Body Sculpting Workshop – sharing the creative process of Takao Kawaguchi’s performance, About Kazuo Ohno. One of the legendary Butoh founders, Kazuo Ohno enchanted the world over with his dance. Where do his secrets lie?
In this workshop, we will try to imitate the master’s performances from video clips by closely observing the minuscule spaces that fold and unfolds. These minute spaces reveal or hide in, on and around Ohno’s body through subtle moves, intentional and unintentional, of his various body parts, such as shrugs of his shoulders, tilts of his head, flips of his hand as well as tiny shifts of his weight. We try to transplant them onto our own bodies, including his postures and shapes of his 80-year old body… if we can.
Participants are asked to bring their own video streaming devices (smart phone, tablet, PC, etc) as well as pen/pencil and paper for sketching the images from the video as a process of observation and copying.
Critical Path has a limited number of devices available for participants.
Please email [email protected] if you need one.
This is the first of two annual workshops in partnership between Ausdance NSW and Critical Path.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akXJ4WsYsHs
After joining the Japanese multimedia performance collective Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008, Takao Kawaguchi since 2000 has been exploring the fertile field of live performance in the intersection of theater, dance, visual image and fine arts, mainly through solo works and collaborations with artists of different disciplines. From 2008 he started the solo performance series a perfect life, the 6th work of which, “from Okinawa to Tokyo”, was presented at the 5th Yesbisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2013). More recent works include: About Kazuo Ohno – Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces (Kazuo Ohno Festival 2013, currently touring around the world ); and TOUCH OF THE OTHER (ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles IN 2015, and Spiral Hall in Tokyo in 2016).