The Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange
The Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange is a long-term, ongoing butoh exchange project to find new paths for the future.
「「狂詩曲」日台舞踏交流 2024 “Manimani” Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange 2024」
“Free expression, expression of truth”
"Manimani"「狂詩曲」Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange 2024 will proudly present the duo Butoh performance "Manimani"「狂詩曲」by Japanese Butoh artists Mayako Okura and Takuya Tsuji, as well as the Butoh work "Chí"「蟄」by Taiwanese artist Hu Chia.
We seek to create a place where people can deepen and enhance their understanding of Butoh and artistic culture from different countries.
Butoh has become an important field of free expression in society today. This project aims to be an international exchange for a more affluent society through Butoh and will play a role in the artistic and cultural exchange between Japan and Taiwan.
Following the success of the highly acclaimed "Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange," organized by the Walks Project in Tokyo in July 2023, which conveyed the importance of freedom of expression for people living today, we dedicate ourselves to developing the outcome and further expanding free expression.
「まにまに道中狂詩曲」"Manimani Douchuu Kyoushikyoku“
The meaning of “Manimani" which we will dance this time in "Manimani Douchuu Kyoushikyoku(Rhapsody in English)” is "as it is" "with" or "The state of being left to its own motion" and is used in Japanese tanka poetry as "as it is by God”
“Kyoushikyoku" is an extremely free, unrestrained, and brilliant instrumental piece that does not have a fixed form, but is composed of several folk or epic musical ideas arranged one after the other. “Kyoushi" has been popular in Japan since the 1700s and refers to poems that comically depict the vulgar aspects of human beings and society.
We really like the sound of "MA-NI MA-NI". “MA" seems to be connected to the Japanese word "ma". “Ma" is a space where visible and invisible things are intertwined. An imperceptible space that is mine, yours, and no one else's at the same moment. This is what I imagine from the sound of "MANIMANI".
In the process of maintaining that space, why don't we dance and walk together, transcending race, gender, and life/non-life? It makes me feel that this is the meaning of dancing as a duo as opposed to dancing solo, and of dancing in Taiwan across the border. In this time of global and social turmoil, I believe that each one of us, while searching for the way forward, will open up to all possibilities, and the path we take will surely lead us to a world of abundance and the joy of life.
A sanctuary filled with many kinds of being that continue to exist together - we call it "Manimani Douchuu".
I would like to dance it as a contemporary "Butoh version rhapsody", making it sure step by step.
Please take a look!
I would also like to express my gratitude to the Mie Theatre 滅劇場,Taiwan International Butoh Association for their continuous support of this project. We could not have done such a big project by ourselves. Thank you very much.
Event Schedule:
Butoh Performance
Date & Time: 10/19 (Sat) 19:00 (Doors open at 18:40)
Venue: M3 Sake Factory, Huashan 1914 Creative Park (No.1,Bade Road Sec.1,Zhong Zhen District,Taipei 100)
- First Half: "Chí"「蟄」- 25 minutes
Butoh Performance: Hu Chia
- Second Half: "Manimani Douchuu Kyoushikyoku"「まにまに道中狂詩曲」- 45 minutes
Butoh Performance: Mayako Okura+Takuya Tsuji
Post-performance discussion | 20 minutes
Butoh Workshop (Beginners Welcome)
Instructors: Mayako Okura + Takuya Tsuji
Date: 10/20 (Sun)
Time: 10:00-17:00 (Doors open at 09:30)
Duration: 6 hours (Lunch break from 12:00 to 13:00)
Location: Fruit Wine Dance Studio, 2nd Floor, Huashan 1914 Creative Park (No.1,Bade Road Sec.1,Zhong Zhen District,Taipei 100)
Photography: Makoto Onozuka（小野塚誠）,Te-Fan Wang（汪德範）,Bozzo, Claude Hofer
All events will be filmed.
Organizers: Walks project (Mayako Okura + Takuya Tsuji), Miè Theatre
Supported by Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Co-organizers: Taiwan International Butoh Association, Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Kaidan_dessert
Japan-Taiwan Butoh Dance Exchange
Butoh and music from Japan and Taiwan will perform together! July 9 (Sunday)
Butoh dancer Hu Chia from Taipei, who has been a close friend of ours for a long time, will also perform.This event will be a part of the artistic and cultural exchange between Japan and Taiwan.
