Overview

• Title
• Performer
• Year

• Dance Video: Miracle Report

  "Miracle Report" is an experimental dance/art video by Byakko-sha, directed and edited by video artist Kyu Seigen. The four-part work ("Gourmet", "Giger", "Alice" and "China Town") was filmed during their 1986 tour of Taiwan.

  

  Performer(s)

  Byakko-sha

  Director/Choreographer

  Seigen Kyu, Jun Abe, Isamu Osuka

  Venue

  Filmed in Taiwan

  Year performed

  1986

• Minotaur Disco

  A new piece choreographed and directed by the Tokyo Real Underground artistic director Takao Kawaguchi, performed by butoh dancer Daisuke Yoshimoto and contemporary dancer Naoyuki Sakai. Divided by several generations, the two performers form a new dance as monsters of a labyrinth. Filmmaker Akihiro Suzuki invites us into a world reminiscent of the 1960s underground film scene, of something more than a simple recording of a stage performance.
  
  -- Holding your breath in the deep, dark labyrinth as footsteps approach. Ah, mon amour!
  Unable to suppress your emotions, you run and take them into your arms, singing and dancing. Je t’aime, je t’aime.
  You don’t realise the footsteps were your own. -- Takao Kawaguchi
  
  -Takao Kawaguchi Selection: Un Certain Regard
  -Tokyo Real Underground (Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL Special 13): 1 April - 15 August 2021

  

  Performer(s)

  NPO Dance Archive Network

  Director/Choreographer

  Takao Kawaguchi

  Venue

  Filmed at the former Hakubutsukan Dobutsuen Station [Museum Zoo Station]

  Year performed

  2021

• Mettarohozu

  A scene from a dance therapy presentation held at Seinan Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Hachinohe, Aomori. Sessions were initially held by Mitsutaka Ishii, who went on the invitation of photographer Mitsutoshi Hanaga. However, after Ishii began teaching at other hospitals, other butoh dancers such as Man Uno also began teaching here. Ishii later stated that butoh therapy is 'the truest form of human beings'.
  
  The 1981 presentation 'Baroquekikizu' was credited as a dance therapy event. However, this film of 'Mettarohozu' is credited as a butoh therapy event."

  

  Performer(s)

  Seinan Hospital

  Director/Choreographer

  Hajime Chiba

  Venue

  Seinan Hospital (Aomori)

  Year performed

  1982

• Metasequoia

  Group work with over 20 dancers, created by Tadashi Endo. The theme of the work is how important nature is to humans, inspired by the experience of Endo's father, a school headmaster who was motivated to rebuild a school that had burnt down after seeing a metasequoia tree that sprouted in its place.
  
  -Mamu Festival

  

  Performer(s)

  Tadashi Endo (Butoh Centre MAMU)

  Director/Choreographer

  Tadashi Endo

  Venue

  Junges Theater Göttingen

  Year performed

  1993

• Metaphysical Emotion V – Dew of a Wildflower

  ""How can we be, how can we erase these bodies that feel warm and cold, and be as a wildflower in the field?""
  Butoh dancer Tomiko Takai (1931-2011), who studied under Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, began her 'Metaphysical Emotion' series in 1967 under Hijikata's direction. Takai presented 'Part II' in 1986, and continued the series for the rest of her life. 'Dew of a Wildflower' is 'Part V', and was performed in Frankfurt and Paris. Several characters make an appearance in the work, including a fiancée, a pregnant woman and an old woman looking back on her past.

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Tomiko Takai

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1990

• Dance Oral History: Reflections on Ando Mitsuko’s “The Merry Hatter”

  An oral history of dance in which participants recount their experiences while viewing archival footage. The speaker in this video is Tatsuko Konishi (née Yuasa), who began studying under Mitsuko Ando (later known as Noriko Ando) in 1950 and later devoted considerable effort to training younger generations, including teaching in the Department of Performing Arts at Osaka University of Arts. The Mitsuko Ando Dance Company also included Tatsumi Hijikata, then a modern dancer, who performed alongside Konishi in early television programs during the medium’s formative years. Although footage from television programs of that era rarely survives, Konishi reflects on those days while watching the fortunately rediscovered "The Merry Hatter."

