Takao Kawaguchi: About Kazuo Ohno - Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces

"About Kazuo Ohno." Photo by Bozo

"About Kazuo Ohno." Photo byTeijiro Kamiyama

"About Kazuo Ohno." Photo by Bozzo

Previous Pause Next

1 of 4

"An emotional cataclysm, a dream-like form that detaches Takao Kawaguchi his own body as a result of a metamorphosis.” – RTBF Radio/TV

Presented as part of the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series

Takao Kawaguchi, who first came to REDCAT with the Tokyo-based collective Dumb Type, reimagines legendary works by revered Butoh master Kazuo Ohno in an original production that prompted both excitement and commotion in the Tokyo cultural scene. Any interpretation of the inimitable work of Kazuo Ohno requires the performer to suspend his personal beliefs and interpretation, in order to project his body onto the forms and contours of the aged dancer as precisely as possible. The result is a copy that is in itself an original, a choreography created by Kawaguchi with the illusory image of Ohno, one of the most honored artists in dance history.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS

Coinciding with these performances, materials from the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio in Yokohama, Japan and Japan Society’s archives including posters, video, costumes and other articles, will be displayed in REDCAT’s lobby after performances.

+++

Saturday, October 8, 1 - 4pm
Body Sculpting with Takao Kawaguchi
Takao Kawaguchi will lead participants in his creative process for About Kazuo Ohno - Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces. After a discussion about Kazuo Ohno and viewing of archival footage, participants will sketch their images and create movements based on what they experienced.

Limited Capacity. Some movement experience preferred. Participants are asked to bring their own video streaming device (phone, tablet, personal computer). Participants must wear socks and exercise wear.

REDCAT (631 W. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012)
Free Admission / The workshop is full. Observers are welcome. If you would like to observe, RSVP to Rolando Rodriguez at rrodriguez@calarts.edu

+++

Monday, October 10, 7pm
Slow Body – Brain does not have sensation vol. 27, co-presented by Japan Foundation, Los Angeles & REDCAT
Solo, uninterrupted movement at an almost imperceptible speed, in the nude, for 70 minutes, surrounded by participants drawing the body.

It’s about the body,
It’s about the speed, and
How you look at and feel the body

Kawaguchi will dance in the nude as the participants carefully watch and sketch drawings of his movement/dance while listening to sound/music Kawaguchi selects (such as Steve Paxton’s voiceover sound recording, etc.). The participants can use any media to draw — pencil and charcoal. Smartphones may not be used.

REDCAT (631 W. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012)
Free Admission / RSVP Now

Tour produced and organized by Japan Society, New York and supported by The Japan Foundation Performing Arts JAPAN Program and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.

Associated Images:

Date/Time	G	M/ST	CA
FRI 10/7 8:30 pm	$20	$16	$10
SAT 10/8 8:30 pm	$25	$20	$12
SUN 10/9 5:00 pm	$25	$20	$12

Date/Time

M/ST

FRI 10/7
8:30 pm

$20

$16

$10

SAT 10/8
8:30 pm

$25

$20

$12

SUN 10/9
5:00 pm

$25

$20

$12

REDCAT NEWS

NOW 2018 - LA TIMES review

Review: And NOW, for something different at REDCAT

The Los angeles Times

By Mark Swed
Jul 20, 2018 | 2:25 PM
Vocalist Morgan Sorne and dancer Miwa Matreyek in 'Eat Your Young,' Thursday night in the first piece of the REDCAT New Original Works Festival. (Vanessa Crocini / REDCAT)

The annual summer New Original Works Festival at REDCAT has caught on. Close to 150 applications from local artists were received for the 15th iteration of the series, which began Thursday and involves three weeks of multi-culti, multi-ethnic, multi-media, multi-disciplinary, multi-everything-under-the-sun programs, each week offering something new. The opening night was sold out, and rightfully so for a town that thinks of itself as 21st century to the max.

But what does it all mean?

Singer Jasmine Orpilla, co-creator of the second piece, “About How Many Years Did We Fight the Beast Together,” a kind of opera inspired by traditional Filipino music and dance, is a “ritual performance artist,” soprano and experimental composer and dancer.

Jmy James Kidd, the choreographer for the third work, “Solid, Like a Rock,” “designs dances, clothing and spaces.” Among its 22 dancers are a “holistic Pilates instructor, movement coach and energy healer”; an “artist, musician, dance maker, yogini, former university professor and homo sapien”; a dancer, choreographer, performance artist and model; a dancer, actress, choreographer and filmmaker; and a dancer who “cultivates a practice of everyday poetics and magic to summon untold histories and dive into the semiotics of body memory.”

If this all sounds so, well, L.A., so be it. At this disquieting moment in time, there is something ineffably heartening about committed and searching artists with diverse skills and imagination. Each piece in this first trio of works offered a way out. Out of what wasn’t always clear, perhaps, but the reasons for getting out are compelling.

In “Eat Your Young,” Sorne, dressed in a three-piece suit and barefoot, produced waves of consonant-free, ether-filling song, electronically enhanced, along with added percussion effects. I didn’t notice any writhing frenzy around me, but there was a good, strong sonic wash.

Meanwhile, Miwa Matreyek — an animator, director, designer and performer — created shadow dances behind a small video screen. Her arms protruded over and under an seascape idyllic on the surface but beneath which floated yogurt containers and other material destined to contaminate the environment. This became more ominous, but no less beautiful, when the projection changed into an arboreal mandala eventually decaying into man-made urban destruction. Here, Matreyek may have been the shadow of humanity struggling to survive, while nature somehow retained its wonder.

More shadow dancers appeared in “How Many Years,” this time behind a sheet with no projections, in the first part of “Solid, Like a Rock.” Orpilla, in traditional Filipino dress, is a vocalist whose Tagalog-inflected song proved as effusive as Sorne’s keening. Her collaborator was choreographer, dancer and ethnologist Peter de Guzman. The dances came from the Pangalay tradition. Three musicians accompanied on an arrangement of kulintang gongs. I found the content indecipherable but not the ritual sensibility that seemed to evoke higher, better powers.

“Solid, Like a Rock” began with Tara Jane O’Neil at the rear of the stage hunched over an electric guitar, making drones. The dancers, in white or blue jump suits, entered on all fours, like sheep. Eventually, they were writhing on their backs, but not in frenzy, rather like a school of fish and then like petals in the wind propelled into a living flower.

Once erect, however, they found their frenzy like living Matisse dancers, except displaying a mix of ages and body shapes. And it was joy.

This, the longest of the three pieces, is only 23 minutes. The works, then, function like a sliver in time and place. After each, in a different way, the world looked a slightly more inhabitable and L.A. a little better poised to make a difference.

REDCAT

Takao Kawaguchi (Japan) About Kazuo Ohno

Takao Kawaguchi: About Kazuo Ohno - Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces

Associated Images:

REDCAT NEWS

NOW 2018 - LA TIMES review

Review: And NOW, for something different at REDCAT

Takao Kawaguchi: About Kazuo Ohno - Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces

Associated Images:

Related Links:

REDCAT NEWS

Review: And NOW, for something different at REDCAT