives and Digital Theatre) .

Overview

• Title
• Performer(s)
• Year performed

• Eternal Smile

  Six-part solo butoh performance by Minoru Hideshima. The "Mr. O" in the sixth scene refers to the butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, with whom Hideshima appeared in Ohno's 1976 film "Mr. O's Book of the Dead".
  
  I. Towards my Father
  II. I Thought to Make You Happy
  III. Candy Candy Candy
  IV. Penguins of the Antarctic
  V. Thoughts on Eiko Takada: Eternal Smile
  VI. "Mr. O and I"

  

  Performer(s)

  Minoru Hideshima

  Director/Choreographer

  Minoru Hideshima

  Venue

  THEATER X

  Year performed

  2023

• Event Fission

  Outdoor performance on the Hudson River Landfill, produced by Creative Time. Eiko & Koma danced with a huge white flag billowing on top of a sand dune as the audience watched from below. The white flag was used to symbolically attack the newly developed downtown buildings. On a lower level of the landfill, to which Eiko & Koma tumbled down, there were fires on four corners of the performing area. At the end of the performance of 50 minutes, Eiko & Koma were swallowed into a deep hole they had dug and hid, disappearing with a blast of sand.
  
  -Participated in the 'Art in the Beach'

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma

  Venue

  Hudson River Landfil

  Year performed

  1980

• eX…it! ’19: 7th International dance eXchange and performance festival on butoh and contemporary dance

  Video documentation of eX...it! in 2019. The event had 8 instructors and 67 participants, who were divided into four groups for the first week-long workshop. For the second week, participants chose one of five teams with which to work. For the final two days, the participants were invited to give presentations to the general public.
  
  About the festival:
  At the beginning there was one question: Butoh - what is that?
  Yoshioka Yumiko and delta RA'i have constantly been asking this question since co-founding tatoeba-THÉÂTRE DANSE GROTESQUE, the first German-Japanese Butoh company, in 1987.
  This led to the idea of a European Butoh meeting, which was held first in 1995.
  It was called eX...it!, and as a result of the huge popularity among choreographers, participants, audience and media, a regular festival has emerged, which has since been a highlight at Schloss Broellin every 4 years.
  
  What was formerly a pure Butoh dance festival has today become an eXchange project for Butoh and contemporary dance. Nevertheless, the festival is still firmly anchored in Butoh, the Japanese expression dance.
  
  Our eXchange dance festival is specifically designed for professionally oriented dancers of all disciplines who wish to work intensively with Butoh dance.
  We try strictly to distinguish from therapeutic Butoh styles.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yumiko Yoshioka

  Director/Choreographer

  delta RA'i, Yumiko Yoshioka

  Venue

  Schloss Bröllin

  Year performed

  2019

• The Fable of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

  No one is perfectly good. Everyone has good and evil within.
  Jekyll and Hyde succumb to the sweet temptation of evil and commit a sin. Small sins at first, then on to bigger sins.
  Jekyll and Hyde's final act is suicide by hanging. The body shaking like a swaying ball is like the hearts of two people wavering between good and evil.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1981
  - Awarded the ACA National Arts Festival 1981 Excellence Award

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1981

• Datenshi’ [Fallen Angel]

  The first work by Katsushi Izumi on his return to Japan after travelling to Europe on the invitation of Maurice Béjart. In this piece he established his style of performing in suspenders and pointe shoes. Izumi left many paintings of dreams he had, and this work is an overflowing collage of images.
  
  -Tess Dance Series No. 10. The World of Katsushi Izumi.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsushi Izumi

  Venue

  Sanbyakunin Theatre

  Year performed

  1979

• Festa do Interior

  Inspired by traditional harvest festivals that take place throughout Brazil in June. The performance brings together people of all ages, from young individuals to older participants who do not typically engage in dance lessons. It is cherished by Brazilians wherever it is performed.
  Premiered in 1991 for Ballet Yuba's second tour of Japan. The work has also been performed at Yuba Farm and throughout Brazil.
  The video was filmed in 2011.

