Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Theatre
June 11-15, ODC Theater

THE BUTOH FESTIVAL is gone, but Butoh is not. Koichi and Hiroko Tamano helped pique the Bay Area's fascination with this indigenous Japanese art form upon their arrival in Berkeley in the late 1970s. Since that time they have trained dozens of dancers, who often took the art in new directions, sometimes becoming less interested in perfecting it than in extracting from it what they needed for their own development. But the Tamanos have stayed with it; today they are – perhaps reluctantly – elders of the Bay Area dance community. One of Butoh's most intriguing aspects lies in the fact that a dance that springs from such an anarchical impulse can be so highly ceremonial. For this, the silver anniversary concert of their Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Theatre, the Tamanos have invited Japanese dancer Eri Majima and have assembled a group of dozen or so dancers to present the world premiere of Eclipse. The full-evening work brings together images – in the Tamanos' words – "of life and death, the sun and the moon, the future and the past." The music is a live mix by Santa Cruz composer Douglas Brody. Wed/11-Sat/14, 8 p.m.; Sun/15, 2 p.m., 3153 17th St., S.F. $14-$25. (415) 863-9834. (Rita Felciano)


June 11, 2003