Events

In 2011, Yoshito Ohno participated in the Singapore Arts Festival. The theme of that year’s festival was “I Want to REMEMBER”. Under the guiding idea of ‘wanting to remember what is truly important in the fast-paced city of Singapore’, the dance program especially highlighted Pina Bausch (1940–2009), Merce Cunningham (1919–2009), and Kazuo Ohno (1906–2010)—all of whom had passed away between 2009 and 2010—as great dance artists to be remembered. Yoshito Ohno performed “Kuu” (Emptiness).

In his programme note, Yoshito Ohno wrote of how much he had received from Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, and of his wish to pass on what he had learned from them to the next generation.

Particularly noteworthy is the insertion of a scene in which Yoshito Ohno danced wearing rabbit ears, something that had not appeared in earlier versions of the work. The music was Caccini’s Ave Maria, performed on the theremin. Concerning this later-developed “rabbit dance”, which would eventually be performed together with the song “Hamabe no Uta” (Song of the Seashore), Yoshito Ohno left words to the effect that, while it would be too painful to visit the shores devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in his own human form, perhaps he could go there in the form of a rabbit. This performance took place only two months after the disaster.