CONTEMPORARY DANCE and BUTOH
December, Dairakudakan Kochuten Studio). Shiraga Momoko has experience with the Nenbutsu dance at Tsukudajima in Tokyo and Sasara dance in Enoshima, Kanagawa Prefecture. For her version of The Rite of Spring (November, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre) at Festival/Tokyo 2014 she carried out research into the Nebuta Festival in Aomori Prefecture to create, along with the stage design by Mohri Yuko in the image of landfills and ruins, and the music of Miyauchi Yasuno interweaving the resonating sound of the dancers’ breathing, a near-future vision of a fantasy Japanese festival. Parthenon Tama held the Tama 1km Festa 2014 in September in the outdoor area around the hall. The bustling event featured performances by Strange Kinoko Dance Co. and Baobab, a parade with ordinary citizens and She de cusu oh chee!, and a unique Bon dance 102
choreographed by Honaga Yoko with music by DE DE MOUSE. There were artists sensitive to the mood of the times. With their production of Kiniro jikan, festival no saichû (Golden Time, in the Midst of the Festival) at Setagaya Public Theatre in March, Strange Kinoko Dance Co. announced their “graduation” from contemporary dance as something everyday. Ide Shigehiro’s idevian crew premiered ZUAN in October at Setagaya Public Theatre. The movement began with the dancers jostling up against each other, progressing to transform finally into Awa Odori-like traditional dance, the fever building until all the dancers formed a unit wearing happi festival coats and dancing in unison. It captured that Japanese habit of following the crowd intuitively, rather than out of principle. November saw Yanaihara Mikuni’s Mikuni Yanaihara Project produce a version of The Cherry Orchard at Nishi-Sugamo Arts