BUTOH - SANKAI JUKU

The workshop Whatmovesthebody? will focus on relaxation, tension, wave transmission, breathing, gravity, and rhythm. You can imagine that you can move your body consciously when you dance, but can you be conscious of your own body?

It is difficult to be aware of your own body. It appears that improvisational dancers do not build their dances with their thoughts. However, I don't think it is true that they are not conscious of their bodies. Let's think about the above by moving your own body.

Is a dancer who is standing still on stage not dancing? It may look like they are standing still, but in fact they are moving. There is a phrase, "not even a step up" which means that the dancer has already begun to move before he/she moves his/her feet. Is it the body that has begun to move? Is it the mind? Or is it you, the observer?

Sometimes we recognize a body in motion even though we are not consciously trying to move it. The situation of "recognizing and observing" a moving body away from one's awareness is the body prompting awareness. Awakening awareness by moving the body is common in everyday life, so it is natural that it also occurs in dance.

What makes the body move? For the time being, why not move our bodies in a conditioned way and observe them.

Semimaru  is a founding member of Sankai Juku, Semimaru has participated in all Sankai Juku activities since its founding in 1975.

In 1985, he began his solo career, often performing outside of the theater.

In 1990, he launched Kokutoin. The group continues to gather an unspecified number of members for each performance and continues to create works.

From 1987 to 1996, he held dance workshops every summer at different locations in the form of training camps, and since 1999 he has established an atelier in the Kurobe River basin in Toyama Prefecture, where he holds training camps and performances every summer, and teaches younger dancers.

He generally performs outdoors and creates works that are appropriate to the location, calling it "dialogue with the magnetic field," and likes to observe the connection between the space, the body, and the spirit.