Butō and Modern Dance: A Diagram by Masaki Iwana
Abstract
The Dossier is a first attempt at giving an account of an important artist and experience. Second generation butoh dancer, film-maker, author of a personal path to dance and an articulated concept of the body and movement, Masaki Iwana was the master of various generations of performers that he encountered across the world. Often, these performers participated in the artistic and pedagogical projects he organised in his House of White Butoh, in Normandy. The materials and contributions in this Dossier derive from a long direct relationship with him and his teachings. Samantha Marenzi’s contribution is accompanied by an appendix with particularly significant daily notes of a seminar. The essay by Alessandra Cristiani reflects on years of collaboration and study. The focal point of the Dossier is made up of extracts translated into Italian from the last collection of writings by Masaki Iwana, Solitary Body (2021). In conclusion, a letter from his widow, the dancer Moeno Wakamatsu, recounting what happened to the house, a place for seminars, experiences, of a life of work, and the efforts to transform it into an archive, a place of memory.
Keywords
Butoh, Modern Dance
Alessandra Cristiani
Alessandra Cristiani is a dancer and performer. She works as a soloist and with the Habillé d'eau company, with whom she received the 2018 Ubu Prize for the show Euforia. She encountered Butoh Blanc in 1996, after training in physical theatre and street theatre, and for years followed the teachings of Masaki Iwana, to whose methodology she dedicated her degree thesis. She is one of the founders of the Lios group, with which she organised the international Butoh dance festival Trasform'azioni (2001-2011). In 2015, she was in Japan as a guest artist at the Tenshikan centre of master Akira Kasai, with whom she has been collaborating since 2009 on the choreographic residency Progetto Eliogabalo, supported by the Paji Europe Japan Foundation. She studied with Yoko Muronoi, Akaji Maro, Tadashi Endo, Kō Murobushi, Hisako Horikawa, Toru Iwashita, Daisuke Yoshimoto, Kohshou Nanami, Yuko Kaseki and Yumiko Yoshioka. She has danced at major Italian festivals, held workshops and collaborated with directors and experimental theatre companies.