The company Tomoe Shizune & Hakutobo

The company Tomoe Shizune & Hakutobo was established in 1987. It is run by Tomoe Shizune, who is in charge of stage direction, choreography, music and art for all of its performances. Master Tomoe is the only one among the butoh dancers who studied with butoh founder Hijikata Tatsumi who faithfully inherited and then further developed the art form, creating the Tomoe Butoh method, the first contemporary all-round stage-art method in Japan. The company has collaborated with artists in many different genres, including jazz, rock, classical music, traditional Japanese arts, opera, video, fine art and modern dance. The troupe has created experimental pieces on the theme of ‘multimedia and the body’ combining tools such as TV screens, telephone systems, Internet and motion capture. In recent years, the company has promoted butoh as an ‘open art’, actively offering pro bono performances at venues such as schools and welfare facilities.

More information: http://www.tomoe.com/index_e.html