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Mitsuyo Uesugi上杉満代

Mitsuyo Uesugi

Student of Kazuo Ohno. Mitsuyo Uesugi began studying classical ballet as a child, and was a member of the Momoko Tani Ballet Company when she began studying with Kazuo Ohno. She appears in Kazuo Ohno’s experimental film ‘Mr O’s Book of the Dead’ (filmed between 1973-1976), which was directed by Chiaki Nagano. She was in charge of costumes for the 1977 premiere of ‘Admiring La Argentina’, and witnessed the creative processes of Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. In 1980, she accompanied Kazuo Ohno as a staff member on his debut tour abroad, performing with him in ‘A Table, or A Dream of Fetus’, and went on supporting Kazuo Ohno backstage on many of his overseas and Japanese tours throughout the 1980s. She continues to work on collaborative performances with theatre and contemporary dance, as well as perform her own solos, taking on Kazuo Ohno’s philosophy in her work.

Basic Information

ID
PER21
Born
1950
Profession(s)
Butoh Dancer
Nationality
Japanese

Short Biography

1950 Born in Fukuoka (Southwest Japan)

1967 Moved to Tokyo and joined the Momoko Tani Ballet Company

1970 Left the ballet company to study with Kazuo Ohno

1974 Performed in the dance drama ‘The Forbidden Hot Pot’. Kazuo Ohno also performed on the three of the five nights she performed.

1975 Performed her first butoh solo ‘Guren-yakyoku’, and began creating private, intimate butoh works

1980 March: Solo performance ‘She’ (Yasuda Seimei Hall)

   May-June: Accompanied Kazuo Ohno on his Europe tour

1985 Mugen Company, a performance group led by Mitsuyo Uesugi and Tatsurou Hattori, put on their first performance (Art Theatre Shinjuku)

 Moved to France for 3 years from 1988. While in France she collaborated in numerous theatre and dance performances.

 Began Ahiru Studio on returning to Japan.

1993 Took part in Kazuo Ohno’s butoh performance ‘Goten, Flying in the Sky’ (Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse), and performed in Shōgo Ōta’s pantomime ‘The Sand Station’

1994 Performed in Jun Kurosawa’s experimental film ‘Nekomimi’

2004 Performed ‘Negative Reality’ at the first Kazuo Ohno Festival in Yokohama

2009 Awarded the Dance Critics Society of Japan Prize for her performance series ‘Baby Melancholia – Dream of Six Nights’

2020 Mitsuyo Uesugi Butoh Performance ‘Labyrinth Legend’

Awards

2009 41st Dance Critics Society of Japan Award

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