Butoh
From the Butoh / to the Butoh

Suffocation, illness transformations, betweenness of pain and pleasure and the voice of magic

„We will inscribe the history of Butoh in our process. In this process we take a place, we change the place, we are in the middle of experiments.
We are transforming. In our collections there are new confrontations, new everyday things. Everyday experiences with their breaks, control of self, transformations, transmissions, and transgressions.

What are our attempts relating to?
1) Breath. Breath and its transformations, differences and combinations of breathing „forms“. Freeing a voice from the gorge.
2) Walking. Who walks? Coming from where and going where? Are we able to imagine "walking without feet"?
3) Touch the earth, jump, dance: the terms "tamafuri" and "tamashizume".
4) Movements of the 8. The 8 starts halfways, it stops halfways - no beginning, no end - in the inside there is the outside, on the outside the inside. One and the other cross each other, get mixed up. The Moebius Loop, asymmetrical spirals.
5) Future: future of the animal, of the plants, of the minerals passing. Becoming a corpse, fluid, solid, gas. Learning transmissions and transformations.
6) Improvisations. Form sneaking into the act. An interval, trembling, shifting. Breaking down, all in the same moment. Suffering, vibrations, coagulation, relaxation, convulsions towards humour.



Ko Murobushi
Ko Murobushi is one of the most acclaimed Butoh artists of our times. 1959 Butoh was proclaimed by Tatsumi Hijikata, and already in 1968 young Murobushi studied and danced with him. Later on he moved to Paris. Since then his nomadic artistic life has led and still leads him to nearly all continents regularly, India, Brazil, Mexico, Great Britain, back to Japan .... and of course repeatedly to Vienna.

Ko Murobushi is one of the most acclaimed Butoh artists of our times. 1959 Butoh was proclaimed by Tatsumi Hijikata, and starting 1968 the young Murobushi studied and danced with him. Later he moved to Paris, where he choreographed for Ariadone as well as for Carlotta Ikeda, Urara Kusanagi, Tadashi Endo and others. Among his best known works of that period are Zarathoustra, Utt, Hime. Improvisational performances lead to cooperations with Wim Mertens and the Glenn Branca Orchestra (Tokyo, 1986) among others. From 1988 on, Ko focused on duo-productions with Urara Kusanagi, his very successful solo production En brought him to Mexico and South America.

In the last years Ko created [Edge 1] and [Edge 02-Bach Sketch], performed at ImPulsTanz as well as in many countries scattered all over the world. Ko’s nomadic artistic life leads him regularly to nearly all continents. 2002 he was invited to India to the Cross Cultural Exchange between Japan and India where he created [EAST WIND III - No boat in sight] shown in Japan and India afterwards. 2003 and 2004 he worked in Portugal, New York, Paris, London, Germany; he led research projects, workshops and performances in Brazil, Mexico, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

His solo performance [Edge] in Japan 2000 was a big shock to the japanese public but has also been highly appreciated. On one hand Ko Murobushi continues to open his dance and Butoh to worldwide influences, on the other hand he is researching his work more deeply into Japan, lately working together with young japanese dancers in "Ko & Edge co." Its recent "Ko & Edge co." productions [Bibou no Aozora], meaning „Beautiful Blue Sky“, and [Heels] have been very successful in Japan.