The 2012 Vancouver International Dance Festival, held March 2 to 11, contrasts the potent polarities of ballet and butoh.
At the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, on March 2 – 3, 2012, the Festival presents Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet.
“’Unbelievable’ and ‘one of the best dance performances I’ve ever seen’ were just some of the comments from Straight staffers lucky enough to have caught the show. . . . This is not your typical tutu ballet: the troupe’s work is set to everything from tabla music to baroque, but what is wowing crowds is the sheer, nonstop energy of the company and movement that’s as bold as it is beautiful.”
At the Roundhouse, from March 6 – 11, 2012, five butoh companies represent over fifty years of butoh performances. Returning to the VIDF is the legendary Yoshito Ohno dancing with Montreal’s Lucie Grégoire. Ohno danced in the very first butoh performance with butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata in 1959.
A newer generation of Japanese butoh dancers is represented by Taketeru Kudo whose performances at the 2008 VIDF astonished everyone and terrified more than a few.
North American butoh is represented by inkBoat from San Francisco, Fujiwara Dance Inventions from Toronto, and Vancouver’s own Kokoro Dance.
