Buto dancer AKENO (Japan)

Renyosho - Far from Lotus
and improvisation with Finnish musicians

tickets FIM 80/60

Akeno, the buto artist, belongs to the present generation buto élite. She has performed widely outside Japan, in the renowned Edinburgh Festival, i.a.

Buto is a school of modern Japanese dance, born at the turn of the 50s and 60s. It has also influenced the development of dance in Finland and in Europe in general. Buto was born amid the upheavals in Japan, i.e. in the atmosphere characterized by student revolts, performance acts and agit prop. It is generally agreed that the founder of the school was Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) who came from Northern Japan to Tokyo. He started with violent and anarchistic dance performances, wherefore his relations with the official school of Japanese dance were cut off. In his later work he created a kind of basic technique for buto, which differed from Western aesthetics. Another 'first generation' buto artist is Kazuo Ohno (1906-) who has visited Finland, too. The generation subsequent to these two has further diversified the buto styles and forms. Buto dance has frequently been performed in Finland, and next summer's Kuopio Music and Dance Festival will be honoured by the visit of Sankai Juku, perhaps the best-known of the present groups, and Anzu Furukawa, who has been teaching dancers in Finland, i.a.