Thursday 30 May 2013
7:00pm – 8:30pm

Butoh Through the Lens

ドリンクレセプション 6:30pm – 7:00pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle, London NW1 4QP

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation 主催

This film screening and talk, which introduced short films about Butoh dance, was presented by Florencia Guerberof, performer and founder of Asian Performing Arts UK. Firstly, she showed her own film recordings Impressions featuring Yoshito Ono and Duration which reflect her own impressions during her research on Butoh dance in Japan during 2009. The screening continued with the documentary Still Move by Marieke Schroeder. The film portrays Japanese dancer and choreographer Saburo Teshigawara who creates a fusion of Butoh principles and postmodern elements. The event aimed to portraying a different side of Butoh dance. Until recently Butoh was still considered in Japan as a form of theatre of an extremely dark nature, allowing images of wilderness, ecstasy, decay and pure physicality through its distorted gestures, fragmented bodies and impulsiveness. Butoh is chaotic, unrestrained, but is not all about excessive and discordant matter. It can also be harmonious, measured and calm. Whether pleasant or painful, Butoh does not exclude any aspect of existence. It comprises the essence of all things and the process of becoming different entities through the medium of dance. The screening focused on a meditative view of Butoh, highlighting aspects such as stillness and breath as the starting point of movement.

The video of Florencia presenting the first two films which she made herself can now be viewed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oacxnlpLDLI

コントリビューターについて

Florencia Guerberof

Florencia Guerberof was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and currently lives and works in London, where she recently founded Asian Performing Arts UK. She has training in the fine arts, art theory, philosophy and dance, including a First class degree in Fine Art Painting from the Glasgow School of Arts (2007). She reflects her aesthetic concerns on stage, creating cross-disciplinary performances. Her interest in existentialism, along with her philosophical and aesthetic concerns, led her to investigate Butoh dance. She was a recipient of a Scottish Arts Council Grant which enabled her to carry out an extensive research on Butoh in Tokyo under the mentoring of Yoshito Ohno among other Butoh masters. She has presented her performances in London at Siobhan Davies, The Blue Elephant Theatre, Café Oto and Shunt as well as at The Nightingale Theatre in Brighton. Currently, she is running Butoh research sessions at The Cockpit Theatre in London. She has toured Paris performing for Danse Elargie dance festival 2012 at Théâtre de la Ville. She has also performed at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. The artist’s website is here.