Overview

• Title
• Performer
• Year

• Yomotsuhirasaka (The Slope between the World of Living and Dead)

  First performance by the Susanoo Butoh Dance troupe. In the previous year, 1974, Kasai Akira had presented 'A Dance of Requiem for Amaterasu Omikami' in July and 'Denju no Mon - What are the mystic rites of the modern age?' in October. In his text 'A Message for the Susanoo Butoh Dance Troupe Performance in Kyushu' he wrote: "What on earth could the true spirit of the second opening of Ama-no-Iwato be if not the dance of Susanoo-no-Mikoto himself?" (Seirei Butoh)

  

  Performer(s)

  Tenshi-Kan

  Venue

  Meguro Public Hall

  Year performed

  1975

• YOASOBI

  Muronoi Yoko moved to Sapporo in 2000, where she started the group ANOYONODEKIGOTO with Takahashi Ikuro. She then also began a workshop called 'Dancing Bodies' at an art school in Tokyo in 2003, and frequently performed at Artland in Musashi Koganei, Tokyo. In YOASOBI, as in other works, she aims to be rid of any needless decoration, and to create a dance that comes from the body.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yoko Muronoi

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoko Muronoi

  Venue

  Musashikoganei Free Space Art Land

  Year performed

  2005

• Yashagaike Pond Fantasy

  "Yashagaike Pond is home to a dragon who controls the water. A young maid who devoted herself to the dragon god to save the village of Imajo from drought is worshipped as Princess Yasha, and is depicted in Izumi Kyōka's novel 'Yashagaike' [Demon Pond] as the 'Snow Princess'.
  Set in the garden of an old thatched house in the town of Imajo, villagers who pray for water, a demon who brings drought, and various spirits that surround Yashagaike Pond make their appearance. The legend of the Snow Princess breaking the curse that binds her and bringing blessed rain to the village suffering from drought is performed anew through butoh dance."
  
  Waguri Yukio + Kozensha Butoh Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Yukio Waguri + Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Imajo-cho, Fukui Prefecture

  Year performed

  1997

• With Hijikata

  Motofuji Akiko was with Hijikata Tatsumi for every step of his dancing life from when they first met in 1959. Born of the same year and of the same generation, together they used Asbestos-kan as a base to create butoh, train apprentices, and create an audience. This piece is dedicated to Hijikata in nostalgic remembrance of that exceptional dedicated journey. A collaboration with Ohno Kazuo and Ohno Yoshito, who were also heavily involved since the early days of butoh. This video shows the premiere performance staged at Asbestos-kan.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  1992

• Wings of Castle: Beyond Flamand’s House

  Kozensha's second butoh performance.
  
  Text from the flyer, written by sculptor Yoshie Shōzō:
  [Waguri Yukio] established Kozensha in 1979, after studying with Hijikata Tatsumi, opening with 'Wings of Castle'. He then fell silent for seven years, going into Edo-Komon artisanal work. Seven years later we have todays incident. The opportunity for this began to emerge in 1985, while he was assisting with the 'Tohoku Kabuki Project' at Studio 200. When his passion for butoh reemerged after the death of Hijikata, he must have been filled with a sense regret.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Terpsichore

  Year performed

  1986

• Wings of Castle IV – Human Water

  This time, Kozensha presents the fourth Wings of Castle performance, 'Human Water'. It is a journey back to the origin of life that flows through all human beings. This water expands, condenses and moves. Encountering darkness and light that flows around me, I rely on the subtle flickering of starlight in my body, and move onwards. What kind of wind is blows there?' - Waguri Yukio
  Performed in remembrance of Hijikata Tatsumi, who taught Waguri that 'butoh is a journey of encountering oneself'.
  
  - Waguri Yukio + Kozensha Butoh Performance
  - 'Dedicated to Master Hijikata Tatsumi'

  

  Performer(s)

  Yukio Waguri + Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Atelier Fontaine

  Year performed

  1990

• Windscapes – Shanghai

  "I don't know whether the wind has a colour or not
  but there is a landscape to be seen in every changing wind.
  People have been dancing since seeing the landscape in the wind.
  Happily, if that landscape is seen when one is a boy
  that boy will surely become a dancer.
  But unfortunately, it is sad for those who see the landscape in the wind in the middle of their lives
  who might otherwise have reach the end without ever knowing."
  
