Minako Seki, Dance in between “the art of the body in movement”
The Butoh dance continues impressing us and considering it as some- thing not simple, but very complex, both in its origins and in its expansion from Japan to the West, its representatives and an attraction that forces us to investigate.
Minako Seki, the great representative of Butoh dance, was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and began her career in the world of dance in the Dance Love Machine company, under the artistic direction of choreographers Tetsuro Tamura and Anzu Furukawa, who notably in1uenced the future of Minako’s dance by rejecting artistic conventions, and entering into an investigation of emotions through dance movements, as a kind of meditation being present in each movement, fusing the body with the movements as if it were a single entity.
From Japan, Minako moved to Berlin after being her guest company at the “Die Rebellion des Körpers” festival and 4nally founded her own dance company Butoh, the 4rst in Europe “Tatoeba – Théâtre Danse Grotesque» always exploring through dance the potential that all hu- man beings have inside. Her continuous research leads her to fuse contemporary dance and theatre styles, giving rise to a particular Butoh dance method with a very personal and unique artistic approach.
Her method, called “Dancing Between” and recognized all over the world, she highlights the existence of two points between which there is a whole cosmos of possibilities, creativity, sounds, emotions that are created through choreographies, through dance. It’s an inner communication between conscious and unconscious. All this within artistic composition.
Personally, her life is intimately linked to her artistic experience, and so she highlights in her biography where we can read that “Her artistic approach cannot be separated from her personal philosophy of life, which combines in a holistic way Vipassana meditation, macrobiotic cooking, ritual and Japanese folks medicine with dance and choreography”
She has received numerous awards and recognitions, invited to numerous festivals and theatres, combining all this with teaching classes at universities where she is invited, and workshops all over the world.
Hello Minako, it is a pleasure to receive 4rst hand a piece of dance and Butoh experience and enter your artistic world in an attempt to become part of it, so the 4rst question I would like to ask you is about the dance itself, the Butoh, and your method. How does it come to you, how does it become your life and what does it mean to you
Since I was a child, I was gazing at the world. Every morning I was gazing, completely falling into the world of the leaves’ movement from my bed. I was late every morning to go to school. I walked with big steps and maximum speed on the climb of a steep slope. It went like that every- day. Through this experience, my achilles tendon became very long. No wonder, I was very sporty. In the other hand, gazing means, meditative state. I was sensing towards my inner world and expanding my imaginary world. The Seki Method departs from imagination, meaning to translate your own imagination into movement. And the exploration of movement is corresponding to the memory of the body. And this memory transforms again into imagination. You can see it this way: imagination+body memory=movement+exploration=dance. Let’s say, „all the beings are being dancing“. The human body always does movements: thinking, feeling, digesting... All our being itself is in continuous dancing state. It means that life is about exploration, challenging to be beyond your limitations and keeping dancing.
When we read about your method I wonder if Butoh is for you a kind of meditation and if you teach it in your workshops. Because we also see the body in Butoh as a kind of work of art in motion. Is that all?
In the year of 1959, Butoh is born as a stage art in Japan. Art as a dancing body. Butoh is everything, like the ocean. It is sometimes active and threatening, sometime still and calming. You have to consider the Japanese cultural History. We think that seeing movement does not only requires movement of the limbs. On the stage, body and presence are for to move all the air and atmosphere around the dancer. That is the rea- son why the concepts of Ki(in Japanese) or Qui(in Chinese) or energy(in English) coming from Asia are now known by the western people.
Reading about the 4rst performance you have in Europe, in Berlin, in the Festival “Die Rebellion des Körpers” I ask myself about precisely the rebellion of the body, is Butoh dance an expression to out- side, a body rebellion outward, from the inside out or maybe on the contrary something that only happens inside and that the spectator can only shyly observe, the only real understanding being that of the dancer.
As I mentioned before, Butoh was born as a stage art. It means that the movement is always intending to go out, to- wards the public. There are exact technics to construct performance on the stage.
Does the movement of the body lead you to self-knowledge? How is that possible? How is it achieved? Is it a liberation of the spirit through the body?
Body, mind, soul, can not be separated from each other. Inside of our body they naturally have an effect on each other simultaneously. So, you have an intention to get a cup, so you move towards to a cup. The intention brings the movement and feeling of drinking, feeling the taste or weither the drink will be hot or cold... For example, I can ask you if you can reach from house 1 to house 10 by Aying or walking. Every- one of you will answer that he/she will walk. The human being has experienced walking. Because we know we can walk but we can’t Ay. This is knowing. Our body is corresponding constantly with our knowledge.