Outline
July 9, 2023 (Sun), 18:00 (Doors open 30 minutes before the performance)
Showcase performance by collaboration of Butoh and live music
Reservations and advance sales: 3,500 yen at the door: 4,000 yen Students: 3,000 yen
Mayako Okura with Jun Kawasaki
Tsuji Takuya with Jun Kawasaki
Hu Jia with Asaka Igarashi
Minami Adu with Asahiko Takahara
(15 min. per pair, 60 min. performance time) (15 minutes per group, 60 minutes per performance)
After the performance, an after-talk will be held to deepen exchanges between the performers and the audience.
Venue: Terpsichore (3-49-15-1F Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo)
May 19 (Sat) Ticket sales start
Reservations and advance sales: 3,500 yen, at the door: 4,000 yen, students: 3,000 yen
Students must present their student ID at the reception desk on the day of the performance.
This performance will be streamed online from July 20 to August 31, 2023.
Online streaming video viewing fee: 1,000 yen
For inquiries, please contact
Walks project e-mail/[email protected]
Grant: Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Arts Council Tokyo [Start-up Grant].
Related Programs
July 8, 2023 (Sat) 13:00-17:00
Workshops by Butoh dancers
Fee for all three workshops: 5,000 yen, per workshop: 2,000 yen
Workshop 1: 13:00-14:00
Facilitator: Zoka Zou (Minami-Azu + Tsuji Takuya)
The Dance of Being
We have been conducting workshops with people of various ages and positions. With our unique method based on Butoh, we support the dance of standing up by being present, utilizing individual spontaneity and creativity from the senses, breath, and inner self, a method that anyone can create, unlike dance techniques.
Workshop ② 14:30-15:30
Mayako Okura
To those things that cannot be named with words.”
We will begin by encountering sensations before they become words, through breathing and the sound of the voice. From inside to outside
We will play with the sensations of the body that spread out and submerge deep into the world from inside to outside and from outside to inside.
We will play with the sensations of the body, which are ever expanding and ever deepening and submerging. Delicately, densely, boldly. We blend with each other, sometimes in an open and airy way. Butoh, the movement of life, is born from the depths of each of us.
Butoh dance that comes from deep within each of us, weaving the movement of life.
Workshop ③ 16:00-17:00
Hu Jia
Taiwan Monkey Crane Shuang Shuang Kung Fu
Taiwan Monkey Crane Shuang Hsing Kwon (Master Chen Ming-Lun's system) belongs to the soft limb internal martial art and has already been practiced in Taiwan for more than 150 years. The training course is designed with quiet, gentle, and slow movements, with special emphasis on the three simultaneous movements of the breath, hands, and feet. By emphasizing physical postures and movements, the feet come alive, the hands and limbs become more flexible, and the resulting movements are natural and smooth. By learning a natural, simple martial art with a restrained and peaceful Zen-like spirit, one can express Butoh with greater focus and sharpness of body, mind, and spirit. The harmonization of the body and limbs allows the body to receive internal and external messages more promptly and to achieve inner peace through the unification of mind and body.
performer
Hu Chia (Butoh)
Hu Chia is the artistic director of Hucha Theater and the third chairman of Taiwan International Butoh Association (台湾国際舞踏協会) and Taiwan Monkey Crane Shuanggeuken (台灣猴鶴雙形拳). Since the founding of Fu Cha Theater in 2008, he has contributed to the development of “Butoh-Shodo Art,” a fusion of the physical aesthetics of Taiwan's contemporary Butoh and the art of calligraphy, and through this integrated art form, expresses the synchronicity of Taiwan's contemporary calligraphy and the profound Zen spirituality of contemporary aesthetics. Hucha Theater's performances are characterized by the application of calligraphy to the interdisciplinary workings of the visual and performing arts, and fuse the restrained and serene spirit of Taiwan's Monkey Crane Sogekwon into an art space composed of people and environment.
Asaka Igarashi, cello
Asaka Igarashi is a cellist and arranger. She graduated from Tokyo College of Music and has been active both in Japan and abroad in exchange with South American artists since her performance in Ecuador in 2000. 2013 she moved to Argentina and released her own composition albums “mira-Mira(‘14)” and “awasqa-Awasqa(’15)”. 2016 she resumed her activities in Japan. In May, she held her 8th “OTOMIRU Yoru” (cello and voice concert), an improvisation and singing performance using a 5-string cello and mini-guitar. In addition to his unit “Odori to Oto” (dance and sound) with butoh dancer Tsuji Takuya, he has recently been involved in music production for chorus, plays, recitations, films, etc. asakaigarashi.com
Minami-Azu (Butoh)
Graduated from Musashino Art University in 2013 with a degree in plastic arts. Studied butoh and pursued the possibilities of stage expression. While her main base of activities is Tokyo, she has also presented her works in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, she created and danced “ScarTissue” series from 0 to 5 works based on the image of her own surgical scars and scars from the earthquake. 2012 New Dance Critics Society New Artist Award. 2022 NDA Award at NDA International Dance Festival in Korea. 2022 NDA Award at NDA International Dance Festival in Korea.
