This is the program for the gala performance “Hyakkaryoran” which was held in January, 2007.
“Hyakkaryoran” means that various flowers are in bloom. 22 performers from Brazil, Italy, Korea, and Japan were in bloom cerebrating Kazuo Ohno’s 100 years in Yokohama.
Among the performers, you will find Carla Fracci, the prima donna from Italy, Ismael Ivo from Brazil, the late Noh plyer, Hideo Kanze, Ushio Amagatsu from Sankaijuku, Akaji Maro, Min Tanaka and more. “Hyakkaryoran” must have been the first and the last performance that such famous performers were seen on the one stage.
In this program, you will find each performers’ short comments on Kazuo Ohno, essays by Dr.Eugenia Casini Ropa from Bologna University which establishes Kazuo Ohno Archive and by Tsuji Nobuo, an art historian, a cartoon(!) essay on Kazuo by Masako Numano and some photographs. Texts are in English and Japanese, and for the essays also in Italian. It has 30 pages. Size is 148 x 210 mm.

In Nov. 2000. Kazuo Ohno started to have difficulty to walk by himself. Furthermore he had Alzheimer’s deisease. Both events prevented him from performing in the big theater. In Jul. 2001, Gianni Di Capua, an Italian director, documented such Kazuo’s life in Japan. Kazuo danced spontaneously at the kitchen table, on the mattress in his room, or in the car as if he had a dialogue with the camera.
On the stage where he had performed many times, he said he forgot that he had danced there, and danced on the wheel chair all by himself. His existence there is breathtakingly strong.
A tie-in film “Venice, September 1999″ is a beautiful film of Kazuo’s dance in Venice also filmed by Gianni Di Capua.
“O, Kind God” is 86 minutes long in color. “Venice, September 1999″ is 7 minutes long in monochrome. Subtitles are in Italian and English. Costs 4000 yen (tax excluded). Region code All.

The “Beauty and Strength” is all about Kazuo Ohno. It is “must” to have in order to know and feel him. In about 110 minutes it is full of precious images such as “Rose Colored Dance” in 60’s, in which Kazuo performed with Tatsumi Hijikata, the movie “Mr.O’s trilogy” shot in 70’s, the premier of “Admiring La Argentina,” “The Dead Sea,” “My Mother,” interview, daily life and more.
We also are lucky enough to see the images of Argentina and Mary Wigman dancing, who were Kazuo’s muses. It has English subtitle. In color (partly monochrome). Costs 9800 yen(tax excluded). Region code 2.

This is the photo book published by Cosac & Naify, the Brazilian publisher which is famous for its art books. Amazon art paper wraps 15 color prints and a book bound in Japanese style with photographs taken by Emidio Luisi.
Kazuo Ohno performed in Brazil 3 times— in 1986, 1992, and 1997 with great success. Emidio Luisi has taken the photos on the first day of the first performance in 1986, and the last day of the last performance in 1997 in Brazil. Rare shots of the make-up process will draw your interest.
Texts are in English. It also contains essays by Emidio Luisi and Antunes Filho, and interviews with Kazuo Ohno. You will find 82 black and white photos in the book. Size is 200 x 265 mm.

This book surveys Kazuo Ohno’s 100 years with 165 photographs, some critics, poems, Kazuo’s letters in 50’s, and chronology.
Kazuo Ohno is now 102 years old. This book is so rare that it makes it possible to survey one’s 100 years’ life while he is still alive. Through photographs you will relive Kazuo’s life — his childhood, the years of gymnastic teaching, the war time, the modern dance years, the days he was influenced by Tatsumi Hijikata, the years he was off the stage and got absorbed in making films, the premier of “Admiring La Argentina” when he was 71 years old, and many tours abroad after on…. He was so thankful to meet many people all over the world. Around age 95, he danced only with his hands on the wheel chair.
From the letters in 50’s, which are made public for the first time, you can feel Kazuo’s endless passion to dance. And the photograph that Pina Bausch kisses Kazuo Ohno on the wheel chair in the theater in Tokyo is so precious.
Texts are only in Japanese.