Have you experimented with another type of dance? Is there any kind of academic training, perhaps more classical than you have ever been in your life at any time?
yes, capoeira, tango, Flamenco, classic ballet barre lessons, kong-fu, Aying step, popping - break dance...
Music has always been associated with dance in general, so I ask myself about it in the Butoh, in your method Is it part of it?
yes. I like to use music. And as well stillness is music.
If you had to choose a musical instrument, what would it be? Why?
Cello. I become calm and same time emotionally touching.
Some time ago in your performance “Equilibrio Arcaico” you did a personal and unique interpretation of flamenco, a Spanish artistic expression that includes dance, singing and guitar playing. Something very internal is also expressed here, it's very profound. What do you think of flamenco?
deep!! Flamenco connects people through emotion.
Do you think there is a difference between women and men in a method of artistic expression such as Butoh?
every one, every person is different. This is not about man or women.
When we studied Butoh dance, its birth, history and evolution, being something very contemporary, we logically associated it with Japanese culture, but I wonder if apart from its place of birth and why is the butoh dance really something inherent to Japan and if so, what links would you establish between it and other expressions of Japanese art and culture?
Butoh comes from Japan. It was inspired by Japanese folks dance or Noh-Theater and Kabuki Theater. Butoh can not talk without those traditional Japanese dances. But this is the past history of how Butoh dancers have been starting dancing. Now Butoh is contemporary art. In our present global world, Butoh as a contemporary art is evolving as a natural phenomenona. I am Japanese, but I am living since 33 years in Europe. Travelling and working all around the world. When I move into the world, I am asking myself who am I and where do I come from? My question is bringing me to look deeply into myself. What do I really want? The answer is my performance.
In a performance, in a festival or theatre and given that we are dealing with a very intense artistic expression, what is the audience's reaction? Do they participate at any time?
yes, it is intense participation from audience.
What is real darkness in butoh dance?, darkness can be shadow and there is no shadow without light. Do you dance in darkness and with it? Or do you seek light from darkness, from shadow? Because I wonder if butoh is a dance of darkness or of shadow.
Light produces the shadow. Shadow supports the light. Because our eyes goes naturally towards to light. It means that we can’t talk about light without shadow. And shadow will not exist without light.
Are your choreographies designed with a speci4c objective or improvisations as a result of a previous emotion?
How to be real, expressing fresh emotions at each performance with the same choreography : this is what a professional is able to do.
Are there rules to your method? I'm referring to the fact that what we've studied seems that being an avant-garde art, the butoh doesn't want to be “classi4ed”. What do you think about it?
The main thought comes from Zen. Why Butoh does not classiGes this meaning? A place that is not a word, a meaning that can not be explained in words, how to understand these and make it their own. Zen started from a question that can be said to be fundamental. We want to reaHrm our way of living in pursuit of the essence that goes beyond the frame of religion
What do you think about women in the world of dance, in the world of art in general, and in our current world? It seems that after so many struggles to scale in rights and recognition, we are now in a kind of strange involution.
In the dance workshop, 80% of participants are women. I see women taking more freedom to move and express their feelings.
In the method created by you there is talk of fusion. Also of other arts?
yes. When I am interested to collaborate or working with another art, why not to work with it?
I can't forget to ask you about your artistic references in general, both in the world of dance and in other arts.
The puppet Glm called Street Crocodile from the Quay brothers. And I also learn so much from all kinds of plant.
What are you working on right now?
Human Form 1 and Human Form 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLOEpC16g64&t=10s Human Form 2 is a brand new piece. So, the Glm is not ready yet.
Maybe this statement is bold on my part but I see your dance as a kind of body poetry, and that leads me to poetry itself, and to wonder if there is any poet or poetess that you would like to mention, some inspiration, or perhaps your own poetry to be part of our discovery about you.
Dance „When inside of you a hungry parasite makes itself noticed by its greedy chewing noise, living from your memories. Then also feed it with your body, constantly growing, until it has de- voured all of you. Then let it dance“ That is all. (Minako Seki)
I want to thank you for your time, for sharing with all our readers and for giving the world a piece of art in motion. Thank you!
http://minakoseki.com/aboutme/
Jo García Garrido