The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur, in collaboration with Soubi Sha, and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC), Faculty of Social Science, Arts & Humanities and in special cooperation with Nyoba Kan brings you “Butoh Season: International Butoh Conference and Performance.”

Through various programs, the project aims to contribute to the academic accumulation of Malaysia’s performing arts history by re-discovering the roots of Butoh, Japan’s avant-garde arts movement which has a significant influence to the Malaysian performing arts scene, as well as developing new audiences and practitioners of performing arts in Malaysia. Butoh Season consists of creative performance and education programs that implement in a form of collaboration works among the Butoh & Arts experts, choreographers and dancers from Japan and Malaysia.

Butoh Season: International Butoh Conference and Performance

What is Butoh (舞踏)?

Butoh (舞踏) is an avant-garde art movement started by Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) in Japan, which is known to be one of the most important movement in arts history. Today, Butoh is adopted, practiced and performed by dancers and performers all over the world. Butoh also had influenced Malaysia’s dance scene significantly since the first Butoh group was founded in 1990s

Program Detail

Conference:Dance or Un-Dance? Discovering the roots of Butoh in Japan and Malaysia

Date: 7 & 8 June 2pm-6pm
Free admission
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

The conference gathered the Butoh experts including Butoh researchers, critiques, and masters to discuss and explore the profound of Butoh of its place of origin, Japan and new player like Malaysia. Discussions will focus on the historical developmentof Butoh, current status, future prospects and challenges. Additionally, it will also explore Butoh influence in performing arts in both Japan and Malaysia.

Please download the full program from HERE!

Showcase and Performance

(1) Butoh solo showcase

Date: 7 June, 8pm
Ticket: RM20, adult, RM10 for students, disabled and senior
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Butoh solos and contemporary dance with Butoh influence showcase by professional dancers from Japan and Malaysia.

Taketeru Kudo (Solo, 15min)
Nyoba Kan (Excerpt from CATAN KULIT, 18 min, Choreographed by Lee Swee Keong, Performed by Kiea Kuan Nam, Jess Liew)
Takao Kawaguchi (Solo, 20 min)

(2) “Reminiscence. The World of the Strange Tales” by Soubi Sha

Date: 13 & 14 June 2014, 8.30pm
Ticket: RM53 for adult, and RM25 for students
Venue: Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC)

A full-length Butoh performance choreographed and directed by acclaimed Butoh master Yukio Waguri from Japan and performed together with local 12 dancers, the choreography was based on the world-famous Chinese short story ‘The Strange Tales’. * Revenue of the ticket sales will be contributed to TARUC Trust Fund for Student Centre Construction

Workshops – Butoh Workshops

Date: 7 & 8 June, 10am-12pm
Ticket: RM30 (limited to 35 participants)
Venue: TARUC Dancing Room

Conducted by professional and renowned Butoh masters and dancers from Japan, teaching different Butoh techniques and methods with participants.

Exhibition – Hijikata Tatsumi Exhibition

Date: 6 -8 June, 8.30pm-5.30pm / 10-15 June, 10am-10pm
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Foyer / Foyer of KLPAC
Free Admission
* Please be informed duration of Exhibition has changed from 3-8th June to 6-8th June.

The exhibition showcases the precious materials that are kept in Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at Keio University Art Center. It consists of photography of Butoh founder Hijikata, Hijikata’s performance posters, Hijikata’s Butoh notation and choreography, books, sculpture and many more.

Participating Guests

Mr. Taketeru Kudo [Showcase, Workshop, Conference]

Born in 1967 in Tokyo. A graduate of the department of French literature at Keio University. Initially he focused his activities on stage acting, but changed his path after his first encounter with butoh dance. He traveled to the United States and studied under Koichi Tamano. After appearing in works by Yukio Waguri, he began solo performance in 1992. From 1995 to 1998 he was a member of Sankai Juku. He played a large role in the opening and development of studio Asbestos-kan, contributing with dance as well as choreography. Recently he regularly performs and holds workshops worldwide. In 2005 he received a prize from Dance Critic Association Award for his solo work “Akimegusa”. He also won a Golden Mask award in Russia for playing the main role of “Full Moon” in 2011_2013.

