Kazuo Ohno

Known for Acting

10/27/1906

Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan

Biography

Butoh dancer. Christian. After experiencing WW2, Ohno devoted his life to dance. He introduced the unique dance style “Butoh” to the world. (Courtesy of NPO Dance Archive Network)

Known For (19 credits)

Movie

Flowerbird Butoh: A Way of Life

2015

Comprising historic archive footage and texts this DVD box enlightens us greatly about Yoshito Ohno's here and now. Butoh has a distinct starting point, namely, in 1959, with Kinjiki , a duet featuring Tatsumi Hijikata and Yoshito Ohno. His father, the legendary Kazuo Ohno created another epoch-making opus in 1977 Admiring La Argentina, with Yoshito Ohno as production manager. These links are no mere coincidence. To date, we've tended to overlook Yoshito Ohno, barely granting him the recognition he merits. Just as dance requires a lengthy gestation period in which to evolve, his dance has finally come into our field of vision, in all its freshness and stark-nakedness, linking Butoh's origins to its zenith, to a point where he now stands at a crossroads.

Movie

9.11-8.15 Nippon Suicide Pact

2006

A film that reconsiders the modern state of Japan in relation to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Movie

Ohno Kazuo: Hitori-goto no yō ni

2005

This documentary follows one of the creators of the japanese dance Butoh, Kazuo Ohno, 95, and his son, Yoshito Ohno.

Movie

Kazuo Ohno: I Dance Into the Light

2004

A documentary about legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.

Movie

“O, King God!”

2003

"O,Kind God!"is another take on Kazuo Ohno. This moving testimony to the effects his physical evolution has had on his every-day life and dance reveals yet even more strongly that ever-present and life embracing emotions so characteristic of all his previous work. In his appearance in Venice (1999) and a series of performances in his home in Yokohama in 2001, Ohno powerfully demonstrated that his dance embodies life in all its aspects. (Now, though physically immobile), Ohno's very presence continues to exude emotion: it overflows with facial expressions and delicate hand movements; fluid as water and changeable as the sky. This documentary reveals what dance is truly about. Kazuo has given us something very precious.

Movie

Kazuo Ohno: Beauty and Strength

2001

In the 60's and into the 70's, Kazuo Ohno himself produced three 16mm films. His many performances at the "Teatro Fonte" in Yokohama have been preserved with high quality Beta cameras. In addition, the television station NHK has made recordings of many of his theater performances since the premiere of "The Dead Sea" in 1985. Together, the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio and NHK own over one hundred hours of footage. This is complemented by a 1994 film by Daniel Schmid and new 16mm footage of Kazuo Ohno filmed especially for this project in October of 2000. From these resources, this 111 minute Video/DVD was assembled. "Beauty and Strength" includes dance performances, film excerpts and interviews, examples of Ohno's drawings and writings, as well as biographical information, creating a comprehensive look into the world of Kazuo Ohno's dance.

Movie

The Written Face

1995

In Japanese theater, women's roles are traditionally played by men. The man playing the woman's role, the Onnagata, does not imitate the woman, as in the West, but tries to capture her significance. He need not stick close to his model, but draws far more from his own identity - a shift of value takes place, which is nonetheless not a step beyond. THE WRITTEN FACE is an attempt to offer an insight into the Japanese Kabuki star Tamasaburo Bando, one of the last defenders of this ancient and disappearing performing tradition.

Movie

Kazuo Ohno

1995

Kazuo Ohno, Father of the Butoh Dance, first appeared on stage at the age of 43. He left the stage only at the age of one hundred, three years before he died. This short, dialogue-less film presents the exceptional range of expressions that this Japanese dancer could achieve, both with makeup and costumes and without.

Movie

Just Visiting This Planet

1991

Peter Sempel's masterful poetic film tribute to butoh performer Kazuo Ohno.

Movie

The Scene of the Soul

1991

Starring Kazuo Ohno, an inspirational figure in Butoh dance.

8.0

Movie

Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis

1990

"Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis" is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies. Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan's equivalent of modern dance, in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism. Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance, music, and masks, and by recalling the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan, Butoh incorporates much traditional theater. At the same time, it is a movement of resistance against the abandonment of traditional culture to a highly organized consumer-oriented society.

9.0

Movie

Dance of Darkness

1989

The dark sensibilities and cultural resonances of Butoh, the radical Japanese dance movement, are explored in this multilayered work. Profoundly rooted in both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture, Butoh arose in a spirit of revolt in the early 1960s. Characterized by frank sexuality and bodily distortions, Butoh transforms traditional dance movements into new forms, stripping away the taboos of contemporary Japanese culture to reveal a secret world of darkness and irrationality.