[Adta] NY BUTOH DANCE FESTIVAL has begun: 4 weeks of Performances, Workshops, Films & Lectures

[Jeff Janisheski]

Friends: The NY Butoh Festival I started in 2003 is happening again!
 
Below is general festival information, so please come to our various performances, workshops, films and lectures during the next 4 weeks. 
 
I am doing two special events this week: on Thursday I'm moderating a free "Kazuo Ohno Film Marathon" from 1:00-9:00pm at CUNY GRADUATE CENTER -- featuring films that Ohno has given to butoh scholar John Solt during their 25 year friendship. http://nybf.caveartspace.org/films.htm <http://nybf.caveartspace.org/films.htm> 
 
Then, this coming Saturday I'm presenting a piece at the JAPAN SOCIETY that I co-choreographed with Yanira Castro; the piece is performed during the "Butoh Marathon" from 4:30-6:30pm which is all part of a celebration of Kazuo Ohno's 101st birthday that day. The evening concludes with a Birthday Party for Ohno.
http://nybf.caveartspace.org/performances/japansociety.htm <http://nybf.caveartspace.org/performances/japansociety.htm> 
Jeff Janisheski
NY Butoh Festival, Co-Founder
 
"The New York Butoh Festival  allowed connoisseurs and novices alike to steep themselves
in this enigmatic dance... the raw experience was undeniable.   
-The New York Times
 
THE 3rd NEW YORK BUTOH FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 21 - November 21
http://nybf.caveartspace.org/ <http://nybf.caveartspace.org/> 

4 Weeks of Performances, Workshops, Films & Lectures

Featured in this Sunday's NY Times as "pick of the week" <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/arts/21weekahead.html> 
& in Time Out New York's Fall Preview Section <http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/features/21778/butoh-butoh-gala> 
& Read Interview with Festival Co-Founder Jeff Janisheski in NY Press <http://nypress.com/20/42/abouttown/about3.cfm> 

PERFORMANCES & WORKSHOPS ARE SELLING OUT
BUY NYBF TICKETS NOW!
www.Smarttix.com
AND
www.nybf.caveartspace.org

Participating venues:
NOGUCHI MUSEUM
JAPAN SOCIETY
THEATRE FOR THE NEW CITY
CAVE ART SPACE

CUNY GRADUATE CENTER
ANTHOLOGY FILMS ARCHIVES

Festival performances feature:
CAVEnsemble, Denise Fujiwara, Shinichi Iova Koga,
Jeff Janisheski and Yanira Castro, Taketeru Kudo,
Ko Murobushi, Ralph Lee and Nancy Zendora, 
LEIMAY AcTS LAB: Ximena Garnica, Yuko Kaseki, Shige Moriya,
Daiji Meguro,Takuya Ishide, Atsushi Takenouchi,
Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, Moeno Wakamatsu, Yukio Waguri,
Various NYC Artists
And Special Guests from Japan Society's Kazuo Ohno 101:
Akira Kasai
Yoshito Ohno


OCTOBER 27 (SATURDAY)
Butoh Marathon: Curated by CAVE and Presented by Japan Society
To buy tickets for this Butoh Marathon contact the Society at www.japansociety.org; or their Box Office: (212) 752-3015 (Mon. - Fri. 10:00am - 4:45pm); $15/ $12 Japan Society Members/ CAVE discount holders. Birthday Party: Free with ticket to any Butoh Parade Main Event.

As the culminating event of Kazuo Ohno 101 - a three week celebration of the 101st birthday of the legendary co-founder of the butoh movement - Japan Society presents a Butoh Marathon featuring U.S.-based artists whose artistic visions have been influenced by butoh. Headlining the evening is a haunting solo work, Emptiness (Kuu), by Yoshito Ohno, son of Kazuo Ohno. The evening culminates with a Birthday Party featuring improvised butoh performance and live music.
 
4:30 - 6:30 pm: MARATHON PROGRAM - Jeff Janisheski & Yanira Castro, Moeno Wakamatsu, Haruko Nishimura, Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, Juan Merchan, Shinichi Iova Koga, and Ximena Garnica
7:30 - 8:30 pm: YOSHITO OHNO - in his first NY show in 11 years!  SOLD OUT.
8:30 - 10:30 pm: BIRTHDAY PARTY for Kazuo Ohno with special guest performances by Yuko Kaseki, Daiji Meguro, Takuya Ishide with musician Tatsuya Nakatani 


OCTOBER 25 (THURSDAY)
Kazuo Ohno: Three Decades of Butoh Dance on Film
At the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center: CUNY's GRADUATE CENTER (365 Fifth Avenue)
FREE admission, limited seating. Early arrival recommended. 