Workshop 7 June 2014 <10am-12am>
Fees: RM30
Venue: TARUC Dancing Room

Showcase and Performance 7 June 2014 <8pm>
Ticket price: RM20, adult, RM10 for students, disabled and senior
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Mr. Takao Kawaguchi[Showcase, Workshop, Conference]

While joining the Japanese multimedia performance company Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008, Kawaguchi independently did a number of collaboration projects, with sound/visual artists combining the elements of light and sound, and video such as: “Di Que No Ves (Say You Don’t See)” (2003), “D.D.D.” (2004), “Good Luck” (2008) and “TABLEMIND” (2011).Since 2008 Kawaguchi has been working on his solo, site-specific performance series called “a perfect life” until today.
In recent years he has created Butoh-related works such as: “The Ailing Dance Mistress based on the texts of Tatsumi Hijikata“ (2012), and “About Kazuo Ohno Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces” (2013).Kawaguvhi has participated in a number of collaboration projects including: “true” (2007) and “Node The Old Man of the Desert” (2013) with Takayuki Fujimoto and Tsuyoshi Shirai; “Tri-K” (2010) with Dick Wong (Hong Kong) and Koichi Imaizumi.

Workshop 8 June 2014 <10am-12am>
Fees: RM30
Venue: TARUC Dancing Room

Showcase and Performance 7 June 2014 <8pm>
Ticket price: RM20, adult, RM10 for students, disabled and senior
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Mr. Yukio Waguri[Conference, Performance at KLPAC]

Born in Tokyo, 1952. The disciple and main male dancer of Tatsumi Hijikata direct lineal. With his rigid and flexible body, a good sharpness of beautiful shape, and delicacy nuance, make him able to express his dance delicately. The variety of the dance styles, mainly based on the change of the subjects, shows the new possibility of the future dance. In addition, physical image rouse attention through the words, the unique Butoh Fu of Hijikata lineage; he concentrates on collaboration with the other genre artists at the same time. Publication of the CD-ROM of Butoh Kaden in 1998 provided an opportunity of the dance reevaluation that focus on Hijikata’s method. And currently, other than various kinds of performance activities, he holds dance workshop widely in research organizations, local and overseas universities.

Showcase and Performance 7 June 2014 <8pm>
Ticket price: RM20, adult, RM10 for students, disabled and senior
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Nyoba Kan and Mr. Lee Swee Keong[Showcase, Conference]

Founded in 1995， Nyoba Kan is Malaysia’s premier butoh dance group, and also the founder of

the Nyoba Kan International Butoh Festival, Kuala Lumpur since 1998. The festival aims to introduce the art of Butoh through performances and activities, and to promote the artistic exchange between Japan, birthplace of Butoh, and artists elsewhere.

Nyoba Kan inhabits a unique form of Butoh born from a hybrid of Malaysia’s cultural richness, as well as fusing elements of Qi Gong, Yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, and Contemporary Dance. Also as a follower of the spirit of Hijikata’s Ankoku Butoh.
Nyoba Kan’s Butoh is founded upon the ideal cultivation of one’s spiritual growth along with one’s body, mind, and soul.

Artistic Director Lee Swee Keong combines various techniques and disciplines from pioneers of the art form into his own personal Butoh philosophy. For him, Butoh reconstructs the body and the mind, providing one with new perspectives toward life and mortality. It is a form of spiritual expression far beyond the physical.

Through Butoh, interaction between one’s spiritual and physical aspects finds its truthful expression, sometimes reflecting a mysterious, organic, heavenly state of being, sometimes a radically joyful one. This is a process of purification; it is also a form of therapy for both performers and audience.