This is the memoir of Kazuo Ohno’s centenary year which started on Oct. 2006.
Among the various events which celebrated Kazuo Ohno’s centenary in and outside of Japan, this book focuses on 4 events. In Kazuo Ohno Festival 2006, the fan gathered to cerebrate Kazuo’s 100th birthday.
In gala performance “Hyakkaryoran,” audience was content with wonderful performances by 22 famous performers from many different genres from Japan and other countries. “Kazuo Ohno: one hundred years of Dance” was the exhibition hosted by the Bologna City Archeological Museum. And Kazuo Ohno Festival 2007 was held as 30th anniversary of the first staging of “Admiring La Argentina.”
Many people paid homage to Kazuo Ohno with passion through the year.
On the last page, you will find the precious picture taken by Eikoh Hosoe, in which Kazuo on the bed is with his one and a half months-years-old great-grandson Yoshiya who is full of smile.
Texts are English and Japanese. It has 64 pages. Size is 148 x 210 mm.

The DVD "KAZUO OHNOin conversation at 86" contains raw material taken for the NHK TV documentary program. In this DVD, Kazuo Ohno talks for 93 minutes with an interviewer from NHK. The interview was held in 1993, when Kazuo Ohno was 86 years old.

If you don’t understand Japanese, there is no need to worry. It has subtitle function in 5 languages; English, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese.

Kazuo begins to talk about his modern dance experience and develops various topics; about his parents, crows in the war time, a look in the dance, a man and a woman, babies, the brink of life and death, the Creation, Israel, earthworms, a clod of salt, the Dead Sea, Daniel Schmid, soul, children, joy, cosmology, dreams, Santa Claus, etc…

He says, for example
"The creation of the universe doesn’t signify the end of a process for Life and Death are inseparable. The beginning and the end are but one."
"Emotion must be ever present, full blooded emotion. This finger here can provoke an emotional response."

Kazuo Ohno speaks of each topics passionately. The words such as "the benefits of the Dead," "the brink of life and death," which you may often read in his writings, are enlivened with his natural voice and vivid emotion.

Furthermore, you will enjoy Kauo Ohno’s daily life. Thanks to the raw state of the material, it has some scenes which make us smile. The doorbell rings twice(!) and Kazuo immediately leaves the room to answer. Or Kazuo suddenly takes his comb out of his pocket and comb his hair in front of the camera.

After seeing 93 minutes interview with Kazuo, we are enlivened by his energy which drives him to keep talking, living and dancing.

It was in last March that the Crying Light won the no.1 in the Billboard Europe. Before that, I had heard the piece in Kazuo Ohno Festival 2008, last October as Antony sent the MP3 file of the Crying Light for the open call program of the festival. The program is about the inspiration of Kazuo Ohno’s workshop words. Antony generously gave the festival audience the opportunity to hear the music prior to the official release. His voice and feeling fascinated people and reminded us of Kazuo’s pathetic and humorous expressions. The following is his text offered to Kazuo:s

- Mygrandmother stands on a hill on the west coast of Ireland, she has grass and stones under her feet,and a crying child in her 8 year-old arms.
Her brothers and sisters dance around her; some are living, some are dead.
I step into The Crying Light, and I am born into the present,I fall to the floor like a newborn giraffe,diamonds bounce off my skin, my spine pours out of my eyes.
A wind from the hill sweeps through me, carrying the smell of peat, the hands of children, the unfurling dreams of ghosts and ferns in my chest.
My pores start to bloom, and a stream comes from my heart to a cup in my hand.
The sun holds me from behind and lifts the flesh from my skeleton.
My mortality flung far from me, my dusty bones dance with the dust inside the walls and beyond, the golden dust of the stars. With a gasp, my shadow gives birth to me again.

