Movement in Transition
by Anna Mantzaris

Those who are familiar with butoh know that this postwar Japanese dance form is ever changing.

“Butoh is a language that has taken 30 to 40 years to develop,” says Brechin Flournay, director and founder of the San Francisco Butoh Festival. “It changes so rapidly. It’s a living organism. I think in a few years we will see a new form come out of butoh with a new name.”

This changing spirit is reflected in the nature of this year’s festival, now in its fifth year. “In order to be stimulating to our audience, we have the responsibility to change,” Flournay explains. Presented by Dance Network (d-net), the festival will be held July 25 through Aug. 13 at the Oberlin Dance Company (ODC) Theater, which Flournay hopes will cultivate an “intimate” feeling.

In past years, festival performances were held at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Flournoy says that holding the festival at ODC Theater will “give the audience a chance to be closer to the artists.”

Many of this year’s featured artists are American, coming from the Bay Area as well as cities including Seattle and Santa Fe. “We are still figuring out what the American spirit of butoh is. It’s very young here,” Flournoy says.

Because butoh is an uncommon dance form in the United States, even those who have a solid knowledge of dance may have difficulty defining the Japanese form.

“It’s a visual art form,” Flournoy explains. “The visual aspect compliments the physical aspect. It’s about do your own thing, which is an unusual message in Japanese culture -- stepping out of the ‘we’ concept and saying ‘I.’ ”

Flournoy says that butoh can be a transforming experience. “You work from the inside to create images,” she says. “It’s a form that’s really mysterious. It’s like watching a surrealist painting.”

At 8 p.m. on Aug. 5 and Aug. 7, master artists Koichi Tamano and Anzu Furukawa will perform. Tamano, who has been called “resident butoh master” for the Bay Area, formed the Berkeley group Harupin-Ha with his wife. The group, which has been influenced by the Hijikata style of butoh, will also perform during the festival.

Furukawa, from Germany, is making her San Francisco festival debut with a 45-minute piece, The Crocodile Time. Flournoy says this piece is meant to “embody the sensibility of what it’s like to be in crocodile time.”

At 8 p.m. on Aug. 6, local artists Leigh Evans, Judith Kajiwara and Collapsing Silence, an underground butoh group, are to perform.

On Aug. 8, the festival hosts the Butoh Bash and Video Cafe, which includes performances by Flournay, Kingi Hayashi, Dappin Butoh, Tangentz Performance Group, John Doyle, Twilight Dance and Karasu-Naka. The event will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

For those looking for a more participatory experience, the festival includes workshops. Flournay says there is a large percentage of people who come back year after year to participate in workshops, so it’s important to come up with new workshops.

“I wanted to create a place where people could study butoh with master artists.” Flournay says “I wanted to curate a program that showed the different faces of butoh.”

The festival will be held at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco. Tickets to festival performances are $15-$18. To make reservations or for more information, call 415-863-9834 or visit the ODC Web site at http://www.sfstation.com/theatre/odc.htm.