Showcase and Performance:7 June 2014 <8pm>
Ticket price:RM20, adult, RM10 for students, disabled and senior
Venue:TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Mr. Takashi Morishita [Conference]

Takashi Morishita is in charge of the Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at Art Center Keio University and is a lecturer at the Department of Literature at Keio University. He has been working for many years at Asbestoskan, Hijikata’s studio and theatre since 1972. After working for a publisher as editor, he has been collecting and preserving Hijikata’s butoh materials, endeavouring to make them public and aiming to popularize Hijikata’s butoh to the world as it was from the year of Hijikata’s death.

He is the author of books such as Hijikata Tatsumi’s Notational Butoh:Sign and Method for Creation (2010), Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh (co-authorship,2003 ), Avant-gardes in Japan(co-authorship,Venezia 2010), Unparalleled Butoh dancer, Hijikata Tatsumi (serialization on newspaper,2011-2014 ).

Conference Panelist: 7 & 8 June <2pm-6pm>
Free admission
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Mr. Daisuke Muto[Conference]

Independent dance critic, Associate Professor at Gunma Prefectural Women’s University. His current research interest is the global history of modernism in dance in the 20th century as a phenomenon triggered by the encounter of the West and Asia. Co-author of “History of Ballet and Dance” (Japanese, Heibonsha: Tokyo, 2012). His papers include “Kazuo Ohno’s 1980,” “Anti-spectacle Strategy in Yvonne Rainer’s “Trio A”,” and “Asia as a Space of Differences” (all in Japanese) among others. A regular contributor to Korean dance magazine “MOMM.” Co-curator of Indonesian Dance Festival biannually held in Jakarta.

Conference Panelist: 7 & 8 June <2pm-6pm>
Free admission
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

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Ms. Katja Centonze[Conference]

Katja Centonze is currently Visiting Researcher at the Tsubouchi Shy Memorial Theatre Museum (Waseda University) and Ph.D. candidate at Trier University. She has been teaching Japanese Literature and Theatre at Ca’Foscari University (Venice) since 1998, and Japanese Language and Literature at Calabria University since 2005. She has been a Japan Foundation fellow researcher in 2009/2010. Her research focuses on the body in Japanese performing arts and on the body as represented in Japanese literature. Among her publications she edited Avant-Gardes in Japan. Anniversary of Futurism and But: Performing Arts and Cultural Practices between Contemporariness and Tradition (Cafoscarina, Venezia, 2010).

Conference Panelist: 7 & 8 June <2pm-6pm>
Free admission
Venue: TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

Dr. Grisana Punpeng [Conference]

Grisana Punpeng (Num) is a theatre practitioner and a lecturer atThammasat University. Since 2004, Num has worked in Thailand as anactor trainer, director, performer, and university lecturer. He is afounder member of New Theatre society, and has performed in Bangkok,Tokyo and Exeter, United Kingdom. His current interests includepsychophysical actor training, butoh, and postdramatic theatre.

Conference Panelist: 7 & 8 June <2pm-6pm>
Free admission
Venue:TARUC Tun Tan Siew Sin Building Auditorium

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About Soubi Sha [Co-organizer of the Butoh Season]

A new Butoh dance company founded in 2012 based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, established by Yeow Lai Chee. Soubi Sha encourages the investigation and exploration of alternative Butoh in Malaysia through experimental performances, to create a new Asian Butoh dance form in the future. Soubi Sha opens its door of Butoh for multiracial artists in Malaysia who aspire to explore Butoh, by offering opportunities for performances, workshops, talks and sharing.

Booking & Inquiry

Program at TARUC:

Program at KLPAC:Ticket booking (payment on the day)
Please send (1) Program date, (2) Name, (3) Contact number to butohseason@yahoo.com
Contact the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur (Tel 03-2284-6228 Mon-Fri / 8.30am-4.30pm)

Ticket Purchase: http://www.ticketpro.com.my/
Contact KLPAC Box office +603 4047 9000
Walk-in (Open 7 days a week/ 10 am 6:30 pm)