Top butoh artiste Taketeru Kudo brings new fire to the performing art, writes Subhadra Devan
BUTOH can either fascinate or confuse. It’s a hard-to-pin-down genre since the dance movements are openly fluid and organic. But for Taketeru Kudo, he took up the butoh dance artform because of its simplicity.
Born in 1967 in Tokyo, Kudo studied French literature at Keio University while he was involved in acting, as well as modern dance and nichibu, a traditional Japanese dance form. Life changed for the graduate when he had his first encounter with butoh dance.
DISCOVERY OF EXPRESSION
“The art of butoh tends to reject anything to do with technique. I did not even intend to ‘take up’ butoh. It depends on what we want to say to the world through the body.”
The production notes for Kudo’s upcoming shows and workshop state: “The body of a butoh dancer is like an empty vessel, it should be able to contain any material on earth that emerges through the imagery of the movements made.”
Kudo’s journey saw him studying under Koichi Tamano in the US. After appearing on stage with Tamano and Yukio Waguri, he began dancing solo in 1992.
Before he established his own troupe, Tokyo Gien-kan, he was a member of well-known butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku till 1998. Many may have caught Sankai Juku’s performances here.
Kudo’s troupe is said to channel the spirit of Jean-Louis Barrault, Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky and Yukio Mishima.
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT
Recently, he started performing and holding workshops around the world. The award-winning butoh performer has showcased his 2011 work, A Vessel Of Ruins, to much acclaim internationally. It is said to be a prediction of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. His other works include The Umbrella Goes West and The Dream Of Descending To The Ocean.
The styles of butoh have grown since it began in 1959 in Tokyo with Tatsumi Hijikata and Yoshito Ono. Japanese society then called it scandalous. Today, butoh is often seen as surreally beautiful. But it does not focus on the beauty of the physical form, but more on expressions.
For Kudo: “My style might come up when I overcome any style which already exists.”
He will perform at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre on Oct 21 and 22. His visit is presented by Soubi Sha, produced by Checkmate Creative, and supported by the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur.
ENCOURAGING COLLABORATIONS
Soubi Sha director Yeow Lai Chee says Kudo is part of a three-year butoh exchange programme starting this year.
“Butoh has been practised in Malaysia since 1995. However, it is still considered relatively small in the entire local performing arts scene. This is due to the minute number of butoh dancers and companies that are able to provide butoh training and education.
“Hence, besides local butoh artistes, Soubi Sha aims to invite professional butoh artistes, especially those from Japan, to collaborate with the local dancers and to provide butoh training.”
Yeow hopes the show and workshops (that Kudo will be facilitating) will give local artistes a new perspective of this art form and stir their curiosity in exploring butoh rather than a “one-time butoh experience”.
From 2012 to 2014, Soubi Sha organised a collaboration between butoh master Yukio Waguri, who had worked with butoh co-founder Hijikata, and participating Malaysian dancers.
Would Kudo be looking for potential dancers during the workshops and masterclasses? “Yes, of course. It is these individuals who remind me of why I have a workshop, even though I am not a teacher but a single artiste.”
FINDING UNIQUE FORMS
On what frustrates him when doing workshops, Kudo says: “It is always a shame to me to see people just following their own images of butoh! I do not know anything about butoh in Malaysia. Maybe, I’ll be able to talk about that after I finish the itinerary this time.
“I imagine they do not have to follow the ideas of butoh. It is better and more creative to seek a form of their own that fits the physicality of this era.”
A Vessel Of Ruins: Butoh Solo Performance by Taketeru Kudo
When: Oct 21-22, 8.30pm
Where: Black Box, DPaC, H-01, DPAC, Empire Damansara,
Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, PJ
Tickets: RM33-RM53
Call: 017-382 8637 / 012-241 2532 or visit www.dpac.com.my