Boris Charmatz . Association Edna

In his new creation, 'La danseuse malade' the choreographer Boris Charmatz is inspired by the writing left us by Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986). Together with Kazuo Ohno, this Japanese avant-garde artist is regarded as the founder of butoh. This 'dance of darkness' was all the rage in Japan fifty years ago. It expresses the revolt against tradition that occurred in the nineteen sixties. Butoh is an expressionist dance theatre, magical and Dionysian and with references to the Shinto dance of death. Hijikata's manifesto, which has only recently been translated from Japanese into French, has finally reached us. In this work the writer brings to the surface unknown aspects of the man-in-constant-transformation concept. On stage we see a giant installation, a monument to Hijikata. Boris Charmatz sets out to find the soul of butoh by drawing from the original power of the written word. He himself dances, and the young French actress Jeanne Balibar is responsible for Hijikata's words.