Overview

• Title
• Performer
• Year

• Carmen Miranda – Homage to Kazuo Ohno

  Dance theatre by Teatro Macunaíma, a leading contemporary theatre company based in São Paulo. Ever since admiring each others work at the Nancy International Theatre Festival in 1980, the director of Teatro Macunaíma Antunes Filho and Ohno Kazuo had a deep, lifelong friendship. This homage to Ohno Kazuo brings Ohno's work to light by way of Carmen Miranda, Brazil's most famous singer and film actress of the 20th century. Four dancers played the roles of Carmen as a girl, a young woman, a middle-aged woman, and an old woman. On 27 March, the final day of the performance, Ohno Kazuo appeared onstage in a wheelchair during the curtain call.
  
  - Kazuo Ohno Festival Special Programme

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Antunes Filho

  Venue

  BankART Studio NYK

  Year performed

  2005

• The Captive World – a New Interpretation of Dr Caligari

  The ballet adaptation of 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari', made famous by film director Robert Wiene.
  The story is about the delusions of a mentally ill man. A doctor who experiments on human subjects, and kidnaps a woman. A man comes to save the woman but is also captured. The woman is driven mad by the experiments and the man is mentally manipulated. In the end the sick man believing he is the doctor, kills the doctor and the woman, and is himself engulfed in flames.
  How much of this is fact and how much is delusion?
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1984

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1984

• Can’t Get Started

  Tanaka Mutsuko and Furukawa Anzu, two female performers who spent the 1970s together as part of Dairakudakan, perform their inaugural "Momi no Kai" performance. Momi is a thin silk dyed bright red using safflowers. The flyer includes a Japanese translation of the lyrics to "I Can't Get Started" by Ira Gershwin.
  
  - Tanaka Mutsuko / Furukawa Anzu "Momi no Kai - The First Performances"

  

  Performer(s)

  Anzu Furukawa

  Director/Choreographer

  Anzu Furukawa, Mutsuko Tanaka

  Venue

  SANBIYAKUNINGEKIZIYO

  Year performed

  1985

• A Canoe going underneath a Cherry Blossom Tree / Dream of Love

  Ohno Kazuo performed two works at the second 'Shinobu-kai' event which was arranged, it is thought, by Kitabayashi Tanie of the Mingei Theatre Company. 'A Canoe going underneath a Cherry Blossom Tree' was based on a poem by Shiraishi Kazuko, and was also performed at a memorial for Eguchi Takaya in February that same year. 'Dream of Love' performed to the song by Liszt comes from the end of 'My Mother', but Ohno often danced this as a single-song performance for such occasions.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Kazuo Ohno

  Venue

  Yamaha Music Salon (Tokyo)

  Year performed

  1979

• CANDIES girlish hardcore

  First international touring production. After premiering in Cardiff, UK, it was toured through London, Portland (USA) and New York before triumphantly returning to Tokyo and Osaka. Here we have the recording from the Japan society performance in New York. Works by Yubiwa Hotel at the time had an entire cast of female performers, and presented views on life, death, society and the world through the history of women's lives. They attracted a great deal of attention with innovative visuals, and audiences who would chat 'Mean Girls!' and 'Stunning!' at them.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  YUBIWA Hotel

  Director/Choreographer

  Shirotama Hitsujiya

  Venue

  Japan Society, New York.

  Year performed

  2006

• Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! – William Faulkner Dance Project

  "Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!" is an epic dance work, with a live sound score and evolving, dynamic installation. An abstract portrayal of Faulkner's novels "The Sound and the Fury", "Absalom, Absalom!", and the story "A Rose for Emily", it was an unforgettable live experience. Utilising simultaneous, disparate and distinct intimate passages, the dance portrays a sense of confinement, entrapment, sadness, loneliness and courage and finally expands with a breathtaking finale in which the stage becomes the nexus for hundreds of threads of lighted colour reaching out into space. A simple play of light can become a medium for a face dancing the ravages of unforgiving time. Darkness illuminates the rhythm of the telling with speaking, sobbing and laughter. Faulkner's stories unfold, without foregrounding cause and effect, through many different voices interweaving in a choral fashion, forming a nonlinear composite - a rich blur of life. Evoking subtle essences, with this reckoning of time, Oguri presented "Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!".
  
