About DAN

Our Values
The concept underlying the non-profit organization Dance Archive Network，hereafter referred to as DAN, is to overtake the responsibility of the archives of its acting parent organization, the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio.

Kazuo Ohno (1906-2010), founder of the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, studied under many of the pioneers of Japanese modern dance since the 1930s, before embarking on a solo career as a dancer in the late 1940s. In the 1960s, alongside Tatsumi Hijikata and other Japanese contemporary dancers, Ohno created a new dance form commonly referred to as Butoh, before going on to produce a series of outstanding performances that have been inscribed in the 20th century’s dance history. Nowadays, the original Japanese dance phenomenon of Butoh has attained international acclaim and continues to exercise significant influence on contemporary art forms worldwide. The Kazuo Ohno Archives, which was established to preserve the wealth of material accumulated by Ohno over his lifetime, has continually promoted activities such as book / DVD publishing, multi-media exhibitions, programming dance festival in Japan and overseas, while also taking the initiative to inform the world of the importance of dance archives.

In the Europe and North America, dance archives are generally housed in universities and public cultural facilities; in Japan, however, there are relatively few campuses with a dance department, and moreover hardly any cultural facilities that focus on disseminating historical materials related to contemporary dance. Given that by its very nature dance is a performative act, the work itself is ephemeral and will not continue to exist after the performance; what does remain, however, are the various materials related to its creation, ranging from the initial sketches to the finalized program. Usually, these primary source materials are largely in the possession and preserved by individual dancers, dance companies, as well as those connected to dance circles. The overriding problems facing such “private archives” are their management structures’ vulnerability and the difficulties in procuring sufficient funds to ensure proper maintenance of the archived materials. A management structure capable of preserving and disseminating valuable materials to future generations is thus essential; in some exceptional cases the archive material will eventually disappear. This predicament evidently poses an existential threat to ensuring a permanent transmission of dance culture.

As well as assuming responsibility for the activities of the Kazuo Ohno Archives, DAN also embraces the function of creating a new dance archive system that will grapple with prevailing issues such as permanency and proper maintenance. The dance archive of the future should be an agency that actively contributes to transmitting and renewing dance culture. DAN is thus an archive facility that will expand the concept underpinning existing archives as a reference and store room for historical source materials, while acting as a business entity for research, creation, and performance.

The Dance Archive Network is a not-for profit organization that engages in the following activities:

• Collection, preservation, publication, and dissemination of important primary source materials related to the history of Butoh and Western Dance in Japan.
• Content planning production availing of archive materials (performances, exhibitions, publications, etc.)
• Development and dissemination of databases with the objective of gathering archive materials
• Development and dissemination of advanced archiving methods (Virtual Reality etc.)
• Establishing an international network of archives
• Business initiatives to use archive materials for cultural facilities, educational institutions, etc.

Based on fundamental principles, the Dance Archive Network embraces the ideal of establishing a new form of dance archive built around a just and equitable management structure.

We would appreciate any support that you might be able to give us.

NPO Dance Archive Network
Representative Director: Toshio Mizohata