Mari Osanai Noguchi Taiso

Back in Chicago from Battles #1: Ground Work, Mari Osanai’s workshop focuses on Noguchi Taiso combined with the influences of her early training in Tai Chi, western dance methods, traditional folk dance in Aomori, Japan (her birthplace), and the connection between one’s thoughts and sensation of weight. Noguchi Taiso (Water Body movement) has been widely appreciated and incorporated/integrated into Butoh movement practice. Osanai’s approach to movement research and exploration begins with a heightened awareness of gravity’s influence on the body and the body’s connection with the center of the earth.

Mari Osanai is an independent dancer, choreographer, Noguchi Taiso teacher. She is based in Aomori, Japan. She has performed and given workshops in the United States, Canada, Greece.

Exercises in the workshop train the body to embrace its weight and heighten its sensitivity to move from its most relaxed and receptive state. Starting with images, such as washing the body with water, air, sunlight, workshop participants will discover the body’s vital energies rooted in its inherent hydrodynamics. Movement and form result as participants ingest imagery inside their bodies and allow the changes to shift the body’s interior.