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

• Galactic Rebellion ’91 – I Just Wanted to Kiss the Moon –

  Premiered in June 1989 at the AI Hall in Itami. In this work, the theatre company Taihen - a theatre company for people with disabilities - breaks away from their previous style and creates a new expression developed solely through the movements of the performers' bodies, without fancy costumes or dialogue. Miyajima Ichiro's calligraphy and leotards reveal the movements of the performers clearly and, enhanced with lighting and the use of paper and cloth, a dynamic performance is created. The theme is the liberation of one's own mind and oneness with the universe.

  

  Performer(s)

  Performance Troupe TAIHEN

  Director/Choreographer

  Manri Kim

  Venue

  Kitazawa Town Hall

  Year performed

  1991

• A Genius is Fool

  The second piece from the 'THE MUSIC POTLATCH' series, which began in March 1985 and was held at Shibuya Jean-Jean. A different genre of musician was invited to perform alongside Anzu Furukawa's dance in each piece of the series. The first featured Yosuke Yamashita on piano, the third featured Keiko Abe on the marimba, and the final piece featured Yasosuke Kineya on the shamisen.
  
  Act 1: Mendelssohn in Hiroshima
  Act 2: Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
  Act 3: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

  

  Performer(s)

  Anzu Furukawa

  Director/Choreographer

  Tetsurou Tamura, Anzu Furukawa

  Venue

  Jean-Jean

  Year performed

  1985

• Ghosts and Cherries I

  The first in a series of butoh performances titled "The Theater of the Body", which focuses on 'nikutai' [the body as flesh/meat]. The series began in June 2008, and was held on the 29th of every month. The show was structured in two parts: the first part was a free, experimental performance that aimed to "expand the scope of the Butoh genre", and the second part was a solo performance by Nobuo Harada. The three-year series concluded on 29 May 2011.
  
  "The term 'nikutai' is no longer commonly used in discussions of the body, but the word 'shintai' [another word for 'body'] is too clean. I don't want to forget that the nuances embedded in 'nikutai', such as shyness and perverseness, are at the very origin of butoh. I want to draw a line between this and contemporary dance, or other forms that fall within the framework of civil society."
  - Nobuo Harada, from an interview by Tamiya Yada, Yomiuri Shimbun evening edition, June 2008

  

  Performer(s)

  Butoh Seiryukai

  Director/Choreographer

  Nobuo Harada

  Venue

  SPACE TERRA

  Year performed

  2008

• Golden Powder Show 1993

  The piece was invited to be performed at the Kunsthaus Tacheles (1990-2012) in former East Berlin, which since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was occupied by avant-garde artists and had became the centre of the Berlin counterculture. In the 1970s and 1980s, when there was very little funding for dance, many butoh dancers earned their living and performance costs through cabaret dancing. The Golden Powder Show can be considered a highlight of cabaret dance.

  Performer(s)

  tatoeba

  Venue

  Kunsthaus Tacheles

  Year performed

  1993

• GOYA – La Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf)

  A "silent opera" inspired by the human tragedy and dark humour of Goya's "Disasters of War" prints. Set to Reich's "Different Trains," which addresses the persecution of Jews under Hitler's regime, the dancers remain tied to their chairs, symbolising that their fate cannot be changed. In creating this piece, Furukawa pointed out that such works are necessary to draw attention to these ongoing tragedies.
  
  Act 1: Morning (music: Steve Reich "Different Trains"; I. America - Before the War / II. Europe - During the War)
  Act 2: Noon (music: Steve Reich "Different Trains"; III. After the War)
  Act 3: Evening (music: G. Rossini (1792-1868) Highlights from "Il Barviere di Sivigia" [The Barber of Seville])
  Text used in the performance: Franz Kafka

  

  Performer(s)

  Anzu Furukawa

  Director/Choreographer

  Anzu Furukawa

  Venue

  loplop (Berlin)

  Year performed

  1999

• Grain

  Created while living in Catskills upstate New York, the piece was premiered in Kampo Cultural Center in 1983 and was performed again as part of Dance Theater Workshop's 1984 winter season, for which Eiko & Koma received the inaugural Bessie New York Performance award.
  
  -Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award)
  -Premiere: January 1983 at the Kampo Cultural Center

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma

  Venue

  American Dance Theater Workshop

  Year performed

  1984

• Green Fever

  Premiered at the Institut français du Japon - Tokyo. Wrapped in a black costume, Yamada Setsuko transforms her introspective world into movement. Three performers repeat gentle movements like children in a kagura performance. Korean critic Kim Tae-won commented: "I will never forget the shock I felt when I saw Yamada Setsuko for the first time. Her transparent will and precision of technique are the ideals of expressive solo dance". This work, which consciously abstracts reality, clarifies Yamada's unique dance movement and method.
  
