Kokoro Dance Butoh Workshop

Monday 3 July, 6.30-8.30pm
Siobhan Davies Studios: Roof Studio

In celebration of Kokoro Dance’s collaboration with Jonathan Baldock in his exhibition, CGP London hosted Vancouver’s Kokoro Dance for a series of special performances and partnerships across London, July 2017.

Kokoro Dance organised a unique dance workshop at Siobhan Davies Studios.

After a physical warm up and introduction of the butoh approach to dance, Kokoro Dance directors Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi introduced the way butoh uses interior imagery to inform physical movement by teaching some of the choreography from ( ), the dance work that the company performed on 4 July at Bold Tendencies in South East London.

Established in Vancouver in 1986, Kokoro Dance are one of the worlds’ leading butoh dance companies, touring their productions internationally, led by its founders Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi.

Butoh is a modern Japanese dance, an artistic aesthetic searching for one’s own original movement expression. Kokoro Dance’s butoh is distinct and unique. It uses motion to express emotion, to create journeys that speak from the bodies of the dancers to the bodies of the audiences.

(  ) is a deeply moving piece that centres around a shallow grave, exploring life and death, departure and loss, love and resurrection. (  ) was originally commissioned for the InFrinGing Dance Festival in Nanaimo, British Columbia, in 2003 by Holly Bright for the unusual setting of a climbing gym with gravel floor.

CREDITS:
(  )
Choreography/Performance: Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi
Costumes: Tsuneko Kokubo
Music: ( ) by Sigur Rós (used with permission) https://sigur-ros.co.uk/
Acknowledgements: Kokoro Dance gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs, Province of British Columbia, and Holly Bright, InFringing Dance Festival

JONATHAN BALDOCK // THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
CGP London (The Gallery and Dilston Grove)
15 June – 30 July open Thurs-Sun 11-5pm
Free admission
Live performances at Dilston Grove with Kokoro Dance: 2, 8th July at 4pm, Friday 7 July 7-9pm (free, booking required, visit www.southwarkparkgalleries.org)

SIOBHAN DAVIES DANCE
Founded and led since 1988 by pioneering choreographer Siobhan Davies CBE, Siobhan Davies Dance has evolved over the years from a national & international touring dance company into a ground-breaking investigative contemporary arts organisation.