  -Presented at the Modern Dance Performance funded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1983.
  -The brains behind Orita's work during the 1980s were:
  Script - Konno Yuichi
  Artwork - Maeda Tetsuhiko
  Lighting - Sawada Yuji"

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsuko Orita

  Venue

  Kan'i Hoken Hall

  Year performed

  1983

• Winds, What Do You Carry

  The title of this performance is derived from song lyrics; "what do the winds carry, is it too heavy a load for my shoulders?". The performance featured solos by Motofuji Akiko and her pupil Yanagawa Keiko. Yanagawa learned ballet from a young age before joining Asbestos-kan where she studied butoh under Motofuji. She had previously performed in Motofuji's 'Letter to Abakanowicz', as well as some of her own solo works, but this was the first time she and Motofuji performed together.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji, Keiko Yanagawa

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  2001

• White Dance

  When we left Japan and went to Europe in 1972, we had no concept of choreography. We just made up performances and always called it WHITE DANCE. But in the year between Europe and America, we were in Japan and choreographed this piece toward for our first performance in New York. Beate Gordon produced our debut with this piece at the Japan Society on May 6, 1976. We toured this piece widely. The video is from the performance at the American Dance Festival 2011.

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma

• WHAT’S NEXT – Namerikawa Goro, Butoh Dancer

  A recording of Namerikawa Goro's works as featured in the 'WHAT's NEXT' documentary programme on TV Asahi, which introduces notable up-and-coming artists. This episode included footage of 'Natura Morta', which was performed at the 1988 World Expo in Australia, a 1989 street performance at the Togenuki Jizo in Sugamo, Tokyo, and footage from his workshop 'The Body Art of Memory' held in Shinagawa, Tokyo, in October 1990.

  Performer(s)

  Goro Namerikawa/Austro Arts Association Co.,Ltd.

  Year performed

  1990

• Wedding on the Field

  "To turn one's eyes to one's inner universe"... That is the starting point of butoh, and it is important to know where these eyes are. We have been lost ever since we grew two legs. I wish to be a one-legged picket standing in the wilderness. The secret staircase hidden in the depths of creation leads to our everlasting fields. I hasten in my preparations. The wedding begins. The wind blows.

  Performer(s)

  Yukio Waguri + Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Theater Kai

  Year performed

  1994

• Water Falls from the Heavens

  A large white sphere sits in the centre of a circular stage, as people drink, cleanse themselves, and enjoy a banquet around it. But then comes a drought, and the people dance an offering, praying for rain. Water erupts from the top of the sphere, pouring down as merciful rain. However, the jubilant crowd then destroys the sphere that brought them such bounty.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Performance Troupe TAIHEN

  Year performed

  1987

• Wanderlust

  10 years after their first Australia-Japan dance collaboration in 1996, veteran choreographers Leigh Warren from Adelaide, Australia and Uno Man from Yamaguchi, Japan, now in their 50s, worked together once again after recovering from illness, which they coincidentally both succumbed to 3 years earlier. Based on Matsuo Basho's 'Oku no Hosomichi' (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) and re-envisioned as a 'journey of the moon and the sun, a hundred generations of travellers', this collaboration of dance, video, costume and music was created over residencies in both countries.
  
  - Japan-Australia Exchange 2006: Japan-Australia Dance Collaboration
  - KIRIN DANCE NETWORK
  - Performed at the Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media on Saturday 7 October (organised by the Yamaguchi City Cultural Promotion Foundation).
  

  

  Performer(s)

  An Creative Inc.

  Director/Choreographer

  Leigh Warren, UNO-MAN

  Venue

  Theatre Tram

  Year performed

  2006

• Wallow

  This work was originally designed with no sound and was 19 minutes long, but Eiko added the sound of sea waves. Videographed in November 1983 at Point Reyes National Seashore in California, a natural habitat for seals, in collaboration with Peter Yaple of Video/USA. Originally conceived as a video version of Eiko & Koma's 1977 stage work 'Fur Seal'. The movement was redesigned on location. Edited March 1984 in collaboration with Jeff Bush, ARC Videodance, New York. Made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. 1984, Eiko & Koma. 19 minutes, silent color video.
  
  - Eiko & Koma's dance film series 'dance for camera'
  -The program notes for the stage piece in 1977 contained excerpts from Japanese poet Kaneko Mitsuharu's poem 'Fur Seal’.

