Traditional Japanese Butoh dance performances and workshop

Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 November

Tickets for the events and workshop can be booked via Eventbrite. 

We are delighted to present two very special performances next month by two internationally acclaimed Japanese dance artists, Mitsuyo Uesugi and Takao Kawagachi. ‘Melancholia - A Portrait of M’ will be performed on Saturday 11 November at 7pm and ‘About Kazuo Ohno’ will be performed on Sunday 12 November at 6pm. This will take place at Greve de Lecq Barracks and tickets cost £15 per night or £25 for a weekend ticket. A ‘pay what you can’ option is also available.

THE STORY OF BUTOH DANCE

Butoh is a dance form that developed in Japan in the post-war period of the late 1950s and 1960s, when two artists, Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, moved from the studio to the streets to perform what became iconic dances that faced the social realities of the time and in doing so gave form to a dance of protest and radical philosophy. Kazuo Ohno went on to dance around the world creating poetic works, mostly in his later works dancing solo, until the age of 103 when he passed away in 2010. Mitsuyo Uesugi was his student for over 50 years. 

These two performances have been created, one by his student of over 50 years, Mitsuyo Uesugi, and another by an acclaimed contemporary Japanese performer, Takao Kawaguchi. The latter has  created a performance based on bringing four of Ohno's signature works back to life. ‘About Kazuo Ohno’ comes to probably its most intimate performance in Jersey after performing worldwide in thirty-eight cities including, Théâtre de Ville in Paris, Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Japan Society in New York, where it won a Bessie Award.  

WORKSHOP

On Sunday 12th November from 2pm to 5pm there will also be a Butoh dance workshop led by Mitsuyo Uesugi with tickets costing £30 per person.