Japan's Butoh troupe to show dance talent

JAKARTA (JP): Young male and female dancers move slowly on the bamboo stage, twisting their bodies to the rhythmical music as though possessed by spirits.

Their faces are covered with white powder, accentuating their unearthly appearance, evoking images of fear, desperation, eroticism and ecstasy.

Choreographed by Yukio Waguri, a noted dancer from Japan's experimental dance of Butoh, the dance captivated viewers during a 30-minute video screening prior to his two-day performance during the second art summit in Jakarta.

Yukio's group, Kohzenza, is scheduled to stage one of their best works, The Wedding on The Field, at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta on Friday and Saturday.

According to Yukio, Butoh is a physical expression founded by Tatsumi Hijikata, a modern dancer from Akita, an area of Tohoku district in north eastern Japan. It was created when he first came to Tokyo in 1957, in the midst of serious social, political and economic turmoil.

Yukio described Butoh, in a message sent in July to Inami Kazumi, assistant director of the Japan Foundation in Jakarta, regarding his performance at the art summit.

He said the quality of Hijikata's debut performance in 1959, Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors), surprised not only those in dance circles, but the entire art world.

Hijikata's Butoh, he said, sent, painters, designers, photographers, visual artists and theater artists, who were searching for new expressions, into a frenzy.

"Butoh by Hijikata and dancers directly or indirectly influenced by him, has been highly acclaimed both in Japan and internationally. Butoh has become a genre of contemporary Japanese performing arts," said the 46-year old Yukio.

Yukio himself became Hijikata's student in 1972 where he performed as the main male dancer in his master's works.

He later quitted dancing for several years and worked in traditional fabric printing, Edo Komon. And just before his master's death in 1984, he made his comeback.

After performing as a solo dancer for several years, Yukio set up his own dance company, Kohzenza, in 1990.

Later on, he managed to assemble Butoh-Fu, Hijikata's choreographic words, and publish the works, Butoh-Kaden, in CD- ROM in 1998 on the 13th anniversary of his teacher's death.

Yukio explained that despite Butoh's popularity worldwide, little has been said about Butoh choreography, which is quite different to that of Western and modern dance or ballet.

"The CD-ROM is the first attempt to reveal the secret of Butoh choreography from the inside...," he said.

Yukio's 1994 production, The Wedding on the Field, features seasonal sketches of physical changes in the Japanese landscape based on the cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The composition attempts to visualize the history of Japanese physical structures which become drier and flatter in the long span of cycles.

Yukio said that Japanese people were sensitive to the changing seasons, such as the haze and new growth of spring, excitement and drowsiness of midsummer, melancholy of autumn and piercing cold of winter.

"The Japanese accept the seasonal essences as if they were layers of extra skin. This Japanese copious physicality has nurtured poems, refined tastes and enriched the culture...," he said.

He said that the Japanese perceive the seasons rather passively, just like soup soaks into dried tofu.

"The Wedding on The Field carefully draws on the common language and sensitivity of the Japanese people and weaves them together," Yukio said.

His notes on Butoh, he said, were filled with signs taken from nature, flowers, birds, animals, smoke, ghosts, space and others.

One of Butoh's techniques, he said, was to empty one's body, let these things flow in and reflect in the body traces of latent nerves. But, one can dance only with nerves, he added.

"My reasons for dancing, performing and choreographing are to meet with myself," reasoned Yukio.

By observing things and putting himself in others' forms, he marked the tracks of nerves spreading around the foot of unfathomable oblivion, he said.

"As I can capture water by pouring it into a glass, I surround myself with what I can grasp and try to move as close as possible to the permanent question of 'me'. I will be happy if the audience sees me as a winter butterfly."

After performing at the art summit, Yukio is scheduled to give lectures on the method of Butoh choreography and how to realize Butoh's movements inspired by words.

On Sept. 28-29, he will give a lecture at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ), on Oct. 1-2 at the Bandung-based Indonesian School of Art (STSI), and on Oct.5-6 at the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta.

Yukio was a speaker at a dialog on the problems of multiculturalism and exploration of local sources, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday in Hotel Alia, Central Jakarta. (ste)