  Premiered on 1 March, 2007 in Los Angeles.
  2007/3/1（Thu）～2007/3/5（Mon）REDCAT
  2009/11/8（Sun）～2009/11/8（Sun）The Toby /The Toby Theater at Indianapolis Museum of Art (2009 Spirit & Place Festival)
  2016/11/5（Sat）～2016/11/6（Sun）Hammer Museum

  

  Performer(s)

  Naoyuki Oguri

  Director/Choreographer

  Oguri

  Venue

  REDCAT, The Toby /The Toby Theater at Indianapolis Mueum of Art, Hammer Museum

  Year performed

  2007

• Byakkosha TV/Film/Concert Appearances

  Apart from their performances, Byakko-sha also ran a "takeout" performance group which "delivered" Body and Art to a variety of events from weddings and birthday parties to concerts and TV commercials. The video includes the following Byakko-sha appearances:
  - "Einstürzende Neubauten: Halber Mensch" directed by Ishii Sogo [later known as Ishii Gakuryu] (1986)
  - "WIND BLOWS INSIDE OF EYES" from Hotei Tomoyasu's solo concert "GUITARHYTHM" (1988)
  - Oginome Yoko's "Roppongi Junjoha", which aired on TBS Television's "The Best Ten" (1988)
  - "Ikashita Baby" directed by Togawa Jun, from the film "One Room Story" (1991)

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Year performed

  1986

• Byakko-sha DANCE PERFORMANCE 1982

  Edited footage from Byakko-sha's "Saint Live Sparking" live house tour around Kansai in 1982. The performance titles were "Sairento koma - tsuki yori hayaku - "
  [Silent Spinning Top - Faster than the Moon], "Kusa no ue no hirune - mizu kara abura e - " [Nap on the Grass - From Water to Oil" and "Zonnenshutān no natsu - karappo no sekai - " [Sonnenstern's Summer - An Empty World].
  
  The video contains edited footage of:
  Byakko-sha '82 Saint Live Sparking No.1 "Silent Spinning Top - Faster than the Moon":
  16 April 1982 takutaku (Kyoto)
  22-23 April 1982 THE LIVE HOUSE CHICKEN GEORGE (Hyogo)
  25 April 1982 BOOP A DOOP (Osaka)
  
  Byakko-sha '82 Saint Live Sparking No.2 "Nap on the Grass - From Water to Oil":
  22 May1982 Yokouchi no Hanako Mandolin Factory (Gifu)
  25 May 1982 Pin-Spot (Wakayama)
  27 May 1982 Circus & Circus (Kyoto)
  28 May 1982 Banana Hall (Osaka)
  
  Byakko-sha '82 Saint Live Sparking No.3 "Sonnenstern's Summer - An Empty World":
  25 June 1982 ZA-SCÉNE (Kyoto)
  27 June 1982 The Yume-za (Osaka)
  30 June 1982 Taiyo Embujo Theatre (Hyogo)

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Mainly live houses in Kansai area

  Year performed

  1982

• Byakko-sha DANCE PERFORMANCE 1980-81

  Byakko-sha's university festival tour in the Kansai region, held between 1980 and 1981, shortly after the company’s founding. The video includes footage of performances of "Himei no Mori" [The Forest of Hidden Screams] (1980, Ritsumeikan University), "Geikotsu no Mori" [The Forest of Whale's Bones] (1980, Doshisha University), and "Shonen Shojo no Kusudama" [The Kusudama of Boys and Girls] (1981, Kwansei Gakuin University and Kyoto City University of Arts).
  
  1980/5/10（Sat）～1980/5/10（Sat）Ritsumeikan University's Igakukan Hall 1
  1980/10/31（Fri）～1980/10/31（Fri）Doshisha Students' Hall
  1981/11/2（Mon）～1981/11/2（Mon）Kwansei Gakuin University Students' Hall
  1981/11/22（Sun）～1981/11/22（Sun）Kyoto City University of Arts' Open-air hall

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Ritsumeikan University's Igakukan Hall 1 and other venues

  Year performed

  1980

• Byakko-sha: The Secret Behind Their International Success

  An episode of NHK’s "ETV8 Culture Journal" featuring Byakko-sha, with its founder Osuka Isamu as a guest, exploring the secret behind the group’s popularity. The programme highlights Osuka’s wide-ranging activities, including "PARCO Super School: The Byakko-sha World", "Byakko-sha Tokyo Performance: The Skylark and the Lying Buddha" (Korakuen Ice Palace), "Miracle Report" video, tour of Indonesia, and summer gassyuku [intensive training camp] in Kumano. Impressions of the Tokyo performance are shared by Oshima Nagisa, Minami Shinbo, Françoise Moréchand and others who attended, along with general audience feedback.

