A message from our friend Bridget Scott:
This March sees Kyoto Experiment 2016, the first time to hold this international performing arts festival in spring as well as autumn. From 5th March to 27th March there will be live performances of theatre, music and dance at venues all over Kyoto. For details check the website: www.kyoto-ex.jp.
Here, I’d like to introduce some butoh and butoh related performances that are part of Kyoto Experiment 2016 Fringe Festival hosted by Kyoto’s avant grade performance space, Urbanguild.
Saturday 5th March will be a big night for butoh fans. “Takasago Butoh Cooperation 15th Anniversary Carnival” will present 12 butoh dancers young and old from near and far corners of Japan: Kansai, Hyogo, Gifu, Tohoku and Kyushu. There will be live music including saxophone, shamisen, didjeridoo, sittar, percussion and voice. All the performers have collaborated with Takasago Butoh Cooperation over the last 15 years. Kiyoko Yamamoto, the organizer from Takasago, is a veteran butoh performer active in the anti nuclear movement. The evening will be constructed in the form of a non stop dance relay. It will be a rare chance to see a gathering of butoh dancers from local parts of Japan. What kind of butoh will emerge?
Note, to regular Urbanguild punters:
This performance begins at 18:30, one hour earlier than usual nights.
Tickets are ¥1,800 in advance and ¥2,000 on the door, including one drink.
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/events/219814695029236/
“BRDG 5th Anniversary” is a celebration of BRGD theatre group on Wednesday 16th March from 19:30. The directors are Keiko Yamaguchi and Kano Kawanabe, Keiko is a butoh dancer and actress who creates theatre pieces about foreigners living in Kyoto. The evening will include a bilingual theatre piece as well as dance, live music, theatre skits and a unique food menu.
Tickets are ¥2,000 in advance and ¥2,500 on the door, including one drink.
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/events/249755958688848/
The next two nights 17th and 18th March, “Senryusha Mimihime Kitchen” fresh from a successful sellout show in New York. The main performer is Chisato Seino, a senryu(a 17 syllable satirical poem) poet and butoh dancer. The whole evening of butoh is based around Seino’s live writing and reciting of her poems. Butoh dancers appearing are from New York, Beijing, Shanghai and Kyoto’s very own Butoh master, Katsura Kan. Musicians include, Urbanguild’s Ryotaro Sudo on accordion and electronics, Junryo Oishi on synthesizer and Masahiko Todoriki tuva chanting and traditional music and Ryota Tanaka on percussion.
Starts at 19:30
Tickets are ¥2,500 including one drink.
A guaranteed unique evening, not to be missed.
On Friday 25th March “Kan Katsura x Sanae Kuroko What is Dance? The Silence starts to talk—Listen with the body” is a showing as a result of 4 days of workshops exploring the process of making dance.
This workshop is open for anyone with an interest in questioning what is dance and how to make a performance. It is guided by Katsura Kan, Kyoto’s born and bred butoh master, Kuroko Sanae, a contemporary dancer and Keiko Yamaguchi, actor, butoh dancer and theatre director.
The workshop will be in English and Japanese.
For more information on the workshop see the Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/events/1694213754123497/
The showing will start at 19:30.
Tickets are ¥2,500 including one drink.
There is one more butoh event I’d like to mention, not held at Urbanguild but at the classic old theatre, Gojo Kabarenjo, on Sunday March 20th at 15:00 and 19:00 and Monday March 21st at 15:00.
Ima Tenko’s Butoh Company Kiraza in “Robe of Dreams”. It is the group’s annual performance held at this old traditional theatre. Always a spectacular event!
For more information: ima_kiraza@yahoo.co.jp
So, this March in Kyoto, stop looking at those screens, get out and enjoy the visceral experience of live, raw performance!
