butoh dancers-turned-actors

[Paul Roquet]

Here is one question I've had floating around since the festival:

While in the audience in Frankfurt I was surprised to see Min Tanaka  
popping up both as the aging drag queen in La Maison de Himiko, and  
as the voice of a yakuza in the anime Tekkon Kinkreet. Tanaka made  
his film debut a few years back in a couple of Yoji Yamada jidai- 
geki. Akaji Maro has also been active as an actor for some time now.  
I was wondering, besides the more experimental films of Hijikata and  
Ohno, if anyone knows of other examples of butoh dancers shifting  
into acting work. In a way it makes perfect sense as a career  
trajectory - all that weighty presence, at least in Tanaka's case,  
really works up on screen.

Thanks again to everyone for the fantastic conference!

Paul Roquet
UC Berkeley