Butoh Curious Chi

Piercing Heart

By

Sara D Zalek

—

1–2 minutes

To read

ONE NIGHT ONLY — Chicago Premiere
Piercing Heart
Created by Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh
Commissioned music by Bill Horist
February 23, 7:30pm
Asian Improv aRts Midwest, 4875 N Elston Ave, Chicago, IL
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So many thoughts and desires pierce our consciousness, our hearts, sometimes settling, other times escaping through the fleeting air. Where do we find our freedom and peace? In confinement or total abandonment? Piercing Heart was performed twice with live music by Bill Horist at Shimmer: Seattle Summer Butoh Festival and at the Chapel venue in Seattle in 2023 and at an experimental music festival in Vienna with musicians Florian Feit and Christoph Punzmann the same year.

Joan Laage on the floor with arms and legs shooting out parallel in the same direction, her feet are toward a black square table with red roses on the top. The wood floor and dark black background are the only other visible cues.

Hiroko Tamano

This 1 minute excerpt gives a taste of Butoh legend Hiroko Tamano’s teaching, philosophies, and movement. In the “Dance of Life: a Prayer in 4 Directions”, Hiroko has built upon this Indigenous practice learned from Txi Wizz (Canadian Buffoon) over 40 years ago.

She has imbued it with her own movements and philosophy as a gift of healing and empowerment to an anxious world. In her words, “this dance form gives ‘presentness’,” and awareness of the directions “gives ‘no confusion’ to the prayer.”

Dance of Life