  

  Performer(s)

  Ballet Yuba

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Ohara

  Venue

  Teatro Yuba

  Year performed

  2011

• Feverish Days

  As though going round and round
  Forever round inside a hole
  A great circle hither and thither.
  From which a white bird flies away.
  Rather than try to fill the hole
  Just leave it as it is.
  But beware the hole's gentle darkness
  Lest in it we drown.
  
  Pour poison on that fever.
  
  -28th Terpsichore Project Newcomer Series
  -35th Dance Critics Society of Japan: Newcomer Award

  

  Performer(s)

  Terpsichore

  Director/Choreographer

  Mayako Okura

  Venue

  Terpsichore

  Year performed

  2003

• f/F Parasite

  Masterpiece by the Hachinohe-based theatre company Molecular Theatre. The avant-garde approach shocked the Japanese theatre world in the 1980s when it won rave reviews at theatre festivals in Germany, Belgium and other countries. Based on a collection of letters exchanged between Franz Kafka with his fiancée Felice, it depicts Kafka's psychograms - the madness of his writing and its endless proliferation, the parasitic voice and thought in words, courtship and isolation - in a dense, anxiety-filled space, dramatising them with overwhelming tension and physical expression.
  
  - Participated in the Münster Theater Festival
  - Short version
  - From 'Letters to Felice' by Franz Kafka, translated by Shiroyama Yoshihiko (published by Shinchosha)

  

  Performer(s)

  Molecular Theatre

  Director/Choreographer

  Shigeyuki Toshima

  Venue

  Theater im Pumpenhaus

  Year performed

  1987

• Katsuko Orita – Dance Alone “Final Note in C Minor”

  A solo piece choreographed by Katsushi Izumi for Katsuko Orita. The work beautifully draws out Orita's ability to express deep emotions lyrically and subjectively.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsushi Izumi

  Venue

  ABC Hall

  Year performed

  1978

• Fish for Ellen; Night on the grass; What’s wrong

  Inaugural performance by Fluid hug-hug Co. led by Kota Yamazaki, featuring three works choreographed, directed and composed by Yamazaki from 1996-2002, all performed by new dancers.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kaibunsha

  Director/Choreographer

  Kota Yamazaki

  Venue

  Spheremex

  Year performed

  2002

• Five Car Pile-Up

  Based on a work performed by 100 performers at St. Marks Church in New York City in 1983, the performance was condensed and various angles, slow motion, montage, and soundscapes were used to encompass a space far beyond what we can see. A new visual choreography was created.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yoshiko Chuma

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshiko Chuma

  Year performed

  1983

• Floating Garden

  "It is said that the medieval dream of building a floating garden is half realised through extravagance.
  In the five rooms of the Floating Garden are five dreams, and Izumi opens each door one by one, inviting the audience into rooms of fantasy."
  
  - Katsushi Izumi Dance Opera.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsushi Izumi

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1985

• The Forest of Whale’s Bones

  Founded in Kyoto in 1980, Byakko-sha toured university festivals throughout the Kansai region from May of that year, beginning with its inaugural performance, "Himei no Mori" ("The Forest of Hidden Screams"), at Ritsumeikan University, and continuing through 1981. This footage documents "Geikotsu no Mori" ("The Forest of Whale's Bones"), performed at Doshisha University in October 1980. The roles of carrying the palanquin bare-chested were performed by students from the university festival executive committee and festival staff. Many elements can be seen here that would later be incorporated into multiple works, including the men’s group dance "Dance of Backs," in which dancers place pillows on their heads and perform facing away from the audience, and the women’s group dance "Broom Dance."
  
  Recorded on 8mm film. There is some sound degredation from the middle to the end of the video. Sanae Hiruta's solo section makes use of throat singing.

