The London Butoh Festival and the Birkbeck Connection
Autumn 2009
Dr. J.D. Mackintosh (Department of Media and Cultural Studies – Japanese)
The Centre for Media, Culture, and Creative Practice (CMCCP) and the Department of Media and Cultural Studies (MCS) was pleased to welcome the London Butoh Festival: Celebrating 50 Years of Butoh to Birkbeck. This series of events including workshops, talks, and book signings by internationally eminent practitioners was organised by the Theatre Training Initiative (TTI). The Clore Management Centre provided the backdrop for two rare film-screening opportunities that inaugurated and brought to a close this festival.
On 18 September, guests were given access to rare film excerpts – released by the Hijikata Archives located at Keio University and brought specially over to London for this event – of performances from one of this performance art’s seminal figures, Hijikata Tatsumi. On 14 November, leading Butoh practitioner and key architect of Butoh as a global art, Takashi Endo, walked viewers through rarely seen footage of his own work and collaborations that have innovated this form.
Birkbeck also hosted a special talk by the internationally renowned choreographer, artist, teacher, and coach Stuart Lynch, creator of the Bodyweather method that emphasises the integral links between body and mind, and which actively engages with the aesthetics and practices of Butoh not only as art, but education and life approach.
Collaboration
The Butoh Festival was brought to Birkbeck through initial discussions between Fran Barbe, University of Kent and Artistic Director of TTI and Maria Koripas, Associate Lecturer, Award Co-ordinator for Performance and Course Director for Dance at Birkbeck. Both had a long working relationship in which Fran led the Choreography module in the Dance Certificate of Continuing Education at Birkbeck. Together they worked to develop choreographic training on this course so that Birkbeck students could benefit from Fran’s artistic experience and most significantly to enable dancers to enjoy the illuminating philosophy and aesthetic of Butoh.
The recent integration of Japanese Studies into the new Department of Media and Cultural Studies provided an opportunity to expand this Birkbeck-TTI collaboration further. With his specialism in postwar Japanese cultural history, especially on the male body, Jonathan Mackintosh assisted Koripas on this event that celebrated and reflected on, in part, the origins of Butoh in the artistic and intellectually chaotic world of post-Second World War Japan.
The Festival highlights the innovative and impactful possibilities that are generated through teaching and creative links between the academic sphere and cultural institutions and organisations. As Melanie Wynyard, the Festival’s Executive Producer, commented: ‘we could not have done these events without [Birkbeck’s] support…The Screenings and talk added an extra dimension to the programme’.
120 people attended the Birkbeck-located events, many coming from across the United Kingdom and as far afield as the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Germany. Performers and students from across the arts – acting, dance, cabaret, and musical theatre – mixed with people from many other professions and backgrounds. Of particular note were those, who upon coming to the Hijikata event, then went on to attend introductory sessions and workshops, which as Wynyard comments, ‘is very bold for someone with no performance experience’.
In fact, this fully confirms a central aspect of Birkbeck’s approach to the cultural and creative industries, namely, its distinctive mix of rigorous academic enquiry with experiential learning. As the Butoh Festival demonstrates, the CMCCP and MCS is exceptionally well-placed to situate Birkbeck as a leader in cultural and creative industries studies in London, the UK, and internationally.