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

• Ko&Kota

  Improvised battle between Murobushi Ko and Yamazaki Kota. The stage was used as a ring in which they "competed" an improvised dance. Held at the end of the year, the event was held in support of Yamazaki, who was facing difficulties at the time.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kaibunsha

  Director/Choreographer

  Ko Murobushi, Kota Yamazaki

  Venue

  Kagurazaka die pratze

  Year performed

  2001

• KUDAN

  Inspired by the novel of the same title by a Japanese author Hyakken Uchida (1889-1971).
  In this work, Kaseki embodies the mythical being who makes prophecies, KUDAN (man's head with an ox body). He is destined to die within three days of his birth, and yet he ruminates on the memories and feelings he had when he was a human being. He is chased, surrounded, and waited upon by people who expect the prophecy.
  The air becomes thick with anticipation and longing, and one day suffocates the audience. Fear shifts from the prophecy-unaware case to the spectators, and they flee. KUDAN stands alone again.
  The structure of fear, human desire, and foolishness are expressed with simple movements and staging, sometimes grotesque, sometimes ridiculous. Audiences are expected and anticipated, and they are seen as they watch. Who will be the next KUDAN? Fear is shaken and penetrated into the body.
  
  -Premiered in September 1998 at loplop in Berlin.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yuko Kaseki

  Director/Choreographer

  Yuko Kaseki

  Venue

  DOCK11 (Berlin)

  Year performed

  2002

• Kuu (Emptiness)

  Premiere of Ohno Yoshito's solo work "Kuu" (Emptiness). The performance commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Japan Society, and was part of "Kazuo Ohno 101: Three-Week Butoh Parade" project. The performance begins with Yoshito standing turned away from the audience, presenting his back, which he cited as a distinctive characteristic of butoh. He then performs a number of short pieces, including one choreographed by Hijikata Tatsumi in 1985. Towards the end a video piece is shown - "Sehnsucht" (2007) by Tanaka Seiji (filmmaker, butoh dancer and Yoshito's student) - followed by a finale in which Yoshito performs with a hand puppet modelled after Ohno Kazuo. The performance took place on Ohno Kazuo's 101st birthday.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshito Ohno

  Venue

  Japan Society

  Year performed

  2007

• La Pesanteur et La Grâce

  Piece based on the poem "Antonio Gramsci" by Jean Daive. Antonio Gramsci was a philosopher, founding member of the Italian Communist Party and imprisoned by the Mussolini regime from 1926 until his death. His wife Giulia, whom he met in Russia, and her two sisters Tatiana and Tania worked to extract the philosopher's texts during their visits to the prison throughout his period of incarceration.
  Three women, Three muses, Three Graces... "Grace" is the theme of Spring of Poets Festival 2024.
  
  "Gravity and Grace / Antonio Gramsci” by Naomi Mutoh (dance) & Jean Daive (reading of his latest text work) with Laurent Paris (music montage)
  March 23 at 8:30 p.m. Halle de Charter-ons BORDEAUX as part of the Poetry Market / Spring of Poets 2024.
  
  -Bordeaux Poetry Market 25th anniversary / Spring of Poets Festival 2024

  

  Performer(s)

  Compagnie MEDULLA

  Director/Choreographer

  Naomi Mutoh, Jean Daive

  Venue

  Halle de Charterons

  Year performed

  2024

• Labyrinth of Body

  Dedicated to Hijikata in commemoration of 50 years of butoh, this stage adaptation of Atsushi Tanigawa's "Labyrinth of Body" follows "The Topography of the Fantasy". Using the "subtle distance between myself and my strange body", Waguri tackles the labyrinth that is his self. Together with contemporary dancer Seki, he created this work for six female butoh dancers using Hijikata's butoh-fu [butoh notation]. Although he continued his work touring overseas and performing new pieces after this, this was Waguri's last performance in Japan with his company Kozensha.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Nippori Sunny Hall

  Year performed

  2010

• Lament

  "LAMENT is a collaboration with video artist James Byrne.
  Movement material adapted from Eiko & Koma's 1984 performance work ELEGY.
  Sound mix by Eiko & Koma.
  Commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Jerome Foundation, St. Paul, MN.
  Videographed July, 1985 at the Triplex Theatre, New York, NY.
  Edited in 1986. This video was aired nationally through LLine from Off Center PBS.
  1986, Eiko & Koma, James Byrne, Walker Art Center © Eiko & Koma. James Byrne"
  
  - Eiko & Koma's dance film series 'dance for camera'

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma, James Byrne

  Venue

  Recorded at the Triplex Theater

  Year performed

  1986

• L’Arrache-coeur

  Welcome to Anzu Furukawa's "L'Arrache-coeur"!
  
  Before the performance, let's test ourselves. Just for fun!
  
  1) Which five of the following do not have a heart?
  A ginkgo tree / a tomato / a larva / an earthworm / a nightingale / Homo sapiens / a mackerel / a nautilus / a mushroom / an octopus / an elephant / a virus / a bee / Anzu
  
  2) In October 1941, when the US-Japanese negotiations reached a deadlock, General Tojo Hideki said, "To withdraw from China or not - that is the heart of the matter".
  My mother was 12 years old.
  I was not yet born, of course.
  