  - Participated in the Chang Mu Chum Festival
  - Yamada Setsuko Butoh Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Setsuko Yamada

  Director/Choreographer

  Setsuko Yamada

  Venue

  Chang-Mu Dance Theater

  Year performed

  1987

• Guerrilla Kuyo-Kuyo ga onnen (Guerrilla Kuyo-Kuyo is Here with Grudge)

  Memorial performance for Guerrilla Kuyo-Kuyo, an actor who died tragically at the age of 30 due to administrative mismanagement.

  

  Performer(s)

  Performance Troupe TAIHEN

  Director/Choreographer

  Manri Kim

  Venue

  Suita City Hall

  Year performed

  1985

• Half-Demon (Nama-nari)

  A solo performance on 'nudity, immobility and verticality', 'Half-Demon (Nama-nari)' was first performed in 1985 and became a major turning point for Masaki Iwana. Wanting to bring out his inner femininity, he performed for the first time in a European dress. That same year, Iwana began calling his own works 'butoh'. Nama-nari is the Noh mask of a woman with slight protruding horns, before she becomes a hannya [female demon].

  

  Performer(s)

  TORII HALL

  Director/Choreographer

  Masaki Iwana

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1999

• HANA-flower-

  “HANA” - flower
  Open your life to the universe.
  Embracing the life of the tribute and the memory of the soul of billion years, the innocence
  from darkness to light and death to life is constantly repeated and continues to open.
  The beginning of the universe is love.
  The flower stares at the stars.
  
  - ONKO Theatre Eocounters' Festival, SOMMERWERFTInt'l Theater Festival, Hybrid Butoh Vienna Art Festival, Paris Butoh Festival
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Atsushi Takenouchi

  Director/Choreographer

  Atsushi Takenouchi

  Venue

  The Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute

  Year performed

  2023

• The Hanged Man

  A 1976 dance film made in memory of sculptor Wim de Haan (1913-1967), who had a great interest in Eastern spirituality.
  The story begins at the Magere Brug [Skinny Bridge] in Amsterdam. Mitsutaka Ishii walks with what appears to be a wooden cross while his friends follow behind. Next there is dance in performed in a prison-like room, reminding us of de Haan's time as a Japanese prisoner of war, and Ishii performs the dance of a young girl in de Haan's studio. The piece ends with Ishii, dressed in a kimono, playing the role of a hanged man.

  

  Performer(s)

  Mitsutaka Ishii

  Director/Choreographer

  Meino Zeillemaker

  Venue

  Amsterdam

  Year performed

  1976

• HEN BAI

  Hen Bai is an ritual performed in Onmyōdō [commonly known in the English as Ying Yang] for leaving, or calming down. It later entered Shintoism and Esoteric Buddhism, and even the world of Yūsoku Kojitsu. This is where UNO-MAN got his inspiration. It begins with a body supported by a rope, which appears to be a symbol for anti-gravity, followed by a scene in which two men have a tube connecting their mouths to their buttocks. In the second half we see a ritual of throwing salt by a performer in a white costume. This work further develops the Onmyō world from the final dance of his previous work 'Hot Key'. Performed only once at the MAMU Festival.

  

  Performer(s)

  Mamu Festival

  Director/Choreographer

  UNO-MAN

  Venue

  Junges Theater Göttingen

  Year performed

  1994

• Here

  My life experiences, my encounters,
  All traces of life are kept alive.
  And the future is spun from here.
  In these ever-changing times
  I'd like to dive in with my whole body
  To the possibilities of here and now
  And live life to the fullest.
  
  Also performed at:
  2021/7/18（Sun）Seiji Tanaka Dance Studio (the 3rd "Butoh Counterattack" series in Nara)
  2021/12/16（Thu）SPACE LFAN ("KYOTO DANCING BLADE #3" in Kyoto)
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Mayako Okura

  Director/Choreographer

  Mayako Okura

  Venue

  Terpsichore

  Year performed

  2021

• HIDAMARI – Sunday in Life –

  Directed by Anzu Furukawa, who was invited from Japan to direct the piece in Germany. Co-choreographed with the members of tatoeba.
  In freezing cold Berlin, sunlight attracts us as an oasis in a desert. Not just humans, but beasts, insects and flowers transform as they unwind in the light and relax in the darkness.
  In this work, the lives of living creatures are woven into a tapestry of shadows in the interplay of light and darkness.
  
