Rebellious Bodies Festival brings Japanese butoh masters to London and Newcastle
The Rebellious Bodies Festival is back this autumn, bringing five Japanese butoh dancers to the UK, including the legendary Mitsuyo Uesugi, who returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years.
Butoh is an avant-garde form of dance that started in Japan in the late 1950s, and this year’s festival centres on dancers from the lineage of one of its founders, Kazuo Ohno.
At The Place in London, An Evening of Butoh Performance (Fri 13 Nov, 7.30pm) features four Japanese works, including Uesugi’s A Requiem for Her. The next night (Sat 14 Nov, 7.30pm), all five artists join together for Mother Forest, an ensemble piece paying tribute to Ohno. Tickets are £22 (£18 concessions), with a discount if you book both. Mother Forest then plays Dance City in Newcastle on Tue 17 Nov at 7.30pm, with tickets from £14.50.
If you fancy trying it yourself, there’s also a full-day workshop led by all five artists, with no butoh experience needed (adults 18+). It’s at The Place on Sun 15 Nov (£80 / £60 concessions) and at Dance City on Tue 18 Nov (£40 / £25 concessions).
The festival also includes screenings of Ohno’s Mr. O film trilogy in London, including the UK premiere of Mandala of Mr. O at Goldsmiths on Fri 30 Oct (free, reservation required). Mr. O’s Book of the Dead shows at The Garden Cinema on Thu 12 Nov at 8pm (£15 / £12 members), followed by a talk with Uesugi.
You can find tickets and full details at theplace.org.uk and dancecity.co.uk.
Mother Forest
Mother Forest is a striking once-in-a-lifetime ensemble piece, in which three generations of butoh lineage come together in an homage to Kazuo Ohno (one of the key founding figures of butoh) and his philosophy of dance as something spontaneous and unrepeatable. The group is led by Mitsuyo Uesugi, who trained and performed alongside Ohno for several decades, and she is joined by four extraordinary artists: Makiko Takamatsu, Seiji Tanaka and the MUTSUMINEIRO duo, who have each been shaped by Uesugi’s practice whilst bringing their own fierce, distinctive voices to this living continuation of Ohno’s spirit.
An Evening of Butoh Performance
An evening of four Japanese butoh performances. MUTSUMINEIRO return to the UK after their UK debut in 2025 with The Last Two, a magical duet in which their two distinct worlds collide. Seiji Tanaka’s UK debut Pulse of Absence trembles in the space between the visible and the invisible. Makiko Takamatsu’s Naked Rabbit offers a darkly playful solo inspired by one of Japan’s oldest myths. The evening culminates with A Requiem for Her, as the legendary Mitsuyo Uesugi returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years.
A Requiem for Her – Mitsuyo Uesugi
The women that reside inside my body. From mother to grandmother, moving through time. The joys, sorrows, delights and anguish of the sex that bears life. A history of love fills my body. As they sleep beneath the ground, I tread the earth and dance with them…
Butoh legend Mitsuyo Uesugi continues to defy expectations of the female body with her latest solo, as she returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years.
Naked Rabbit – Makiko Takamatsu
Once upon a time, there was a rabbit who loved to deceive. Because the rabbit did nothing but lie, it was punished and had its fur coat entirely stripped away. The world turned upside down, and the moon floating in the dark blue sky became a gaping hole, opening out into the cosmos. It was the only exit. The Naked Rabbit fell headlong into the hole in the sky.
Pulse of Absence – Seiji Tanaka
A Pulse of Absence ripples through every corner of space, between the visible and the invisible, where the tender and precious things lie. And so we move once again, to encounter that place that can only be reached through dance.
The Last Two – MUTSUMINEIRO
With breath held, the lid of the treasure box is gently opened. The hands of the clock stop, and music never heard before floods the Kingdom of The Last Two.
A pure white lake, and a twilit matsuri float. Even as the flag burns to ash, the ashes keep dancing, And every soul forms one cockerel, crying out into the void!
