Overview

• Title
• Performer
• Year

• 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."
  
  -Izumi Katsushi Dance Opera.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsushi Izumi

  Venue

  Sogetsu Hall

  Year performed

  1985

• 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

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

  A solo piece choreographed by Izumi Katsushi for Orita Katsuko. 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

• 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

• Datenshi’ [Fallen Angel]

  The first work by Izumi Katsushi 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 Izumi Katsushi.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsushi Izumi

  Venue

  Sanbyakunin Theatre

  Year performed

  1979

• 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

• 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

• Ellora – The Dream of the Stone

  Hijikata Tatsumi said "all soft things will soon come under the control of hard things". What is the 'hard thing'? Is it iron, the bark of a log that withstands the wind, or the hardness of the spirit itself? "European dance is a crystal, a diamond. Butoh is a morning glory." What is butoh and what is the Japanese body? With themes of flowers, eros and crystals, the dancers paint an image of a sharp and hard butoh that depict the romanticism and eroticism of the body.
  
  - Waguri Yukio + Kozensha Butoh Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Yukio Waguri + Kozensha

  Director/Choreographer

  Yukio Waguri

  Venue

  Park Tower Hall

  Year performed

  1997

• Egg in the Fire (reproduction)

  Cremation', part of a four-part butoh series named 'Funeral Series'. Original concept: 'Stanislav de Gala Soshaku Kōfujin' [Madame de Stanislav de Gala Mastication]. The flyer included an extract from 'The Tunnel' by Ernesto Sabato. "... Imagine a captain, ruthless and stern / keeping course towards his destination. / But / he doesn't know / why he's headed there."

  

  Performer(s)

  Daisuke Yoshimoto

  Director/Choreographer

  Daisuke Yoshimoto

  Venue

  Yuai-kaikan

  Year performed

  1984

• Edo Mandala

  For this piece, Motofuji Akiko created a work which resonated with Hijikata Tatsumi's butoh as a mandala, with the use of stage art, lighting and music. She also endeavoured to incorporate the cultural sophistication of the Edo period (1603-1868) into her dance. Motofuji made use of the small space in Asbestos-kan to perform a piece of outstanding skill, and also showed the technical mastery of the other butoh dancers.

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  Hironobu Oikawa

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  2003

• Dream: At the Moment it Starts to Disappear

  This work is a collage of fragments of various dreams, including scenes of China where Ishii Midori visited before the war. "At times the dream invites us to a dreamscape with smells, colours, light and heat intermingling, and at other times it becomes an imaginative journey in the blink of an eye."
  
  -This was the first work by Ishii Midori in many years after she lost her husband, the musician Orita Izumi , in 1972. He had been a great support for her and her dance company.
  

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Midori Ishii

  Venue

  Nissei Theatre

  Year performed

  1977

• Dream, After a Treat

  The last days of a king as a metaphor.
  A tyrannical emperor is on the road to downfall. Generals disobey, mistresses flee, the king is captured and sentenced to execution.
  Whoever captures the king becomes the next king. Until yesterday it was the king's clown.
  A king on his deathbed. The irony of life, it's 'a one-time dream'.
  A metaphor for the end of youth, retirement, the decline of the body, the rise and fall of prosperity, and the changing seasons of nature.
  If the next king was a clown yesterday, then previous kings were once clowns too.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1987

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu,Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1987

• Double Bind – Tomorrow –

  "In 1982, Kawani Hiroshi and Tanaka Toshi started a duo call Mouthpiece at Terpsichore in Nakano, Tokyo. They then began collaborations with Kato Kei, Furuya Toshihiko and others.
  They created a method using voice and improvisation inspired by Antonin Artaud, and put on live performances that experimented with the intersection between different genres. 'Double Bind' was effectively their final full performance as Mouthpiece."
  
  - Performed on 24 June as 'Yesterday' and on 25 'Tomorrow' as a part of STUDIO 200 LIVE PIECES.
  - The piglet that appeared on the 1st day died the next morning, and did not appear on the 2nd day.