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Doshisha Students' Hall

  Year performed

  1980

• Frankenstein’s Fable

  The story of an imperfect life form born from a doctor's obsession with life.
  Unable to accept the death of a loved one. People who wish for a happy future with their loved ones.
  A man is removed from the circle of reincarnation, from life to death, and from death to life, and is broken.
  The doctor was exposed to the mystery of life, and wanted to know everything.
  A horribly tragic fable.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1980

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1980

• From Darkness to Light

  There are two types of death dances: Danses des Morts, rooted in religion, and Danses Macabres, where the living also have a little fun with death. There is a legacy of 'death-loving cultures' all over the world. Population booms always follow mass deaths caused by famine and war. I began to realise that life is valued only through death after experiencing the death of several of my own loved ones, and that the performing arts are about identifying pain.
  My dance has recently become less an art for the gods or the Absolute, and more an art for human beings and their fragility in fleeting life.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1979
  - Awarded the ACA National Arts Festival 1979 Excellence Award

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1979

• Kota Yamazaki’s ‘From Picnic’ and Mikayo Mori’s ‘Solo & Soul’

  'From Picnic' is a fleeting dance in which the last man dances ""for someone he cannot see"". It is a development of Kota Yamazaki's 'Picnic', which was presented at Spiral Hall in Tokyo in July 1997.
  Mikayo Mori performed 'Solo & Soul'. In this piece, she connected with what emerges on the other side of her own intentions, from the space between her thoughts and the energy of feelings that occur when different thoughts and images pass through her body to the outside.
  
  - Participated in the 4th OSAKA DANCE EXPERIENCE Dancce Battle - Before Dance / After Dance - Kota Yamazaki x Mikayo Mori

  

  Performer(s)

  TORII HALL

  Director/Choreographer

  Kota Yamazaki, Mikayo Mori

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1998

• From There

  This work depicts the cries and prayers of people under oppression, accompanied by gospel music and the spirit of souls seeking freedom. Premiered in 1968, it was created in solidarity with Black Americans who, living amid discrimination, had the courage to take a step forward “from there,” and from the stirrings in the heart their music evoked. During one of their practices the dancers were playing a Negro Spirituals song, and a Black musician wandered into the dance studio drawn by the music. As the dancers were unfamiliar with it, the musician offered to let them touch his hips to feel the gait and rhythm as he walked. They then practiced until they were able to move in the same manner and rhythm.
  
  - Arts Festival Commemorating the Meiji Centennial Anniversary
  - The ACA National Arts Festival, The Enncouragement Award
  - The image quality is poor due to the deterioration of the half-inch magnetic tape on which the footage was recorded.

  

  Performer(s)

  Mieko Fuji Dance Company

  Director/Choreographer

  Mieko Fuji

  Venue

  Tokyo Koseinenkin Kaikan

  Year performed

  1968

• Fruit of Knowledge

  Adam and Eve, encouraged by the serpent, eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge and incur the wrath of God. Forced out of paradise, mankind build a world using knowledge, creating a pleasant urban life.
  Humans change and evolve, but they also produce abnormal people. A girl is assaulted, becomes mentally ill and her parents suffer. A group of doctors represent the duality of both Adam and Eve, and the serpent.
  During her convalescence, the girl steps on a snake and gets better from the shock.
  With the help of the serpent, she returns to the world of knowledge... The myth is reborn in the present day. Human joy is shown to be entangled with nature.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1985

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1985

• Fukushima Mon Amour

  Tadashi Endo relocated to Europe in the 1970s to study at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and has since performed extensively in both Germany and Japan. This work reflects his response to the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It explores the devastating impact of the natural disaster, the man-made catastrophe of the nuclear accident, and the collective sorrow of the Japanese people, while also capturing their enduring hope for recovery.
  The piece premiered at Theatrewerkstatt in Hannover in October 2012.

  

  Performer(s)

  Tadashi Endo (Butoh Centre MAMU)

  Director/Choreographer

  Tadashi Endo

  Venue

  Columbia College Chicago

  Year performed

  2016

• Furi

  Japanese dance can be divided into three main groups: 'mai', 'furi' and 'odori' [all translate to 'dance' in English]. The title of this piece 'Furi' [also meaning 'choreography'] was named after a desire to open up the dynamism of this type of dance to its original meaning. The recorded music was composed for this performance by Koichi Hattori, conducted by Yukinori Tezuka, and performed by Orchestra Sonore, while the artwork was created by the at the time up-and-coming artist James Kawada. Ten female and twelve male dancers were performed the piece, dressed in simple leotards and tights.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1971
  - Awarded the ACA National Arts Festival 1971 Excellence Award
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Asahi Seimei Hall

  Year performed

  1971

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 19