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Year performed

  1986

• Byakko-sha on the Yomiuri TV programme “11PM”

  "11PM" was a legendary late-night programme on Nippon TV, covering a wide range of topics from eroticism to social issues. The video is a compilation of Byakko-sha’s guest appearances on the show in 1985 (when the programme began at 11:20 PM and was called "11PM+20"), 1986, and 1988. The 1985 episode was titled "The Body is Art!? Let’s Take Off [our clothes] and Think!! Naked Philosophy Variety Show", while the 1986 episode was called "Hadaka no Geijutsu Daishugo!" [Naked Art Gathering!]. It includes an interview with Osuka Isamu, performances by Byakko-sha, footage from their overseas tours, and announcements for their upcoming performances.

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Year performed

  1985

• Byakko-sha in Israel and Europe

  In June and July of 1985, Byakko-sha embarked on a two-month tour of Israel and Europe as the first leg of a World Butoh Caravan tour that was planned to span five continents, carrying two tonnes of luggage. They toured Israel, West Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and France, performing "Hibari to Nejaka" (The Skylark and the Lying Buddha) 27 times, attracting a total audience of about 20,000. The video documents this tour, featuring some performance footage as well as backstage and rehearsal scenes, along with footage of street demonstrations across various cities, at a total of 36 locations.
  
  Tour route:
  Jerusalem, Israel (5-18 Jun)
  Berlin, West Germany (19-30 Jun)
  Zurich, Switzerland (1-7 Jul)
  Spoleto, Italy (8-13 Jul)
  Rome, Italy (14 Jul)
  Antwerp, Belgium (15-20 Jul)
  Toulon, France (21-28 Jul)

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  National Theater, Jerusalem (The Israel Festival) / Theater Manufaktur, Berlin (Berlin Festival Horizont) / Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich / Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, Spoleto (Spoleto Festival) / Teatro Argentina, Rome / De Singel, Antwerp) / Châteauvallon Indoor Theatre, near Toulon (Châteauvallon Festival)

  Year performed

  1985

• The Butterfly Dream

  New solo work by Satoh Pechika, an artist admired by many for her introspective performances. After going down the stairs of the Former Hakubutsukan Dobutsuen Station carrying a fish tank, she plays with water in the underground space, and eventually transforms from a larva into a butterfly wearing a giant sunflower, and heads up to the surface. A quiet, thrilling video performance that transforms the relationship between ground and underground, life and death, and inside and outside.
  
  -Created as a video piece. The venue indicates where it was filmed, while the performance period refers to the dates the work was available for online viewing, from its release date until the conclusion of the Tokyo Real Underground festival (1 April - 15 August 2021).
  -Takao Kawaguchi Selection: Un Certain Regard
  -Tokyo Real Underground (Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL Special 13)

  

  Performer(s)

  NPO Dance Archive Network

  Director/Choreographer

  Pechika Satoh

  Venue

  Filmed at Former Hakubutsukan Dobutsuen Station [Museum Zoo Station]

  Year performed

  2021

• Butoh-ichi – The Blind Thief

  Performed at the Ishii Mitsutaka Dance Experience. It begins with the words 'Niku-ichi' emblazoned in the darkness. Ishii drags a blind old woman out from the audience, makes her play a shamisen and dances spectacularly. Then, held by four stage hands, he performs a bizarre strip dance. A large monster, similar to the lion in a lion dance draped in a large cloth, circles the stage. A crazed Ishii wielding a scythe reveals the true nature of a harvester. As a man in an iron helmet is polished with an electric grinder, sparks and bright yellow demonic flames colour the world of darkness. In the finale, Ishii lines up all the performers on stage and performs a dance of thanks.

  

  Performer(s)

  Mitsutaka Ishii

  Director/Choreographer

  Mitsutaka Ishii

  Venue

  Ikebukuro Sphere Theater

  Year performed

  1969

• Butoh Yori no Shokan: Theory of Origins, 1993

  ""This work was quite something! I included an entirely nude scene... It was created in the heat of the moment, and I was relieved that it didn't cause any trouble with Sogetsu Hall... Or perhaps I didn't even think about that! Now it's a good story to tell."" (Takeuchi)
  
  A recital commemorating the 22nd anniversary of Takeuchi Yasuhiko's solo dance career. At the 40th anniversary another recital was held under the same title 'Butoh Yori no Shokan' [The Summons of Butoh].