  On 5 February 1965, "Vietnam is the heart of liberalism", President Lyndon B. Johnson began bombing North Vietnam.
  I was 12 years old.
  
  In 1989, the Tiananmen Square massacre took place in China, and in Germany the Berlin Wall fell at the Brandenburg Gate.
  My daughter was 12 years old.
  
  What did the work look like when you were 12?
  
  If you are 12 years old, I hope that when you are alone, your heartbeat reminds you of this performance.
  
  (Furukawa Anzu's programme notes)
  
  
  -Premiered at the Kuopio Dance Festival in 1997

  

  Performer(s)

  Anzu Furukawa

  Director/Choreographer

  Anzu Furukawa

  Venue

  Ballhouse Naunynstrasse

  Year performed

  2000

• Laugh Box

  It has been 53 years since I graduated university. I laugh once or twice a day, so in total I have laughed nearly 40,000 times.
  I think about packing all those laughs into a casket and travelling with them to the other world. (Wakamatsu)
  This is an essay-dance by Wakamatsu, an advocate of free dance. It begins with a dance in front of a Jizo statue, followed by singing and poetry recitation. The disciples sing in chorus in the audience and in the backyard.
  'It's not just about singing and dancing, it's also about the struggles of life. A bricolaged body with something to say.'
  In the sunset, one dances.

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu

  Venue

  d-soko Theater

  Year performed

  2009

• Le Grand Luminaire

  Towards technological shamanism - an exploration of new archaisms.
  The acceleration and multiplication of information have changed our relationship with time and the great mysteries of existence.
  The institutions of our societies seem incapable of embracing this phenomenon.
  The mythological and archaic notion of shaman seems to offer us a suitable position to understand our new situation and ask these questions:
  - What are our new totems?
  - Where will the psychopomps go to look for lost souls?
  - What are the new ecstasies?
  - What are the enduring initiation and healing rituals?
  The current situation, digital deluge, reactivates the archetypes of Butoh's origins - a phenomenon of shamanic resilience in the face of civilisation's accelerated metamorphosis.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Compagnie MEDULLA

  Director/Choreographer

  Naomi Mutoh

  Venue

  Le Cuvier

  Year performed

  2016

• Letter to Abakanowicz (1994)

  Performance by Motofuji Akiko inspired by the installation of figurative sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), which had been placed the previous year. After watching a video recording of the performance, Abakanowicz contacted Motofuji, and the two began corresponding by letter, discussing their creative work. How can butoh be expressed through the restricted spirits of sculpted bodies? In this way, the work became a collaboratively directed/choreographed butoh piece.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji, Magdalena Abakanowicz

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  1994

• Letter to Abakanowicz: The Silent Body

  Motofuji Akiko performed 'Letter to Abakanowicz' the previous year at Asbestos-kan. This was performed again as a revised, collaborative piece between Motofuji and Abakanowicz at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Based on experiences of war, the work questions human existence, and was presented at MOCA on the 50th anniversary of radiation exposure in Hiroshima. Subtitled 'The Silent Body', it was performed by a group of nude and expressionless male butoh dancers, in an attempt to express the anonymity of Abakanowicz's sculptures.
  
  "Opening performance at 'Special Exhibition for the 50th Anniversary of the Hiroshima A-bombing: AFTER HIROSHIMA'. Two performances at 11:00 and 16:00."
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji, Magdalena Abakanowicz

  Venue

  Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

  Year performed

  1995

• The Lifetime of Lady Boy Ivan Ilyich

  "On the one hand, there are those who are discriminated against as a sexual minority. On the other hand, those who are distinguished by arrogance and are recognized because of beauty. Growing old is not synonymous with gradual decline, ugliness and rust. It is this contradictory duality, the incongruity within that will renew things." - Iwana Masaki
  
  Based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”

  

  Performer(s)

  Masaki Iwana

  Director/Choreographer

  Masaki Iwana

  Venue

  Altera Pars (Greek)

  Year performed

  2018

• “LIGHT, Part 4: Jigsaw Puzzle” & “Lunch”

  Kei Takei made her New York debut in September 1969 with "LIGHT", and presented "Lunch" in December of the same year. "LIGHT, Part 4: Jigsaw Puzzle" premiered in December 1970.
  In 2005, the "Dance ga Mitai! 7" season featured a "Critics Recommendation Series", in which nominators explained their reasons for selecting participants. Kei Takei was recommended by dance critic Yamano Hakudai, who pointed out that her name appears in the Oxford Dictionary of Dance alongside Ito Michio, Morishita Yoko and Hijikata Tatsumi, and that she is highly regarded internationally.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kei Takei’s Moving Earth

