TOP > Episode2 Rehearsal
Rehearsal
Takao Kawaguchi’s Laboratory
Takao Kawaguchi
Performed with Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008, and began creating solo works in 2000. Kawaguchi explores a wide range of performance possibilities through theatre, dance, film and art. In recent years, he has been creating performances about Butoh, such as The Sick Dancer and About Kazuo Ohno, and has been highly acclaimed all over the world.
http://www.kawaguchitakao.com/
Becoming Butoh
How Ngean Lim
From a personal standpoint – with but a cursory knowledge of the physical, mental and emotional states and forms – Butoh is undoubtedly a corporeal art form that shrouds itself in many layers. These layers are varied; there are layers of physical expression, emotional effects and psycho-physical manifestations. Not to mention the theatrical (or even anti-theatrical) devices of make-up, from the quintessential white grimacing faces to the striking silver bodies, and from highly stylised costumes to perform the absurd, grotesque and/or sublime to stark naked bodies painting vulnerability and/or vulgarity. The peeling back of these profound performative layers in discovering Butoh is the exact opposite of Takao Kawaguchi’s foray and journey into the distinct form.
Most known for his physical research of corporeality in his own performances and poetic physicality in earlier creative contributions to the acclaimed Dumb Type, for me Kawaguchi started growing his own Butoh ‘seed’ when his corporeal experimentation led him to slow his physical performance in search of a gentler way of expressing the body in motion. I remember watching a shortened performance of his at a Butoh conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was in 2014. I was surprised to see his name associated with Butoh as I had never thought of his performance works in the same rubric nor philosophy of that of Butoh.
However, in experiencing this performance of his, I came to realise that the constant challenge of moving painstakingly slow to counter the notion of speed and brute force in modern and contemporary dance was a political one. This political transgression to counter what is trendy, the majority, the dominant, was in fact very close to the political views of Tatsumi Hijikata, the controversial co-founder of the Butoh movement, along with Kazuo Ohno, the other co-founder of Butoh known for more poetic and lyrical presentations. From this politics of countering speed with his own performances, I think Kawaguchi began to actually explore the many layers of Butoh that led him to copy the highlighted performances of Kazuo Ohno. The mimicking took may hours of painstakingly watching Ohno’s recorded performances, which Kawaguchi then put as layers of Butoh performances on himself.
Although the initial impetus was to copy and reproduce what he saw in Ohno, I think there was a gradual shift in Kawaguchi’s process, from emphasising Ohno’s movements and performances to becoming sympathetic and questioning Ohno's mental state during certain performance segments. What was Ohno feeling in the emotional expressions of his body beyond the material/physical sculpture, and the emotional state of certain performances? Kawaguchi actually created more complex layers of Butoh for himself rather than just copying movements. After a long journey of mimicking the form, Kawaguchi was beginning to embody the philosophy, the politics and the intellect of Butoh, taking on even more layers.
LIM How Ngean
Malaysian-born How Ngean is an independent dance dramaturg, producer and performance-maker. He has served as dramaturg for dance performances at the Singapore Arts Festival and Singapore’s Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay. In 2016, he founded the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network (ADN), a platform for critical exchange on dramaturgy in Asia.
リハーサル｜川口隆夫の実験室
出演 川口隆夫
協力 田辺知美 立石裕美
撮影・編集 飯名尚人