She will be invited to the NDA International Dance Festival in 2023. This will be her first collaboration with Asahiko Takahara.
Asahiko Takahara (10-string guitar)
Graduated from Musashino Art University, Department of Art and Design in 2013. Asahiko Takahara (10-string guitar) was born in Tokyo. His mother is a koto master of the Yamada school. He taught himself to play guitar from junior high school. Studied music theory and solfege under composer Akira Ui, and switched to 10-string guitar at the end of the 1970s. Composed and performed music for film, television, and ballet. 87-88 based in Munich, gave concerts throughout Germany, and produced an album in Oslo. Performed with butoh dancers such as Gunn Tokuda, Iku Kawajiri, Mitsuyo Uesugi, Toru Iwashita, and Hiromi. Currently, he mainly performs solo at live houses in Tokyo and collaborates with musicians such as Eiichi Hayashi, Jun Kawasaki, and Yoshiko Honda.
Okura Mayako
She has been confronting herself through improvised butoh with the theme of "living in purity from moment to moment" and exploring the dance that is drawn from the deep connection between the body and consciousness.
She started practicing under Butoh dancer Masahide Omori (leader of Tenrouseido) and performed in Tenrouseido performances since 1999. She has been performing as a solo artist, dancing outdoors, in beauty salons, museums, etc., in addition to theater performances since 2001. She also collaborates with dancers from other fields, and composes and directs workshop performances.
In recent years, she has been active both in Japan and abroad, performing at the International Butoh Festival in Taiwan, the Asian Butoh Forum, and organizing and managing international butoh exchange.
She received the 35th Dance Critics Society of Japan Award for Newcomer of the Year in 2004.
http://mayakoookura.com/
Tsuji Takuya
Bachelor of Sociology of Body theory,Edogawa University. He began his theater career while he was in the University. Since then, he has appeared in numerous theater performances and dance theater.
After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, he became more conscious of his physicality and met Butoh dancer Masahide Omori and started Butoh dance. Since then, he has been participating in Butoh works as a member of Tenrou Seido. He started solo activities with the theme of "inhabiting what is happening" since 2013.
In addition to his solo activities, he is also exploring forms of collaboration as a symbiote like "lichen" through his unit "Dance and Sound" with cellist Asaka Igarashi and collaborative works in the "Ritornello Factory" organized by philosopher Daisuke Araya.
Jun KAWASAKI (Composer, double bass player)
Born in 1975. He presides over the Institute for Music and Poetic Drama, promotes the Eurasian Opera Project, and presents his works in collaboration in various countries. 2022, he will perform with artists from Russia, Taiwan, Kurdistan, Korea, and Japan, and publish his book “Eurasian Songs,” which is the culmination of his work. Released a CD of compositions featuring Korean and Russian singers, “Eurasian Poetic Drama. As a music director for theater and dance, he has composed over 100 works. In addition, he also directs and produces performing arts.
https://www.biologiamusic.com/
Isshui Minegishi (1-stringed koto)
Genesis grandson of Tokuhiro Taishin, founder of the Seikyodo 1-stringed koto school. He succeeded to the fourth generation at a young age. He has been giving concerts and lectures several times a year both in Japan and abroad on new pieces as well as the classics, and also teaches Icchinguin music, which was originally a spiritual instrument for the next generation. She also collaborates with dance and theater, and is exploring new ways to expand her activities beyond music. 2009 Delphic (Cultural Arts Olympiad) Bronze Prize in the 1-string and 2-string categories. In 2022, he will release two CDs simultaneously, “Tomari Senkyo” and “Ichigen Koto Rakusen Kara Gendai E”.
*Minegishi Isshui, a fourth generation Seikyodo Ichigenkoto and Soke, who was originally scheduled to perform, has unfortunately passed away. We sincerely pray for his soul rest in peace. I had been looking forward to this project and preparing for it for a long time while I was in poor health. Mr. Minegishi always said that because of the simplicity of this instrument, he wanted us to hear the beauty of its margins. Although we were not able to perform this time, all of us involved will stand on the stage with Mr. Minegishi's thoughts and feelings.