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma

  Venue

  Recorded at Point Reyes National Seashore

  Year performed

  1984

• Tristan and Isolde

  1976 was an incredibly active year for Kasai Akira, who was awarded the 8th Dance Critic’s Association of Japan Award (1976) for this work, as well as 'Tsukuyomi Hiruko', 'For the Dance of the Holy Spirit as a Personal Ritual' and 'The Future of Matter'. In addition, he was selected by Ichikawa Miyabi for the Dancer's Award of Dance Work magazine for the work he achieved that year. The poet Yoshioka Minoru, who saw all four works, spoke of his experiences in 'The Messenger - A Poem of Drawings for Kasai Akira' published in the August 1977 issue of Shingeki.

  

  Performer(s)

  Tenshi-Kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akira Kasai

  Venue

  Kudan-kaikan Hall

  Year performed

  1976

• Tree

  Comissioned by the BAM Next Wave Festival, we created a gigantic tree with silk and cotton died by tea, dry leaves, and red paint. Our program notes stated, "a tree is wounded by its own memories". We were both completely naked. Set to natural night sounds. Presented with THIRST in their second season at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival (The BAM Next Wave Festival). 30 minutes. We performed this piece with THIRST at Spiral Hall in 1989, our first Tokyo performances after we left in 1976.

  

  Performer(s)

  Eiko & Koma

  Director/Choreographer

  Eiko & Koma

  Venue

  BAM Lepercq Space (NY)

  Year performed

  1988

• Retsukigou 6 (The Torn Sign 6)

  The piece begins with five dancers rotating in the dark, on their backs, with their feet pointed in the air. The light gradually fades up, but the movement continues. Then the dancers, standing on their shoulders, warp to form a bridge and fall to the floor. Their feet make a loud sound on the floor. They then hit the floor with their hands and feet, and form a circle repeating this phrase. In the middle of the piece, all five dancers line up in single file, marching with a stride of only a few centimetres.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Venue

  Auditorium at the Sophia University's Bldg.No.1

  Year performed

  1979

• Retsukigou 5 (The Torn Sign 5)

  A strong line of light divides the floor in two, and five performers develop intense movements. With Atsugi in the centre, Watanabe and Tanegashima form a pair alongside Aritomi and Ebara. There is no music, and timing is measured with Atsugi's breaths. Running, embracing, slapping the abdomen, the pace of the feet, grabbing the ankles, putting together soles of the feet, rotations, floor movements etc, are all performed thoroughly and accurately. The exercise, lasting just over one hour with a break in the middle, has the performers sweating profusely and having difficulties breathing; their bodies in raw opposition to their will.
  
  -Artist Union Symposium 1979
  -Premiered on September, 1978 at the Auditorium of the Sophia University's Bldg.No.1.

  

  Performer(s)

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Venue

  Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

  Year performed

  1979

• DISTANCE (Retsukigou 3)

  Third in the 'Retsukigou' series. Three dancers each stare into a mirror they hold, performing simple actions such as walking and falling onto their backs. They turn the mirrors to objects in the studio, uttering their names and characteristics. Two go into the corridor, and the audience perceive their movements through the sound of their voice. When one returns, the other leaves. The cycle is repeated with the mirror put down, looking directly at things, and speaking from memory without looking at anything. At the end, movements are performed in relation to the space.

  

  Performer(s)

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Venue

  Unique Ballet Theatre

  Year performed

  1977

• Retsukigou 2 (The Torn Sign 2)

  "The 'Retsukigou' [Torn Sign] series (1975-82) began in 1975, with 'Retsukigou 2' following the same year, continuing for the 8 years until 'Retsukigou 8' in 1982. The term 'Retsukigou' comes from the phrases 'signs are meant to be broken' and 'destined to be torn'.
  'Retsukigou 2' was performed three times. First at the Unique Ballet Theatre, and later at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in France (where it won 3rd prize in the International Dance Festival in 1975), and at Seibu Theatre (at 'DANCE TODAY 75' organised by Atsugi Bonjin)."
  
  - dance today '75
  - Three Mention (Paris International Dance Festival, 1975)
  - Premiered on July 3, 1975 at the Unique Ballet Theatre.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Bonjin Atsugi

  Venue

  Seibu Theater

  Year performed

  1975

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