This program is dedicated to butoh dance's co-founder, Kazuo Ohno (1906- ), and is comprised of videos he gave over a quarter century to John Solt, poet and scholar of Japanese avant-garde culture. The day-long festival features extremely rare footage that spans three decades of live and outdoor performances by Kazuo Ohno and his son, Yoshito Ohno - from the Mr. O trilogy of the early 1970s, to The Palace Soars through the Sky of 1993. Brief remarks and an audience Q&A with John Solt will follow each video. Moderated by New York Butoh Festival co-founder, Jeff Janisheski.
Film Program is presented by CAVE New York Butoh Festival in conjunction with CUNY Graduate Center, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center 

KAZUO OHNO (1906- ) is the co-founder, along with Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-86), of the contemporary Japanese style of dance known as butoh. In contrast to Hijikata, who created large-scale work that explored the darkness of life, Ohno's solos and duets explored the light: "Take care of life, yours and others" is how he summed up his dance philosophy. A prolific writer and a deeply passionate teacher, he has performed and taught in Europe, Asia and the U.S. to great acclaim. In 1999 he received the Michelagelo Antonioni Award for the Arts; and in 2004 Wesleyan University Press published in English a collection of his writings, "Kazuo Ohno's World: From Without & Within."

1:00pm-6:00pm: Afternoon Films
Selection from Mandala of Mr. O. (1971; 15 minutes)
Mr. O's Book of the Dead (1973; 90 minutes)
These are selections from the second and third films in the legendary and rarely seen trilogy of Mr. O films featuring Kazuo Ohno, directed by Chiaki Nagano. Filmed during a period in which Ohno had retired from public performance, these experimental films focus on Ohno's improvisational dance and are a fascinating portrait of the Japanese avant-garde art movements that were flowering in the 1970s.
Kazuo Ohno (1982; 55 minutes)
Excerpts from a documentary made for Swiss television, with French narration. This video contains the only extant footage of the flamenco dancer La Argentina (who inspired Ohno to create his signature piece, Admiring La Argentina). It has clips of her dancing in 1930, interspersed with Ohno's interpretations of her. At one point he explains, "I am alive, she is dead, but we are one and the same, and I am dancing with her."
Ishikari ho hanamagari: Michiyuki (The Hook-nosed Salmon of Ishikari) (1991; 65 minutes)
Filmed by Kazu Tanabe, this video documents Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno's 1991 outdoor performance in Hokkaido, Japan. The subtitle of this duet is "michiyuki" which, in Kabuki theatre, refers to the danced, journey scene: the emotional climax when a couple goes one-way towards a double suicide. In this wind-swept performance, Kazuo and Yoshito embody this journey - perhaps as lovers, perhaps as salmon in a river - to express the ephemeral nature of this impending sacrifice. At the end, Ohno returns (wooden) salmon to the river - in a Buddhist gesture of compassion.
Butoh: Ohno Kazuo No Sekai (The World of Kazuo Ohno: from Divinarianes by Jean Genet) (1996; 30 minutes)
Video of site-specific performances by Ohno. Beautifully shot, with a hypnotic score featuring Ravel's "Bolero" score.
Selection from Irie Hirozen Saiten (1995; 5 minutes)
Ohno is seen working with Toshio Mizohata, his lighting and music designer, manager and archivist. In a small gallery Ohno dances with various objects, including the items on exhibit. He dances to Elvis Presley's gospel music, showing his versatility and humor.

7:00-9:00pm: Evening Films
Kaidan Wo Oriru Tsuru (The Crane Descending the Stairs) (1990; 37 minutes)
Filmed by Kazu Tanabe, this video documents Ohno improvising in a rural mental hospital in Japan.
Selection of Roten Ni Okeru Ohno Kazuo Butoh Koen (1992; 20 minutes)
A video by Hideya Muraoka documenting Ohno dancing after a 40-minute panel at the "Wolf Exhibit" of woodblock-print artist Ryu Oshima. During the panel Oshima reveals that he feels possessed by wolves and has done 1,300 prints of them over the past 15 years. Ohno dances in front of the prints and becomes the wolf they wish they were.Selection from Goten Sora Wo Tobu (The Palace Soars through the Sky) (1993; 35 minutes)
Clips from a massive, site-specific performance in a warehouse in Yokohama for an audience of over 1,000 people. Performers include Ohno, Akiko Motofuji (wife of Tatsumi Hijikata) and dozens of international dancers. About half of Ohno's 30-minute performance is a great finale with the dancers and audience celebrating him as he moves around the huge stage.


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