  Director/Choreographer

  Kei Takei

  Venue

  Azabu die pratze

  Year performed

  2005

• Light, Part 53: “Houses” ~ A One Day Fantasy ~

  "Recently, I’ve had many opportunities to ride the Shinkansen. And as I looked out the window at the houses, houses, houses... I imagine them spreading out as ivy crawls across a floor. Like living things - houses, houses, houses...
  This is where the creation of this piece, "Houses", began. I’m not sure where I’ve arrived with this piece, but I hope to enter the house."
  - Kei Takei
  
  Premiere of Part 53 of the "Light" series, which has been ongoing since 1969. The performance was staged during a time when many events were still being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kei Takei’s Moving Earth

  Director/Choreographer

  Kei Takei

  Venue

  THEATER X

  Year performed

  2022

• LIGHT, Part5

  Kei Takei made her New York debut with 'LIGHT, Part 1' since 1969, which became a long term series. As of December 2022 she has created up to Part 54. Some of these works have been solo pieces, others performed with a group. Although each piece is individual, they are all linked to create one 'LIGHT' series.
  'LIGHT Part 5' was first performed at the Dance Theater Workshop in New York in November 1972. The video is of when the piece was performed in the garden of Musashino Art University in the rain in 1990, by Kei Takai along with two men.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kei Takei’s Moving Earth

  Director/Choreographer

  Kei Takei

  Venue

  Musashino Art University

  Year performed

  1990

• Lion Heart

  A single branch covered in cotton, strapped to the wrist and carried on the shoulder, appears as a large wing. The tilted head bobs slow and silent. Only minute vibrations form the dance. The Village Voice dance critic Deborah Jowitt described this work as 'the Joan of Arc of Butoh'. It became the starting point for Yamda Setsuko's dance.
  
  - Yamada Setsuko Butoh Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Setsuko Yamada

  Director/Choreographer

  Setsuko Yamada

  Venue

  Saramu-kan Studio 33

  Year performed

  1982

• Sasayaka ni Shiawase [A Little Happiness] / ELCK

  Sasayaka ni Shiawase' [A Little Happiness] premiered in 1988. 60 minutes long, it is a drama following five groups, inspired by a poem by Bertolt Brecht. In this world, things happen unexpectedly - let us be happy with our current reality.
  'ELCK' premiered in 1989. 40 minutes long, it is inspired by the painting of the same name by Pieter Bruegel and means 'each' or 'everyone' in Dutch. 'People stand on a broken earth, and greedily desire objects of the world.' If only Eve hadn't eaten the apple...
  
  - Sasayaka ni Shiawase': Winner of the 20th Dance Critics Society Award (1988)
  - Yonei Sumie Dance Performance 1991
  - Video recorded 24 May. 'ELCK' was performed along with other works at a matinee, while 'Sasayaka ni Shiawase' was performed at the soirée on 25 May.

  

  Performer(s)

  Sumie Yonei

  Director/Choreographer

  Sumie Yonei

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1991

• L’ombre du cerisier

  "L’ombre du cerisier(Beneath the Cherry Tree's Shadow)" is a choreography by Juju Alishina. It portrays three symbolic characters in three situations. Like insects moving under a cherry tree, they live simply and harshly.
  
  Part 1: Woman in Black
  A woman in mourning lives quietly with ghosts but faces sudden chaos - bombings, escapes, confiscations, evacuations. Can she return to her peaceful daily life?
  Part 2: My Small Territory
  Various humans and animals defend their small territories, expressing love, protection, and escape.
  Part 3: Senbu
  A Japanese doll abandoned on a battlefield dances, recalling brighter, peaceful days.
  
  This work is influenced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
  Performing multiple characters in a solo piece is a challenge that Juju Alishina is pursuing.
  
  -Choreography of Juju Alishina

  

  Performer(s)

  Dance Company NUBA

  Director/Choreographer

  Juju Alishina

  Venue

  Espace Culturel Bertin Poirée

  Year performed

  2022

• Lone Dance 4: The Darkness of the Body (Tokyo Scene 88)

  TOKYO SCENE 88 featured four works between 8-11 December 1988, with the theme "pure collaboration between space and acoustic sound. Looking to the future of people and materials". This piece was a collaboration between Kawamura Namiko, who began her 'acts of perception' in 1974 at Kujukuri beach, walking nude in nature over 100 times which led to her performance piece 'Hitori Odori' from 1986, and Noguchi Minoru, who has worked with Tanaka Min and other dancers and artists to create pioneering electronic music.

  

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Namiko Kawamura

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1988

• LONG DISTANCE LOVE

  Tokyo and New York. Connected by the internet, female actors from two cities perform a single work at the same time, crossing the Pacific Ocean and the International Date Line. What is this, if not Long Distance Love!? Although Yubiwa Hotel had drawn out the dramatic potential of various spaces in the past, this work attempted to make the very time and space between two cities into a theatre. This global spirit was interrupted by 9/11 after the opening of the performance. Even as New York City still reeled, we encouraged each other to return to the next performance.

  

  Performer(s)

  YUBIWA Hotel

  Director/Choreographer

  Shirotama Hitsujiya

  Venue

  club asia P

  Year performed

  2001

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