March 6th [Tue] 16:00-18:45 / Tokyo International Forum Hall B7-1 Just Leave "Art" Behind! "Dancing Bodies" are in the street! Director: NORIKOSHI Takao [dance critic / festival advisor] What should be seen is “dancing bodies.” But now, these bodies are more present in the street than theaters. New styles unique to Japan - consisting of acrobatic physicality, visual tricks, comedic touches and influences from other genres - are emerging. This phenomenon has the same roots as Teshigawara Saburo's solo dance, a form that opened Japanese contemporary dance to the world twenty years ago. I would like to introduce three groups that are leading the new wave. Hamutsun Serve Hamutsun Serve has attracted audiences via “animation” dance techniques such as slow motion, ticking, and moonwalking in addition to their inimitable style and movement. Their “eccentric” dance world, paired with original music, is widely popular not only within Japan but also among foreign dance scenes. In 2006, Hamutsun Serve performed at the Performing Arts Market in Seoul, as a guest artist at Battle of the Year in Germany, and Red Bull BC One in Brazil. They have won a number of prizes at top-level competitions throughout Japan. Hitoride Dekirumon An “Unidentified masked dancer” who kept winning the No.1 Dancer Prize for thirteen weeks in Shonen Chanpuru, a dance program on Nihon TV. Displaying excellent technical abilities and comic performances, Hitoride Dekirumon gained widespread support and sold 10,000 copies of his solo DVD in 2005. In 2006, he performed at a Performing Arts Market in Seoul showcase and in a commercial for Coca Cola. ISOPP & O-HASHI A unit featuring ISOPP - a creator who led Perfect Combustion combining breakdance and human beatboxing - and O-HASHI, the leader of Yokohama City Breakers, whose specialty is power moves. Both are members of Fire Works and Yamato, and they have won a number of prizes at Battle of the Year Japan (2003), Freestyle Session Japan (2004), Total Session (France, 2005), and Beatronic Japan, Asia (2006). ·Director：NORIKOSHI Takao His book, Contemporary Dance Tettei Guide Hyper [The Perfect Contemporary Dance Guide Book], is being used as a textbook at colleges. Familiar with international dance scenes, Norikoshi acts as an advisor to dance festivals in Japan. He was a committee member of Dance Triennale Tokyo 2006. Recipient of a media fellowship from the Japan Society of New York that will see him conducing to research in the U.S. during 2006. In 2007, he is the Japanese co-director of Italia-Giappone Contemporary Dance Festival, organized by Genova City. Way of Life Called Butoh Director: MIZOHATA Toshio [chief of the secretariat, Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio] The performing art Butoh was newly established by HIJIKATA Tatsumi in the 1960s. It was acknowledged in the West more than in Japan as a uniquely Japanese style of expression, and now there are many foreign butoh dancers who regard it as a method of their own expression. I suppose that butoh was able to break through borders because its spiritual message was communicated despite the novelty and peculiarity of its style. I would like to introduce three groups from both new and old generations to cast light on the root of butoh, of which a quiet evolution is still ongoing. © Onozuka Makoto Kanazawa Butoh Kan Based in Kanazawa City of Ishikawa Prefecture. Established by YAMAMOTO Moe after her secession from Hakutobo (a company directed by Hijikata Tatsumi) and later joined by SHIRASAKA Kei. They have regularly been conducting workshops and performing in Australia since 1999, when first invited there. In 2005, they created Kafka's Verwandlung, with ASOU, a theater company from Graz. Last year, they choreographed Matsukaze, based on Zeami's Noh play, in Croatia. Buto-sha TENKEI Founded by TORII Ebisu and TANAKA Mutsuko, Dairakudakan members in 1981. TENKEI's butoh, a perfect combination and formation of these two dancers' styles, is full of profound poetry and fantasy. Among their works are Nocturne, Les Bonnes, Kanata. Nocturne has received much international acknowledgement and acclaim, and was presented in twenty-six cities in Europe and North America from 1996 to 2000. Imageopera Led by WAKIKAWA Kairi (director / choreographer / dancer), this performing arts unit consists of AYAHARA Eri (designer / composition builder / director), NOZAWA Hideyo (dancer / choreographer) and others. Regarding dance as “movements of difference related to the world,” they are pursuing new forms of dance = subject through a unique selection of motives and diverse critical approaches. Among their works are The Oil Field I and II, These Nostalgic Vapours, and TRAKTOR / tropus. ·Director：MIZOHATA Toshio Born in Tokyo in 1956. Entered Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio in 1983 and worked as the producer and technical director for OHNO Kazuo and Yoshito's domestic and international projects. In 2002, he established the management company Kanta, that serves as the studio secretariat, producing their performances, maintaining and managing archives, publishing DVDs and books. In the same year, Archivio Kazuo Ohno was founded in Bologna University. Mizohata also played a part in the establishment of BankART 1929 of Yokohama in 2003.