Many thanks to Juliet Knapp for sending in the following information. THEATRE / DANCE / PERFORMANCE / MUSIC / VISUAL ART / DESIGN Taking place every autumn for around one month, Kyoto Experiment is Kyoto’s first international performing arts festival, bringing together cutting-edge theater and dance from around the world. The Official Program comprises a dozen or more … [Read more...]
A Close Encounter with Butoh Dance at the Kyoto Butoh-kan
Today we have a special guest post from Florentyna Leow on the world’s first theatre expressly devoted to regular Butoh performances. Butoh is an avant-garde dance style originating in Japan. First developed by Kazuo Ono and Hijikata Tatsumi in the 1960s, one of the central features of Butoh is its very indefinability - it is difficult to attach a definition or set of … [Read more...]
A First View of Kabuki
My latest article for Inside Kyoto is about a visit to Kyoto's Minamiza Theater to see a kabuki show. Going to see kabuki is one of those things I have long wanted to do, but somehow I had never gotten around to - until now. I had strong doubts before going about whether I could enjoy it, as I knew that the language would be archaic and difficult to understand. In the event I … [Read more...]
‘Introduction to Noh theatre’ begins at Impact Hub Kyoto this Spring
‘Introduction to Noh theatre’ by The International Noh Institute (INI) is a 6-session course at Impact Hub Kyoto, aimed at Kyoto residents, exchange students, or any other English-speaker who would like to take a closer look at Noh theatre’s tradition. Details at the LINK! … [Read more...]
World Heritage Kyoto by John Dougill
Our good friend, John Dougill, recently published a wonderful (and beautifully illustrated) book on Japan's World Heritage Sites. Today he has been good enough to write a guest post on the many World Heritage properties of Kyoto, with some excellent personal recommendations. To research my book on Japan's World Heritage Sites, I travelled the length of Japan from … [Read more...]
