Dear Yuko Nishikawa-sama,
The weather has been mild and pleasant recently. I hope all is well with you.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for the opportunity to perform “Kiyo-hime Confidential” with you. Not only was it a truly priceless opportunity for me, but I think the collaboration of Nihon Buyo and Butoh was a rare occasion in the recent time.
When I visited your practice studio for the first time, I was awed by the placidity and austerity of the space. At the same time, I was surprised that the studio was filled with exuberant energy that accepted everything.
My initial interest in Butoh stems from the question of, how man creates space. The moment I entered your studio, I was able to reconfirm that the Japanese people have been steadily building creativity based on highlighting “the surrounding” that is usually invisible; rather using our body to show up the body itself.
I could identify the generosity of owning such space within the practice studio of Nishikawa School. I saw you create many stories just by shifting the look in your eyes; it has been an outstanding learning opportunity for me to observe that moment of creation, as a contemporary striving in the field of performing arts.
People often ask me “What are you thinking, when your dancing?” When I surrender myself to various “Kata” without thinking, strangely enough, the “soul” comes upon me. Especially in your case, because the “Kata” has been passed on over centuries, you look as if you are an ethereal being with connections to the now deceased (predecessors), literally transcending time and space.
The space surrounding you, “moved” by something transcending your own will, appeared to encapsulate the past, present and future. I feel such form of dance has something in common with what Butoh aspires to.
In this performance, based on “Dojoji”, I was cast as Anchin, a leading role, to your role of Kiyo-hime. The casting was a huge honor for me. I am so grateful to you for allowing me to have the great liberty in expression. An audience commented that “it looked as Anchin and Kiyo-hime had a role reversal.” It is a true joy to be able to stretch imaginations of other and myself, and to expand interpretations, because we are engaged in physical performing arts, without (verbal) lines.
I look forward to performing with you again. Thank you very much.
Dai Matsuoka (Sankaijuku, Butoh dancer)
Dear Mr. Dai Matsuoka,
Thank you very much for joining me at the “Kiyo-hime Confidential” performance. How have you been?
I have been busy due to a stage of the Nishikawa School on April 23. at the National Theater, which will close for a renovation this fall.
My heartfelt apologies for this tardy response, even though you wrote to me soon after the “Kiyo-hime Confidential” amidst your busy schedules.
I have been feeling a sense of crisis, as devotees of Nihon Buyo, both the dancers and the audience are aging in the recent years. More fans have also stayed away during the Covid pandemic. I have witnessed members of various schools (of Nihon Buyo) who have long supported this art form, languishing in search of visions for the future. I have decided to what I can do is to devote myself to elevate my dance, even as worries about the future of Nihon Buyo linger in my mind constantly.
Our practice sessions began under such circumstances. I greatly enjoyed our rehearsals together. The agony of creations and the joy that transcends it; my heart and body were excited for the first time in a long time. Matsuoka-sama, your expression abundantly communicates to me the emotions of your role, Anchin, without any rawness. I felt as we could gaze at each other forever… “This must be Butoh.” The words of my teacher suddenly dawned on me. We were watching a stage by the late Butoh dancer, Tatsumi Hijikata. My teacher said “He is just moving from the stage left to the stage right. But somehow, I can’t take me eyes off him.”
This is a big deal. I need to give everything to create and express my role, otherwise, I would be outperformed… I first let go of the expressions and styles of Nihon Buyo and just desperately created and danced. From reading your letter, I am relieved to find that you have observed the way of Nihon Buyo from my dance.
In my younger days, as I was mindlessly following the choreography moves, my teacher said, “Why can’t you just cast away what you could do before? When you can do it after casting away, that is the sign that you have made it your own.” Now I feel I understand the depth of her words.
I also feel that cross-over performances that are not novel collaborations; crossovers that allow artists to create stages without compromise, and to know their genres more deeply, will become precious venues for connecting arts and performing arts to the future, inclusive of the audience.
I look forward to performing with you again. I will continue to work hard so that you would not upstage me!
Yuko Nishikawa