Butoh dance performance with horn/trumpet and piano

Light brushes the transparent, glittering foil. An almost nude, chalky-white figure winds itself hesitantly out of the protective plastic shroud. Slowly and intensively concentrated happens the birth of a being which, in a sudden fit of destruction, strikes at its immediate surroundings.

Tengu is a mountain troll out of Japanese mythology. He’s utterly feared for his raging wrath by those humans who quarrel and wage war amongst themselves. The Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo uses this myth to explore the depths and infinite shades of human existence.

The dynamic, the primitive gestures and the trance of the dancer keep the audience spell-bound. Scenes take on opposite meanings. To temporarely symbolise its association with the animal world, the dancer’s body raises like a sprouting plant towards the light. The change from masculinity to its opposite femininity is intensively enjoyed. Premonitions about prenatal life change to a state of extinction. A highlight is the complete cessation of movement at action’s peak.

Created in Japan about thirty years ago, the here relatively unknown Butoh is a mutinous combination of far-eastern stage tradition with European free dance. Of Japanese origin but born in Peking, Tadashi Endo studied stage production at the Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and worked for many years as actor, performer and director. The meeting with Kazuo Ohno, one of Butoh’s creators, led Endo to sire his individual dance style.

Pianist Aki Takase and jazz trumpeter Itaru Oki, highly demanded Japanese musicians who became well-known through their countless film, record and CD contributions, accompany and complement the choreography through their improvements. Oki fascinates specially through the use of self-created horns and through the strange sounds which he produces by means of wood rods and small bells.

»The circle of life and death from dust to dust closes. A highly impressed audience whisks initial pensiveness into rousing applause« (Frankfurter Rundschau, 01.02.1993).