Butoh Scores 2024

Join us for a rare opportunity to journey back into the world of Tatsumi Hijikata’s butoh choreography.

Over four days of intensive workshops, participants will rediscover choreographic phrases from Hijikata’s late 1970s works alongside original performers Saga Kobayashi and Moe Yamamoto. Drawing from rare video recordings, dancers’ notebooks, and embodied memories, these sessions open a window into Hijikata’s creative process. Workshops are free of charge, limited to 20 participants, with applications accepted until September 20.

The workshops will be followed by a two-day symposium of screenings and performance lectures, open to all. These events offer a unique chance to explore Hijikata’s choreographic methods under the guidance of artists who worked directly with him—Saga Kobayashi, Moe Yamamoto, and Kei Shirasaka of Kanazawa Butoh-kan—alongside archivist Takashi Morishita and Kae Ishimoto. Together, they reveal the relationship between Hijikata’s notational language and archival video, presenting materials from the Hijikata Archive at Keio University. Several of the featured films will be screened outside Japan for the first time. All symposium events are free and open to the public.

The symposium concludes with a performance lecture by French choreographer Anne-Marie Van (Nach), Nulle part est un endroit, followed by a reception at Henry R. Luce Hall. Tracing Nach’s journey from krump through her discovery of butoh, flamenco, and kathakali, the piece expands the histories explored over the previous days toward new creative horizons.