  

  Performer(s)

  NPO Dance Archive Network

  Year performed

  2025

• The Merry Hatter

  Known for her distinctive style, including the use of jazz (which at the time was considered "trendy" but unsophisticated) Mitsuko Ando appeared on numerous dance programs on both NHK and commercial television from the beginning of Japan's television broadcasting in 1953. "The Merry Hatter" was broadcast in 1957 on NHK's program "Ballet". The work is structured as three short pieces inspired by the hats handled by a milliner, portrayed by Shigeru Fujita, who was also known as a pupil of Eliana Pavlova. The first piece is a group dance performed by female dancers; the second is a duet by Mitsuko Ando and Kan Horiuchi. The third piece, a group dance for men and women, features Tatsumi Hijikata.
  
  - Mitsuko Ando later changed her name to Noriko Ando. "Kunio Hijikata" was later known as Tatsumi Hijikata, and Akiko Zushi was the maiden name of Akiko Ohara, who later founded the Ballet Yuba in Brazil.

  

  Performer(s)

  Mitsuko Ando Dance Company

  Director/Choreographer

  Mitsuko Ando, Kan Horiuchi

  Venue

  NHK Studio

  Year performed

  1957

• Melancholia – A Portrait of M

  A collaborative piece featuring butoh dance by Mitsuyo Uesugi and film by Makiko Takamatsu. The performance took place in autumn 2021, under the still-restrictive circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created with the intention of reexamining the meaning of "reality" in a world where, in order to prevent the spread of infection, most performances were not being held in real-life spaces, and audience interaction was largely digital. The venue was a plaza beneath the railway tracks in Koganecho, Yokohama, which served as a special open-air venue where passers-by could come and go.
  
  -DANCE DANCE DANCE @ YOKOHAMA 2021
  -DIGITAL//REALITY International Butoh Festival

  

  Performer(s)

  Mitsuyo Uesugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Mitsuyo Uesugi

  Year performed

  2021

• Materiality and Freedom of Seeing (Tokyo Scene 88)

  TOKYO SCENE 88 featured four works between 8-11 December 1988, with the theme ""pure collaboration between space and acoustic sound"". On the third day was a collaborative piece with Goji Hamada's installation/performance, and Kiyoshi Matsumoto's improvised cello music.
  
  Part 1: Performance (In a Black Cage 'I' Sing)
  Part 2: Talk (Kiss my Body with Words)
  Part 3: Performance ('I' Sleep Outside the Cage)

  Performer(s)

  Studio 200

  Director/Choreographer

  Goji Hamada

  Venue

  Studio 200

  Year performed

  1988

• Masaki Iwana Anthology 1989-1993

  Solo butoh performances by Masaki Iwana in Europe 1989-1993: 'Sokkyō' [Improvisation] (Helsinki, 1993), 'Susabi' (Espace Boris Vian, Paris, 1989), 'Reikyoku' [Hibernation] (1990), 'Hikari no Niku' [Meat of Light] (Théâtre des Amandiers, 1991), 'Mizuhiki ni Kochō' [Knots and Butterflies] (Théâtre Montorgueil, 1992), 'Shizugami' (Lavoir Moderne Parisien, 1993).

  

  Performer(s)

  Masaki Iwana

  Director/Choreographer

  Masaki Iwana

  Venue

  Espace Boris Vian/Théâtre des Amandiers/Théâtre Montorgueil/Lavoir Moderne Parisie

  Year performed

  1989

• The March of the Lemmings

  During an abnormal outbreak, lemmings migrate in groups, sometimes dying in large numbers while crossing rivers and such.
  This has given rise to a theory that this is a form of selection, influencing the view of human cultural history.
  This performance depicts the lemming's dance of death.
  In the midst of an unusual outbreak, a dancing frenzy suddenly erupts. The whole group, except for the blind lemming (Wakamatsu), dances wildly and joyfully while jumping into a river to drown.
  The blind lemming stands still, and transforms into a human being.
  The scene becomes a street corner. A pregnant woman, holding the hand of an infant, passes by.
  
  - Performed at the '89 Modern Dance Performance

  

  Performer(s)

  Wakamatsu Miki & Tsuda Ikuko Free Dance Performance

  Director/Choreographer

  Miki Wakamatsu,Ikuko Tsuda

  Venue

  Tokyo Post Saving Hall

  Year performed

  1989

• Manual Waiter and others (from ‘Satie – Mamako – Suru’)

  From 'Mamako the Mime: Satie - Mamako - Suru' performed in Shizuoka in 1988.
  The event was arranged by pianist Omura Yoko, who invited Mamako to create work inspired by Erik Satie songs such as 'Gymnopédie'.
  Works performed included: 'Acrobat', 'Sympathy for the Poor Eyesight Developed by a Word Processor and a Barcode', 'The Eggplant-shaped Japanese and Bean-shaped foreign worker', 'Manual Waiter' and 'Glass Castle'.