  - Premiered in April 1989 at Künstlerhaus Bethanian in Berlin.

  

  Performer(s)

  tatoeba

  Director/Choreographer

  Anzu Furukawa, tatoeba

  Year performed

  1989

• Hijikata memorial “Handsome Blue Sky”

  Commissioned by JADE Festival, this inaugural piece by Ko & Edge Co. was created as an homage to butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata, borrowing the title "Handsome Blue Sky" from a collection of writings by Hijikata.
  
  -Petit JADE International Dance festival

  

  Performer(s)

  Kaibunsha

  Director/Choreographer

  Ko Murobushi

  Venue

  Park Tower Hall

  Year performed

  2003

• Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh

  TV programme in memory of Tatsumi Hijikata, who passed away in January 1986. Dance critic Miyabi Ichikawa talks about Hijikata's art and character, and looks ahead to the future of butoh after his death. The show features comments by Eikoh Hosoe, Masuo Ikeda, Yoshito Ohno and others who worked closely with Hijikata, excerpts from performances by Dairakudakan and Kazuo Ohno at "Butoh Festival '85" which was held the year before, and footage from a solo butoh piece by Man Uno.

  

  Performer(s)

  NHK

  Year performed

  1986

• “Himei no Mori” [The Forest of Hidden Screams] – Beyond the Tunnel

  The inaugural performance of the Kyoto-based butoh group Byakko-sha, founded under the leadership of Isamu Osuka. Following this debut, Byakko-sha toured university festivals throughout the Kansai region up through 1981. The program included works such as "Angry Chicken" and "Crying Chicken" from "Jagatara Oharu" by Sanae Hiruta and Karuko Aiyama (pieces that would rarely appear again in later performances) as well as "The Whale’s Bride" and "Tiger of Viscera," which would later be incorporated into Byakko-sha’s signature work, "The Skylark and the Lying Buddha."

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Ritsumeikan University's Igakukan Hall 1

  Year performed

  1980

• Hironubu Oikawa and Arisa Takahashi’s Dance Performance

  Held with the support of Shu Uemura at the Kiryu Artist Conference 2003, which had a varied program including an art exhibition of Akira Shimizu and Koji Ogushi’s works, a make up show, and a Butoh performance by Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno. This piece was part of the B program "Shape of Art: In the Case of Dance". It was performed in a space created by Koji Ogushi.

  Performer(s)

  Maison d'Artaud

  Director/Choreographer

  Hironobu Oikawa

  Venue

  Kiryu Civic Culture Center, Small Hall

  Year performed

  2003

• HISOKU

  KYOTO Butoh-kan opened in July 2016 in a converted traditional storehouse, as a dedicated butoh theatre with an audience capacity of 8. From its opening day "HISOKU" was performed every Thursday, with audiences from 69 countries around the world visiting to experience live butoh up close. Performances were suspended from April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at which point the piece had been performed 378 times. The video was recorded on 9 May 2021, without an audience.
  
  -Ima Tenko, KYOTO Butoh-kan Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Butoh Company KIRAZA

  Director/Choreographer

  Tenko Ima

  Venue

  KYOTO Butoh-kan

  Year performed

  2016

• HIZUME TO KANZASHI

  Heaven and Earth / Fire and Water / Water and Oil / Life and Death / Tofu and Hammer / Right hand and Left hand / Stone and Red / Man and Woman / Mortar and Pestle / Shit and Piss / Head and Arse / Moon and Turtle / Light and Dark / Silence and Sound / Laozi and Confucius / Older brother and Younger brother / Goldfish bowl and Pacific Ocean / Red and Black / Kitsune and Tanuki / Flower and Dragon / Inside and Outside / Floor and Ceiling / Snake and Mouse / Mirror and Doll / Dot and Line / Wheat and Soldier / Mud and Sand / Dry and Wet / Hands and Feet / Elbows and Knees / Fingertips and Toes / Drain and Fountain / Rai Sanyo and Kan Chazan / Rushes and Black cattle / Miko and Prayer / Buffalo and Princess / Hoof and Hairpin [Hizume to Kanzashi]
  (from the flyer)
  
  - Zokucho no Tabi Butoh performance - V
  - This piece was also performed in Tokyo and Nagoya.

  

  Performer(s)

  TORII HALL

  Director/Choreographer

  Masaru Kaita

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1994

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