THE CRYING LIGHT

Let I
Shy Cry
Under the light
Let I
Cry sight
A child at night
I can have
Courage
To receive your love
I can
step steps
Follow my blind
Inside
Myself
The secret grows
My own
shelter
Agony goes
I was born to adore you
As a baby in the blind
I was born to represent you
To carry your head into the sun
To carve your face into the back of the sun

Waiting for the ‘Aria’ by Tiziana Longo

On 12th and 14th September 2006 three italian, two opera singer and an anthropologist from Florence, came to meet Ohno Kazuo and visit his Studio in Kamihoshikawa. When they saw ‘La Argentina’ in a TV program they couldn’t forget. After saw many stage properties when they asked Ohno Yoshito how he directs the workshop he started the cla,after for them: “ I have experienced Ohno Kazuo’s dance and Tatsumi Hijikata’s one..”. “ What is standing?”. “The eyes are looking at nothing but can see through, then dance should start from there, like in a mirror, we look inside ourself”. Eyes should cross distances and Continents and come close, penetrate. He explained about practise in the class: walking with the rose, squeezing the towel, the paper, the thread and the needle.. “ Try to put the thread into the needle carefully as you are coming inside yourself . Starting a dance is not starting a movement, the dancer come into the space”. When Yoshito Sensei started dancing his stages appearence had the impact of a standing sculpture, reminding De Chirico’s surrealist lay figure, Rodin’s ‘The thinker’, he totally deleted his figure; his body changed density like the matter changes its state, solid, liquid and finally evaporation. Ohno Yoshito has the mistery of Monnalisa’s smile with a just mili movement he can metamorphose himself and the space. Kazuo Sensei’s dance is the explosion, but Yoshito Sensei’s one is the implosion, the atomic bomb before exploded, the atom before of disintegration.

One of the opera singer made a question about voice soul and body. Yoshito Sensei answered:“In dance we have to connect with the space and the audience. In song the voice should born from the inside like a flower blooming through the audience, ‘Forte’ &‘Pianissimo’. The audience is waiting for the ‘Aria’. Kazuo Ohno use to dance ‘Aria’ at the end of the performance. The way the step, the hand, the voice comes out should reach Iraq, Israel, Brazil. It’s the way I’m trying to create my dance, feel the touch with the world. Everybody is waiting for the ‘Aria’. A beautiful building stands because of a solid base. In performance we have before to build a good base to make the building appear more beautiful. The position of the body we choose follows the criteria of arranging an ikebana. Which is the best place the flower appears most beautiful? From wherever we look at the rose, from whatever corner we look at the rose it’s beautiful. Make our axis like the stalk of the rose, make the hands like petals, the head like the core of the rose, the feet like the roots of the rose tree. It’s a way of perceiving the aestetics of art, the beauty sense. The way we create art is the way we create and melt the fiction and the reality” . He explained that through the head the dancer send and receive messages, and that for this reason the chin should be a little bit tilted down. He danced on Maria Callas’s Aria, he run and finally crouched in the position of Leonardo Da Vinci’s fetus. He peeped through the space clearing, moving the air and we could feel the breeze and crying for the depth and the beauty. His dance was the most beautiful way (base) to introduce them to Kazuo Sensei.

When they met him they kept the silence for some minute. After they said thanks to Kazuo Ohno to have create a world of delicacy and poetry. One of them sang for him. His face was enlighted and at almost 100 years old we could feel him still dancing.

2006年7月6日　大野慶人　稽古

「バラの花は、どこから見てもバラの花。
前からだけじゃない、後ろも、横も、上も、下から見ても、花。

美しい花はあるが、花の美しさはない。
自分が美しい花だということにもっと気づいて下さい。
花の美しさを演ろうとすると、美しい花を隠してしまう。

花を持つのは、からだの芯をつくるため。
花は天界からのメッセージを受ける。
頭頂もそう。頭頂の目。
根は限りなく闇へ伸びる。
二つの力がせめぎあっているのが、からだ。

花を手に持つ時、どこに持つのか。
花と自分が離れている距離があり、花が自分に入ってくる距離がある。
それを探してください。」

”A Rose flower is a rose flower when seen from any directions.
It is a rose flower not only when it is seen from the front but also is fully and truly when seen from behind, from sides, from any directions.

There is only a beautiful flower, and no beauty of the flower exists.
Realize more deeply that you are one beautiful flower.
When you try to perform the beauty of the flower, you will end up with concealing one beautiful flower, beautiful you. ”