Last Friday, I attended Mare Serenitatis at the Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, part of the World Festival of Sacred Music. I was working during the performance, but I watched the final rehearsal from the wings of the stage.
Following the performance in the Aratani Theatre, the crowd came outside to see a blue and white striped field of vinyl that we had set up during the performance. Following Hirokazu Kosaka’s symbolic shooting of an arrow into the artificial moon generated by a rented spotlight (not being a full moon, Hirokazu brought his own), Butoh dancer Oguri (above) took a knot of thread, drawn from dozens of spools, into his mouth, and slowly (and I mean slowly) walked across the plaza to the sound of a lone harmonica player. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, and the overheard comments from the crowd following would easily be mistaken for hyperbole by anyone who wasn’t there.
Here’s the Flickr set for the event.
Technorati Tags: Oguri, Butoh, Hirokazu Kosaka, JACCC, World Festival of Sacred Music, dance, performance