With a title like "Dance Secrets," the best entry would be a blank page. However, I will recount some of the conversations in the past week that have danced around the topic of dance secrets.
Yuko gave me a simple formula- form plus feel equals dance. Dance is a coupling of form, the codified movement in class that teaches the toolbox of the body, and feeling. Feeling is “せいしんてき” or the “spiritual, mental, psychic, inward.” Through the feeling, the dancer is free to explore “自分のやりたいこと” what one wants to do. People forget feeling, which Yuko described as “love and living,” but they are reminded of it all when they see modern dance.
Before dance class yesterday, Ima-san imparted a butoh dance secret: 100% consciousness in each moment. Almost all movement in class has a strong image association that changes the inside feeling of the body. We are concentrating heavily on becoming a toy balloon filled with water and hanging from a string, or feeling a ball in our center separating from our chest. These exercises assist the mechanics of the body but also create a meeting of our concentration and our movement, of our body and our soul. Consciousness is attained. However, when Ima-san says 100%, she means a full realization of our bodies. She spoke of how the materials that make up our bodies have existed from the beginning of time, of our DNA and family lines which go from our mother to our mother’s mother, ad nauseum. This history must all be danced. The dancer must transcend her everyday 21st century self and realize the fullness of her being. It’s almost like the dancer becomes a god. A connection, a force emanates from that being onstage.
Ima-san spoke of her 14 years in Byakko sha, a second-generation butoh company like Sankai Juku. She danced with them from 1980 to 1994. The studio that we use for class used to be the Byakko-sha studio, and twenty of them all lived under the same roof. They were very poor, and cooked meals for all of them for around 20 dollars a day. The teacher seemed to be a bit domineering – taking their money, encouraging them to do club shows to raise more money, and discouraging members of the group from having relationships. Due to this and other reasons, the group disbanded in 1994. The stories were amazing to hear. Now, Ima-san is working with the group Kiraza and has been living in Kyoto for 26 years. She is an awesome and mysterious lady, who probably has many secrets. Secrets!
April 5th, class registration day at Kobe College, I kept running into Yuko. Yuko is a 23-yr old, 2nd year dance major at Kobe college. She has already graduated from an art university in Osaka and has choreographed and perfomed in various Osaka venues. Yuko can instill vibrancy in any choreography, and her movement carries a sensuous spark. I have often gotten lost in class from seeing the beauty she can feel in an ordinary, reptitive exercise. I saw Yuko in the library, reading an art book by a Japanese painter. We got on the topic of dance and her recent improvisational performance at an art gallery in Umeda. I said that I was delighted by her dance, and she looked like a little creature blissful in her immediate surroundings. Beyond that, I admitted that I did not know what to say, for this fact: I do not understand modern dance anymore. When people perform modern dance, I am not sure who they are or what motivates them.
Yuko gave me a simple formula- form plus feel equals dance. Dance is a coupling of form, the codified movement in class that teaches the toolbox of the body, and feeling. Feeling is “せいしんてき” or the “spiritual, mental, psychic, inward.” Through the feeling, the dancer is free to explore “自分のやりたいこと” what one wants to do. People forget feeling, which Yuko described as “love and living,” but they are reminded of it all when they see modern dance. 
When Yuko dances, her mind runs in two simultaneous modes: an awareness of her outer environment- like the air, the weather, and her physical surroundings- and an inner awareness that monitors her body alignment and her next movement direction and body shape. A modern dancer adventures in her immediate location using the tools of her body to the fullest extent. She is so free to change her own shape while investigating the shapes around her that the dancer is lost in them. Not lost in a negative way- Lost in her situation in the same way that a person can be lost in bliss. The dancer reaches a dreamy, blissful, vibrant state and invites the audience to join them there. That is a modern dance secret.
Before dance class yesterday, Ima-san imparted a butoh dance secret: 100% consciousness in each moment. Almost all movement in class has a strong image association that changes the inside feeling of the body. We are concentrating heavily on becoming a toy balloon filled with water and hanging from a string, or feeling a ball in our center separating from our chest. These exercises assist the mechanics of the body but also create a meeting of our concentration and our movement, of our body and our soul. Consciousness is attained. However, when Ima-san says 100%, she means a full realization of our bodies. She spoke of how the materials that make up our bodies have existed from the beginning of time, of our DNA and family lines which go from our mother to our mother’s mother, ad nauseum. This history must all be danced. The dancer must transcend her everyday 21st century self and realize the fullness of her being. It’s almost like the dancer becomes a god. A connection, a force emanates from that being onstage.
For comparison’s sake, I can connect the two in this way: A modern dancer is a being lost in a dream. A butoh dancer is an entity who has slashed the dream and become one with existence.
After class, Ima-san made tea and told us the meaning of white paint in butoh dancing. She had a photo album when she was 20-yrs-old and had her first butoh experience at a one-week byakko sha workshop in the mountains of Kyoto. When she used white make-up for the first time, she said that it was a gate, a symbol of change for her. She likened it to a coming-of-age ceremony. She also said that when she puts on the white, an old Japanese face appears – the white paint removes her modern face. The meaning is different for everyone. Hijikta’s wife Motofuji said that the white make-up is the powder of dead people’s bones. Dancing in white make-up signifies dancing and living for all of the people who died, especially in reference to the massive deaths of World War II. Ima-san’s old teacher said that the white make-up creates a blank canvas.
After class, Ima-san made tea and told us the meaning of white paint in butoh dancing. She had a photo album when she was 20-yrs-old and had her first butoh experience at a one-week byakko sha workshop in the mountains of Kyoto. When she used white make-up for the first time, she said that it was a gate, a symbol of change for her. She likened it to a coming-of-age ceremony. She also said that when she puts on the white, an old Japanese face appears – the white paint removes her modern face. The meaning is different for everyone. Hijikta’s wife Motofuji said that the white make-up is the powder of dead people’s bones. Dancing in white make-up signifies dancing and living for all of the people who died, especially in reference to the massive deaths of World War II. Ima-san’s old teacher said that the white make-up creates a blank canvas.
Ima-san spoke of her 14 years in Byakko sha, a second-generation butoh company like Sankai Juku. She danced with them from 1980 to 1994. The studio that we use for class used to be the Byakko-sha studio, and twenty of them all lived under the same roof. They were very poor, and cooked meals for all of them for around 20 dollars a day. The teacher seemed to be a bit domineering – taking their money, encouraging them to do club shows to raise more money, and discouraging members of the group from having relationships. Due to this and other reasons, the group disbanded in 1994. The stories were amazing to hear. Now, Ima-san is working with the group Kiraza and has been living in Kyoto for 26 years. She is an awesome and mysterious lady, who probably has many secrets. Secrets!
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