  

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Mouthpiece

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1983

• Double Bind – Yesterday -　

  In 1982, Kawani Hiroshi and Tanaka Toshi started a duo call Mouthpiece at Terpsichore in Nakano, Tokyo. They then began collaborations with Kato Kei, Furuya Toshihiko and others.
  They created a method using voice and improvisation inspired by Antonin Artaud, and put on live performances that experimented with the intersection between different genres. 'Double Bind' was effectively their final full performance as Mouthpiece.
  
  -Performed on 24 June as 'Yesterday' and on 25 'Tomorrow' as a part of STUDIO 200 LIVE PIECES.
  -The piglet that appeared on the 1st day died the next morning, and did not appear on the 2nd day.

  

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Mouthpiece

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1983

• Dialogue

  Kandinsky's paintings expressed with the body. Original live music performed by chamber rock band ZYPRESSEN.
  
  - Yonei Sumie Dance Performance held at the Yokohama Art Wave '89 commemorating centennial history of Yokohama city as well as 130-years history since the opening of the Port of Yokohama.

  Performer(s)

  Yokohama Art Wave '89 - Yokohama International Theatre Art Festival

  Director/Choreographer

  Sumie Yonei

  Venue

  Osanbashi Yokohama

  Year performed

  1989

• Detainen Konchikisho (Damn! want out!)

  This work asks what independence means for people with disabilities, to find resources for the daily lives of people with disabilities in institutions where they are placed under the control of able-bodied people and live a dehumanised life - what is the key to unlocking the door to their freedom, to liberate people with disabilities?

  

  Performer(s)

  Performance Troupe TAIHEN

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshikiyo Kontani, Masayuki Kashiwagi

  Venue

  Seibu-kodo Hall of the Kyoto University

  Year performed

  1986

• Den Den Den

  Oguri's first solo performance after moving to Los Angeles in 1991. Originally presented as 'Untitled', the title was decided on the spot after a request from management. To this day Oguri continues to collaborate with composer Paul Chavez, who was in charge of sound for this performance. The venue, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), was a place of radical avant-garde art in one of the roughest areas of downtown Los Angeles. Housed in a brick building covered in barbed wire, performances attracted members of the punk scene and the gay and lesbian community, among others. Now relocated to Hollywood Boulevard, it continues to put on exciting programs.

  

  Performer(s)

  Naoyuki Oguri

  Director/Choreographer

  Oguri

  Venue

  LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition)

  Year performed

  1992

• Deadpan : intention

  "DEADPAN refers to the expressionless and serious manner of saying something often to comedic effect.
  
  The sound was provided by DJ Howie B, who was well-known at the time, and there are a few famous rock stars in the audience.
  The last few minutes of the performance are cut off in the video, but according to Oguri's memory, the performance ended without any further dance sequences."

  

  Performer(s)

  Naoyuki Oguri

  Director/Choreographer

  Oguri

  Venue

  Project Arts Center (Dublin)

  Year performed

  1996

• Dawn

  If the world is truly wonderful, then wonderful is the sadness I hold for the world.
  If the world is a mess, this sadness too is a mess.
  Do life and death, as morning and night, continue to live on in the same way?
  In this piece, the sadness of the 1930s - the beginning of the modern era - shows its face. The grief of an aging body slips into a frivolous romantic reminiscence of days gone by.
  
  - Participated in the ACA National Arts Festival 1977

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu, Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Yomiuri Hall

  Year performed

  1977

• Dark Wings

  This work was choreographed for ballet dancers of the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine by butoh dancer Yamada Ippei (aka Bishop Yamada) while he spent some months in living in Kyiv. An encounter with butoh by ballet dancers. It featured appearances by Anna Kouschneryova, national star of Ukraine at the time, and in August that same year, it was remade under the name 'The Door of Night for Odette' and performed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre with most of the same cast.

  

  Performer(s)

  Hoppo Butoh-ha

  Director/Choreographer

  Ippei Yamada

  Venue

  National Opera of Ukraine

  Year performed

  1998

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