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 is one of the best known and acclaimed Butoh artists in the world and is recognised in Japan as a leading inheritor of Hijikata's original vision of Butoh. He studied with Hijikata in 1968, briefly 'giving up' dance to become a "Yamabushi" mountain monk, back into society he founded the Butoh-Group Dairakudakan together with Ushio Amagatsu, Akaji Maro and others. 1974 he created the Butoh-magazine Hageshii Kisetsu (Violent Season) and founded a female Butoh-Company Ariadone with Carlotta Ikeda, and for which he did many choreographies. Two years later he founded a similar only-male Butoh-group: Sebi.

With a co-production of these two groups he brought the Butoh to Europe and contributes to the regognition of Butoh in Europe: "Le Dernier Eden - Porte de l’au - delá" succeeded in Paris in 1978, and was followed by a big tour through whole Europe with Ariadone in 1981/82. From 1988 Ko concentrated on duo-productions with Urara Kusanagi, and toured in the following years in Europe and South America.
On the one hand he continues to open his dance and the Butoh to the worldwide influences, on the other hand he tries to research his work much deeper into its Japanese roots. His solo productions [Edge01], [Edge02] and group production [Edge03] have been invited by several international dance festival, ImPulsTanz Festival, Montpellier Dance Festival, London Butoh Network Festival, a.o. He has received numerous awards for residencies worldwide, including in Mexico, India and New York. Ko is in great demand as a workshop teacher.

In 2003, he settled his unit Ko&Edge Co. with 3 young Japanese dancers, presented [Handsome Blue Sky] for Jade 2003 Hijikata Memorial in Japan, and caught frantic applause. In 2004, this unit Ko&Edge Co. presented new series titled [Experimental Body] which is searching “edge” in a physical way. In 2005, Ko&Edge Co. presented [Handsome Blue Sky] in US-Canada tour in 5 venues. Ko's latest solo performance is [quick silver] and has been lead him to world tours.

His choreographies as well as his solo performances continue to establish Ko Murobushi as one of the highest reputed representatives of Butoh, and every moment Ko challenges to reach new possibility of Butoh.