murraybramwell.com

March 01, 1994

Like Cherries for Peaches

Tomoe Shizune and Hakutobo
Union Hall

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is generally agreed that the first butoh performance was Forbidden Colours, based on the works of Mishima and presented by Tatsumi Hijikata at a Japanese dance festival in 1959. From there this eclectic dance drama form has been interpreted by a variety of companies and soloists. Some, such as Kazua Ohno, Sankai Juku and Byakko Sha have been visiting Australian festivals since the mid 1980s.

Hakutobo -which means the White Peaches- includes founding member Yoko Ashikawa who worked extensively with Hijikata from 1967 until his death in 1985. The opening section of the company’s program was performed by Yoko Ashikawa and director and composer Tomoe Shizune. Entitled Sakura no Odori (A Dance of Cherries) it contains movement devised by Hijikata himself.

While butoh has come to mean many different things exponents all describe it as a homage to the body, an exploration of the body down to the single strand of hair. It is also interesting to consider connections with European movements in the late Fifties in particular the Theatre of the Absurd.

As they come blinking into the light seemingly shaking off the ash of some cataclysm Hakutobo seem quite Beckettian in their elemental innocence. The movement in both Sakura no Odori and the main work Renyo is meticulously, mesmerically slow. The silences are enormous, every footfall, every knee crack is audible. The whited faces are impassive but also totally expressive, canvases for looks of consternation, curiosity and at times a terror as all-encompassing as that missing Scream from Mr Munch.

Against a backdrop of shredded fabric the company are dressed in dusty smocks except for what I take to be the jizo figure, the guardian deity of children, who wears scarlet. Takuro Osaka’s lighting – single spots, sidelighting and great washes of light over the entire stage- beautifully directs the dancers’ work as they appear in pairs,trios, fours and also as a full ensemble.
As with other butoh companies the key to their accessibility is in the music. Tomoe Shizune’s layered synths belong absolutely with Oldfield and Vangelis or, if you prefer, Phillip Glass and Robert Schroeder. The repeated musical figures are modal, harmonic. At times they verge on the banal but they lessen the strangeness of the performers. Instead the music highlights the fragility and the tenderness of the work.

The Hakutobo program is an esoteric one with narrative lines and cultural references that are opaque to the uninformed Western audience. But the sense of human community, the almost fetal gentleness and the indescribable yearning in the performances is profoundly satisfying. What did Blake say in his Auguries- Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour. Make that ninety minutes.

The Adelaide Review, No.125, March 1994, p.27

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