  

  Performer(s)

  Yasuhiko Takeuchi

  Director/Choreographer

  Yasuhiko Takeuchi

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1993

• Butoh Yori no Shokan: Twentieth Century, Peony

  - If "butoh" were to appear, manifest, or descend upon the stage, applause would be in order.
  I’ve never seen such a god of butoh smile upon the stage, but I cannot afford to sit and do nothing. If the god is hesitant, we must drag him out, smoke him out, and force him to smile: even if it’s a twisted one. That is our way of returning to butoh. - (From the programme)
  
  At the same venue where he performed his first solo butoh in 1971 (then: Koenji Hall), 64-year-old Takeuchi Yasuhiko returns to his roots, 40 years later.

  

  Performer(s)

  Yasuhiko Takeuchi

  Director/Choreographer

  Yasuhiko Takeuchi

  Venue

  ZA-KOENJI Public Theatre 1

  Year performed

  2011

• Butoh of 21,000 Nautical Miles

  A 30m long railway track replicating the Manchuria Railway was built with sleepers and stones, and a boat designed for audience seating was towed over it. This was a work of remembrance, and included themes such as ghosts of former Japanese soldiers, brides wandering the tracks, a group dance of deranged young Indians from which emerges a golden Buddha, and other extraordinary and everyday representations, interwoven with images more related to Buddhist philosophy, as appears more in later work.
  
  -This work was performed from 5-16 September. with 4 subtitles:
  First Easterly Wind (5-7 September)
  Westerly Wind of the day of the Buddha's death (8-10 September)
  Southerly Wind of the Rainy Season (11-13 September)
  Early Autumn Typhoon (14-16 September)"
  

  

  Performer(s)

  UNO-MAN

  Director/Choreographer

  Man Uno

  Venue

  Sagacho Exhibit Space

  Year performed

  1984

• Butoh is a Corpse Striving to Stand

  The title is an aphorism that Hijikata Tatsumi himself used to express his own butoh. The piece was directed by Motofuji Akiko as part of 'Japanese Summer 1960-64' at Art Tower Mito, and presented as a tribute to Hijikata in a retrospective exhibition that looked back on avant-garde artists from the first half of the 1960s. It was performed in the entrance hall by Motofuji Akiko, Ohno Kazuo and Ohno Yoshito among others, in front of a large photograph taken from the finale scene of [Hijikata's] 'Rebellion of the Body'.

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery

  Year performed

  1997

• Butoh “BOKUGEI” – Tatsumi Hijikata Memorial Concert

  Performance by Goi Teru in memory of Hijikata Tatsumi, who passed away in January 1986. Sounds, music and costume - including a red skirt - evoke Hijikata throughout the performance. Goi dances with total abandon, smearing lipstick on his lips, exposing the tattoos of the gods of wind and thunder on his back, and stabbing his body with two kenzan [small base with sharp spikes used in flower arranging]. His extreme focus and vulnerability are palpable. A review in The Japan Times Weekly described it "as if the spirit of Hijikata had descended on him" (Yuri Kageyama, 19 September 1987).

  

  Performer(s)

  Teru Goi

  Director/Choreographer

  Teru Goi

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1987

• Buried TeaBowl – OKUNI

  New work by Australia's leading Japanese artist and dancer Yumi Umiumare, "Buried TeaBowl - OKUNI" was presented at BLACKCAT GALLERY in 2022. This intimate yet grand solo performance installation combines dance, butoh, theatre, song and tea ceremony, with a stunning video (produced by Kondo Takeshi) that was filmed during the COVID-19 lockdown. The piece explores the life of Izumo no Okuni, a historical Japanese dancer and shrine maiden from the early 1600s, who is credited with founding kabuki theatre but remains an enigmatic figure. Umiumare's contemporary interpretation of Okuni appears in various forms, moving between the real and the surreal, drawing the audience into a world of dreams and fantasy.
  
  While evoking the "myths" and power of invaluable women buried in history, Umiumare's unique narrative and humour in "Buried TeaBowl - OKUNI" bring forth a punkish, feminine, and liberated Okuni - one that speaks to the needs of the present day.
  
  - OzAsia Festival 2023

  

  Performer(s)

  Yumi Umiumare

  Director/Choreographer

  Yumi Umiumare

  Venue

  BLACKCAT Gallery (Sol Gallery)

  Year performed

  2022

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