Butoh at source. Yoshito Ohno in Poland.
Solo butoh performance “Flower and Bird. Butoh – the way of life” is the only opportunity to see 77-year-old Yoshito Ohno on stage, heir to the philosophy and method of the representatives of Japan’s post-war artistic avant-garde – Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata.
The specific butoh aesthetics, the lack of a linear story, and Yoshito Ohno’s minimalist and surprising movement makes the performance a pure, deep emotional experience. The artist’s body is full of experiences that, even with the slightest movements, resound especially strongly. Like a mirror, it reflects our existence – the legacy of previous lives, towards which we feel gratitude and with which we struggle every day. The ability to transform the body in such a way as to render the delicacy of a flower or the rashness of a bird, and to stir the dormant emotions within us – melancholy, joy, fear – is the result of many years of the artist’s search. An individual fate acquires a universal dimension. Astonishment, emotion and questions arise.
The performance “Flower and Bird. Butoh – the way of life” consists of consecutive sequences, including the Dance of the Bird, the first act of Kazuo Ohno’s famous performance “La Argentina”, Hijikata’s choreography and the Dance of the Rabbit after the Tsunami, accompanied by moving music, which creates the mood; there is also a video made by an excellent Japanese photographer – Eikoh Hosoe.