ALIVE FROM OFF CENTER: DANCE OF DARKNESS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of arts programs featuring the work of leading avant-garde artists in video, music, dance, theater, and film. This program explores Butoh, an avant-garde dance movement that challenges the taboos of modern Japan. Mark Holborn describes this subversive form of dance theater as originating in the sixties; rooted deeply in the archaic traditions of ancient Japanese myths, folk stories, and demons; and utilizing violent language and anguished and sexually explicit imagery. Holborn further chronicles the creation of the movement by two artists, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. Akaji Maro, who formed the group Dai Rakuda Kan to add drama and enlarge the spectacle of Butoh, characterizes the dance movement as drawing strength from traditional Japanese culture and letting the body speak for itself, thereby rejecting the superficiality of everyday life. After a performance by Dai Rakuda Kan of tormented, frenzied groupings of individuals, Maro further comments on the role of Butoh as one of exploring national identity in a world of hybrid cultures. Next, Yoko Ashikawa, Hijikata's principal dancer and director of her own group, Hakutaboh, is shown advising her dancers in their dramatic interpretations. In the final segment, Isamu Ohsuga, who left Dai Rakuda Kan in order to form Byakko Sha in 1980, talks about the aftermath of the bombing of his home in Hiroshima, which leads to clips of his troupe's performance of "Civil Wars" and "Tama Jari Hi Me."
(Series title varies; as above, 1985-1991; as "Alive TV," 1992 onward.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: August 5, 1990 10:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:27:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:34019
- GENRE: Dance; Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Dance, Japanese; Dance, Modern; Atomic Bomb; Hiroshima, Japan
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1985-1996
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- For "Alive From Off Center":
- John Schott … Executive Producer
- John Ligon … Producer
- Jim Blashfield & Associates, Inc. … Animation
- Citizen M … Theme Music by
- Newton/Bard Music … Music (Misc. Credits), Additional Music
- For "Dance of Darkness":
- Edin Velez … Producer, Director, Created by
- Edith Velez … Producer
- Ramon Guzman … Animation
- Tim Holmes … Writer, Writing Consultant
- Byakko Sha … Dance Company
- Dai Rakuda Kan … Dance Company
- Hakutaboh … Dance Company
- Nourit Masson-Sekine … Interviewer, For Kazuo Ohno
- Dan Grilly … Interviewer, For Mark Holborn
- Yoko Ashikawa
- Tatsumi Hijikata
- Mark Holborn
- Akaji Maro
- Kazuo Ohno
- Isamu Ohsuga