butoh dancers-turned-actors

[Peter Grilli]

(Markus: I sent this post from my home laptop yesterday, but for some reason
it kicked back to me saying I was not
on the KineJapan list.  Previous postings from me always got through -- and
I hope this one does, too.  I hope I haven't been dropped from the list.)


The fine butoh dancer TANAKA Min has appeared in a number of films -- both
as dancer and, with increasing frequency in recent years, as an actor.

After seeing him on stage in Tokyo and NY a number of times, I first saw him
on film in Julie Taymor's remarkable film version of Stravinsky's opera
OEDIPUS REX (1993), conducted by OZAWA Seiji, and filmed at the Saito Kinen
Music Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.  Tanaka dances the role of Oedipus while
tenor Philip Langridge sings the part.  Their co-stars include Jessye Norman
as Jocasta, Bryn Terfel as Creon and SHIRAISHI Kayoko as a speaker/narrator.

TANAKA Min also had a powerful acting role in YAMADA Yoji's 2002 film
TASOGARE SEIBEI ("Twilight Samurai") and in Yamada's next film,
KAKUSHI KEN ONI NO TSUME ("The Hidden Blade") in 2004.

Other recent films with Tanaka Min include:
MEZON DO HIMIKO ("Maison de Himiko"), 2005, dir. by INUDOU Isshin;
TEKKON KINKREET (2006), dir. by Michael ARIAS;
MITRO DI NOTTE (2006), dir. by SHINOHARA Tatsuo.


Peter Grilli

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
PETER  M.  GRILLI
President, Japan Society of Boston
One Milk Street, Boston, MA 02109
Tel:  617-451-0726
Fax:  617-451-1191
E-mail:  grilli at us-japan.org
http://www.us-japan.org/boston

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Paul
Roquet
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:34 PM
To: KineJapan
Subject: butoh dancers-turned-actors


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