  Performer(s)

  Mamako Yoneyama

  Director/Choreographer

  Mamako Yoneyama

  Venue

  Sizuoka City Culture Hall

  Year performed

  1988

• A Man in White

  16mm film of Yoshito Ohno performing. It was discovered in Yoshito's home in 2018, and details of how it was filmed are unknown. A silent film, it was potentially a work in progress. The costume and make-up closely resemble Yoshito's poster from his solo performance in 1969, and it is speculated that it may have been recorded by the sea in Kamakura while he was preparing for his performance.

  

  Performer(s)

  Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Yoshito Ohno

  Year performed

  1969

• The Maids

  Everything can be told through the gestures of women". Inspired by Jean Genet's 'The Maids', a masterpiece of French avant-garde theatre, it premiered in Tokyo the previous November. Guided by Genet's words and boldly reinterpreted, the 'three' maids connect, share, snoop and reveal. The me inside myself, the you inside me (inside a woman). Keiko Katsumata (Sōmōjuku) and Yuri Sakurai (Zokucho no Tabi) were invited to join Mutsuko Tanaka for a celebration of women's butoh, in which their three personalities collide.
  
  - Butoh-sha Tenkei Special Performance.
  - Participated in the 4th OSAKA DANCE EXPERIENCE & the Hijikata Tatsumi '98

  

  Performer(s)

  TORII HALL

  Director/Choreographer

  Ebisu Torii

  Venue

  TORII HALL

  Year performed

  1998

• MABOROSHI

  This work contributes to Endo Tadashi's lifelong exploration of the theme of death. Death separates body and soul, and the invisible soul drifts around us. By performing the role of a ghost, Endo expresses what appears to be an illusion [Japanese: maboroshi] existing alongside the dancer's real body. The work premiered in 2019 at Sesc Silo, a cultural centre in Paraty, Brazil.

  

  Performer(s)

  Tadashi Endo (Butoh Centre MAMU)

  Director/Choreographer

  Tadashi Endo

  Venue

  Staatstheater Kassel, TIF (Germany)

  Year performed

  2024

• M

  A solo butoh dance in two parts. The performance took place at Terpsichore, a small theatre in Nakano, Tokyo, where Uesugi has performed for many years. In this familiar, empty space, Uesugi creates a delicate microcosm with minimal body movements and the smallest of objects.

  Performer(s)

  Mitsuyo Uesugi

  Director/Choreographer

  Mitsuyo Uesugi

  Venue

  Terpsichore

  Year performed

  2016

• Lusty Woman, 69th Generation

  Directed by John Salt, a researcher of Japanese culture, this butoh piece is based on 'The Life of an Amorous Woman' by Saikaku Ihara. With the aim of transforming the emotions of people who lived in the Edo period into butoh, the piece represents a new turning point for Akiko Motofuji. Performed by Keitoku Takada and the Asbestos-kan troupe, with guest performance by Fuei Nishimatsu on shamisen and vocals, the work brings the world of Saikaku's men and women to life in the modern day through kouta, hauta, jiuta and contemporary poetry. Performed twice, at 15:00 and 19:00.

  

  Performer(s)

  Asbestos-kan

  Director/Choreographer

  John Solt, Akiko Motofuji

  Venue

  Asbestos-kan

  Year performed

  1999

• Lunch in Sunlight

  A pictorial and romantic piece in which the gesture of opening the mouth to eat is choreographed to Erik Satie's Trois morceaux en forme de poire [Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear]. Presented at ’DANCE HOUSE PART 1’.

  

  Performer(s)

  Midori Ishii and Katsuko Orita Dance Studio

  Director/Choreographer

  Katsuko Orita

  Venue

  ABC Hall

  Year performed

  1982

• The Love of Terror

  Premiered in Tokyo in 2007. This work features a life-size driftwood puppet as the dancer's alter ego, exploring themes of self, other, and human existence from multiple perspectives. Over the course of the performance the puppet, devoid of any will of its own, transforms into a transcendent being, surpassing the limits of human form. The piece was also performed in Mexico City in collaboration with a local puppet artist, where it attracted significant attention.

  

  Performer(s)

  Taketeru Kudo

  Director/Choreographer

  Taketeru Kudo

  Venue

  ZA-KOENJI Public Theatre 1

  Year performed

  2017

• 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

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 … 19