2011: Kyoto Butoh

September 12, 2011
Kyoto

Ima-Tenko (Butoh) x Itaru Oki (Trumpet) Improv. Performance [Paris ∞ Kyoto] vol.4 @ URBAN GUILD  www.urbanguild.net

Urban Guild is a live house with heavy “medieval” wooden tables and benches, a small bar with tall stools plus a few low stools.  Total capacity is probably 30 to 40 persons.  It offers a full bar selection (free drink with entry) and a menu that tends toward vegetarian.  The vegetarian curry rice is a favorite specialty.  The slightly raised “stage” occupies approximately one third of the total space.

Ima-Tenko is a Kyoto Butoh dancer/performer and teacher who has collaborated with me on four different occasions performing within my installations in Kyoto and Tokyo.  This is her fourth collaboration with Oki-san at Urban Guild and I have been fortunate to attend two of the previous events.  Butoh as described in Wikipedia: “It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience.”  It is all of this and more!

Itaru Oki is a trumpet player based in Paris who performs in a variety of venues in the fall in Japan.  He plays several types of trumpets and other wind instruments and, occasionally, percussion.  His favorite trumpet is one with the cone on the vertical (An extensive web search failed to turn up a name for this type but did show Dizzy Gillespie playing one.)  The sounds he produces range from squeal to scream to “Bronx cheer” to whistle to burps to notes both flat and sharp ….. and then some.

Part I

Oki-san walked on in a dark green kimono over his jeans, shirt and sequined vest and settled down in center stage and began to produce sounds from another place, another time.  The silence between sounds creates its own dynamic space (ma in Japanese).  Some minutes later Ima-san wrapped in a wedding kimono, gaudy in decoration almost to the point of tacky (as cheaper ones can be, but perfect in this context), moved in and laid down on the floor.  Face with white makeup.  Hair ornamented with ribbons and glitter. Quiet for a time.  She gently began movement manipulating the heavy kimono revealing more of her body also covered in white makeup.  The movement gained force and momentum, the kimono was dropped revealing her nude body covered in white makeup and wearing a red fundoshi*.  Her movements were typical Butoh in their slow and hyper-controlled nature but gaining in momentum and energy as she moved off the stage and into the audience with subtle lighting variations following her progress.  While there she made a kind of magnetic,  but not physical, contact with various members as she advanced through the space. Ima-san returned to the stage interacting with musician and his plaintive sounds.  Both sound and movement picked up speed and intensity gaining a frantic and pounding crescendo with the dancer finally prone on the stage. Lights down. Silence. Enthusiastic applause.  

Part II

Oki-san was joined by a drummer who had his hands full and frequently hit the cymbals with his head while Oki-san played his traditional trumpet in traditional mode in a sort of dance hall style.  After some minutes we become aware of a figure standing in the rear of the space behind us facing Oki-san. She was dressed in what appeared at first to be a golden body suit; V-necked, hands and feet bare with an elaborate glittering headdress and with ostrich feather fans held covering her face.  It soon became apparent that the ‘suit’  was golden skin covering her nude body save for a scant gold bikini bottom.  She began a seductive burlesque-esque fan-dance through the audience dusting nearby persons with her-ever-in-motion fans drawn forward by the Pied Piper on his trumpet.  Sensuous.  Exotic.  Erotic. Bonoko-san.  She remained on the level with the audience.  Soon from stage rear Ima-san appeared in similar golden-skin-nudity with her red fundoshi now stained with gold.  Together the dancers’ movements morphed into a style suggestive of traditional Indian dance with familiar arm movements and body positions.  The music continued to set the mood and the dancers moved together and individually on stage with occasional contact emphasizing tension and release.  Golden bodies twirl, twist, expand and contact the space creating a dazzling spectacular finale.  The audience exploded in cheers and applause.  The audience honored the performers.  The performers honored the audience.

*fundoshi – Traditional men’s undergarment made from a length of cotton and common prior to WW II.  Think “beaches of Rio” and you‘ll get the picture.  A more substantial version is still seen on sumo wrestlers.