Kim Itoh and Zan Yamashita are pioneers of the contemporary dance scene in Japan. Their performance ‹ITOH & YAMASHITA› is based on the story of the development of contemporary Japanese dance and the formation of an avant-garde. The audience encounters the intensive physical presence of the dancer (Itoh *1964), precisely arranged by the choreographer (Yamashita *1970). Both artists are inspired, in particular, by events that occur in daily life. They are particularly influenced by the so-called ‹Third Generation of Butoh›, which has been shaping the development of contemporary Japanese dance since the 1990s.
The ‹Third Generation of Butoh› keeps alive the tradition of Japanese dance theatre ‹Butoh› from the 1950s by continuing in the same vein as earlier choreographers, such as Sankai Juku and Saburo Teshigawara, while focussing more on the outer sequences of movements rather than the inner development processes. Kim Itoh und Zan Yamashita began working internationally in 2000. At the same time many western artists and curators started travelling to Japan. Before this time, Japanese contemporary dance had almost exclusively been compared to the European dance scene. The growing international exchange created new synergies and dynamisms.
Text passages in Japanese have English subtitles.
