hello
it's time to break out of my anti-social shell and start posting again. so, without any additional fanfare:
went to a tsunami benefit event here in ann arbor couple days back and while all the performers were great, two really shined.
Jun Wakabayashi - a butoh dancer from tokyo who did some amazing (and freaky) interpretive dancing while portraying "evil" as part of a two person dance reinterpreting an ancient javanese custom of performing rituals to exorcise evil from humanity following tragedies. he was completely painted in white and moved in the most amazing manner i have ever seen. several children began to cry as soon as he entered the auditorium. i think he could've played gollum with minimal special effects. if you google him, you'll find some indie film maker with the same name -- i think that's a different person. can't find much about him online; if anyone has any links or info, please let me know.
Didik Nini Thowok - a popular comedic indonesian transgendered dancer (indonesia has a rich history of transgendered dancers, i learned) was also amazing. he did a dance involving many masks and had a special costume on so that when he had his back away from the audience, he looked like a young woman; when he turned around, he looked like an older woman. he was able to do some quite adroit things with his hands and body behind his back and if i couldn't see his feet, i would have been fooled into thinking that he was facing the audience when he wasn't.
both guys are doing year-long residencies here at UMich. i think Jun Wakabayashi was doing a modern version of Butoh dancing but i'm definately interested in checking out a traditional Butoh performance now.
went to a tsunami benefit event here in ann arbor couple days back and while all the performers were great, two really shined.
Jun Wakabayashi - a butoh dancer from tokyo who did some amazing (and freaky) interpretive dancing while portraying "evil" as part of a two person dance reinterpreting an ancient javanese custom of performing rituals to exorcise evil from humanity following tragedies. he was completely painted in white and moved in the most amazing manner i have ever seen. several children began to cry as soon as he entered the auditorium. i think he could've played gollum with minimal special effects. if you google him, you'll find some indie film maker with the same name -- i think that's a different person. can't find much about him online; if anyone has any links or info, please let me know.
Didik Nini Thowok - a popular comedic indonesian transgendered dancer (indonesia has a rich history of transgendered dancers, i learned) was also amazing. he did a dance involving many masks and had a special costume on so that when he had his back away from the audience, he looked like a young woman; when he turned around, he looked like an older woman. he was able to do some quite adroit things with his hands and body behind his back and if i couldn't see his feet, i would have been fooled into thinking that he was facing the audience when he wasn't.
both guys are doing year-long residencies here at UMich. i think Jun Wakabayashi was doing a modern version of Butoh dancing but i'm definately interested in checking out a traditional Butoh performance now.