What we do

Rose Dance Project

  • Organization : KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
  • Section : Project on artistic and creative focus
  • Type of Grant Program : Long
  • Art Forms : Dance

Outline of the project

The 60s, which gave rise to butoh, the avant-garde form of physical expression from Japan, was a time when everything was in a state of chaotic fervor amid great political and social turmoil. “Camp” is one of the words used to describe the sensibility of the era, a point in time when counterculture was in full-swing, and which teemed with the unnamable.This project comprehensively researches Rose Color Dance created by Tatsumi Hijikata together with avant-garde artist luminaries, and reinterprets it from the perspective of “camp,” a sensibility that in recent years has once again come under the spotlight. In doing it evokes the chaotic energy of butoh in its early days, and in an upbeat and entertaining way attempts to break down the many invisible walls existing in society.

First year
Rosentanz – Critique of Pure Sexualization
Composition and choreography: KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
Performers: KAWAMURA MIKIKO, FUJITA SINNOSUKE, MIYOSI KARU, MIURA ISSOU, KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
(1)Dance work “Rosentanz – Critique of Pure Sexualization” – Prologue
Details: A dance work that comprehensively researches Tatsumi Hijikata’s “Rose Color Dance” and reinterprets it from the perspective of “camp”
Date/time: October 14,15,16, 2022
Venue: German Cultural Center Hall

Second year
“Rosentanz – Critique of Pure Sexualization”
Conceived and choregraphed by KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
Performed by KAWAMURA MIKIKO, FUJITA SINNOSUKE, MIYOSI KARU, MIURA ISSOU, KAWAGUCHI TAKAO

Tokyo performance of “Rosentanz – Critique of Pure Sexualization”
Details: A dance work that comprehensively researches Tatsumi Hijikata’s “Rose Color Dance” and reinterprets it from the perspective of “camp”
Date/time: August 9,10,11, 2023
Venue: Theatre X

Third year
(1) Overseas performance project
Currently being coordinated.

Profile

KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
Choreographer/dancer. Led the contemporary dance company ATA DANCE from 1990, and joined Dumb Type in 1996. Since 2000, he has focused on solo projects, showcasing a plethora of works that “can only be described as performance” (ISHII TATSURO, The Asahi Shimbun). In 2008 he launched the series “a perfect life” themed around “talking about oneself,” Vol. 6 (“From Okinawa to Tokyo”) of which was presented at Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2013. In recent years he has unveiled “The Sick Dancer” based on a text by Tatsumi Hijikata, a work which premiered in 2012 and was co-performed by TANABE TOMOMI; and “About Kazuo Ohno” in which he completely copies the moves of Kazuo Ohno as recorded in video footage, and which was first performed in 2013.

Contact

KAWAGUCHI TAKAO
Choreographer
+81-(0) 90-2482-4890
taakaawaaguu@gmail.com