Butoh(s) in Avignon Festival Avignon-Off 2005
Atsushi Takenouchi
Jinen butoh solo
STONE

2005 JULY
Atsushi Takenouchi JINEN Butoh Workshop
-Butoh Procession in Avignon Festival

ﾐ This experience-based workshop will give you the opportunity to join the Yin Yang Butoh Procession through the main and back streets of the festival ground, and to give group or solo performances during the Avignon Festival at squares around the city.

July 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, 2005 (10 days)


photo by Yayoi Ogata

This workshop is designed for participants who have some experience in Butoh Workshops, as they will perform in front of audiences. The first 4 days will be spent creating a Butoh Procession and group/solo performances. During the last 6 days, participants will dance in front of audiences in one session for 5 hours a day, a total of 30 hours, and seek the true nature of Butoh, that is to dance, be danced and keep dancing.

The Yin Yang Procession expresses the various lives which live in the vast cycle of JINEN, the cycle of day and night, life and death.
In history, there were souls that were excluded or dropped out of society, that were pushed away and eliminated, or suffered from mental and physical disturbances. These souls have been kept in darkness. In this particular procession, we will express the liberation of these souls by shedding light on them, embracing them, and being them. Through dancing these souls, we will express their liberation from the darkness and transformation of the darkness into the light.
Furthermore, the dance will embrace and liberate the darkness in ourselves, the darkness we keep avoiding in the same way we fear death. While dancing without stopping, we even forget our humanity, and become the soul itself.

Examples of souls we are going to dance are the darkness within ourselves, dancing blind street children, wandering old man, people who are deeply in prayer, revolutionists who dance and cry out for survival and freedom, manic clown who keeps laughing and dancing, prostitutes who are loved and abandoned each day, people who are isolated for having manic depression and schizophrenia, people who dig their own graves in a concentration camp, the death march of aboriginals in a forced migration, a forest and its spirits that are being burnt down with firebombs, a soldier who has gone mad by killing and drugs, countless children who are starving for love and food, creatures dying of environmental destruction, deities of sea and mountain, ancient dances and ghosts that are forgotten, various souls sleeping in our wombs who have forgotten these ancient dances and ghosts, etcﾉ

In the ancient days, long before dance became a form of stage arts, people danced when a baby was born and people danced when their loved one passed away. People were connected to the earth and they kept dancing. We have gradually forgotten the connection that comes from devoting ourselves to dancing. Let us recover the connection! The first thing we can do is to dance until we embrace the darkness we left aside without loving, liberate it, and turn it into light.
This is a requiem for these souls that were pushed away into the darkness, and at the same time, a physical and spiritual dancing revolution which turns the darkness into light.
Atsushi Takenouchi

Requisites for Participants: Previous experience in Butoh workshop desirable. However, the most important thing is that, during the 5-hour continuous dance procession and performances, you need to be able to maintain your concentration without returning to your usual state of mind.
*As a general rule, participants must be available for the whole period.

Costume: Please bring a costume and/or disguise that suits the life you are trying to express. As in Yin Yang, we can have western and eastern, classics and moderns, extremes of various types. Please do not hesitate to bring any kind of costume or disguise. Dresses, flashy disguises and bizarre outfits are acceptable. Naked is acceptable when Butoh pants or Fundoshi are worn. We have 10 Japanese Kimonos and white paint available.
*Barefoot not possible as we dance on the stone pavement under the scorching summer sun. Please bring strong, comfortable shoes.

We are planning to have this Yin Yang Procession perform the intro part of Atsushi Takenouchiﾕs JINEN Butoh work ﾒSTONEﾓ,at Theatre de la Danse Golovine, that is being presented in the Avignon Fringe Butoh Festival.

Musicians (3-4), Art/make-up artist (2-3), Camera (2-3), Flyer distributor (2-3) wanted.

**Music: Acoustic instruments preferred. (i.e. Taiko Percussion, Guitar, Saxophone, Trumpet etc) If you need peripheral devices for electric instruments such as battery-operated speakers, please bring your own as we wonﾕt be able to provide them.
**Art/Make-up artists: Change wheelbarrow to appear like a carriage. Arrange costumes each participant has prepared. Make-up and hair arrangement for participants according to their role image.
**Camera: Still photographs and video cameras
**Flyer distributors: Introduction of the JINEN Butoh performance ﾒSTONEﾓ and Yin Yang Procession.

For the volunteer staff who can join as musician, art/make up artist, camera, flyer distributor, they can participate in Butoh workshop between July 4-7 for free. And between July 8-13, they will be working on their field during Yin Yang Procession. Note: we will not be able to provide accommodations, food. So please prepare by yourself.

<accommodation information>
We have some information of the reasonable accommodation there. But we can not make reservation for the accommodation. Please ask and check with your condition by your self.

<Contact & Reservation >
Espace Culturel Bertin Poiree
Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI
8-12, rue Bertin Poiree 75001 Paris
Tel +33(0)1 4476 0606 / Fax +33(0)1 4476 0613
E-mail: info@tenri-paris.com
Website : www.tenri-paris.com