Butoh at its roots. AKIRA KASAI "Dancing Chopin"

About the event

Dancing Chopin, Akira Kasai There is simply something in Chopin's piano works that irresistibly attracts and fascinates me. Something I would like to reach, but the more I desire it, the more I distance myself from his music. My ten fingers cannot extract Chopin's masterpiece from the piano; they are incapable. Beethoven's piano works have spread through my body like vast plains. So much so that I can even stand in their center. But Chopin's music does not exist within me. It is always drawn from Chopin himself. So elegant and so light as non-being. So pure and so inflamed with emotion. Chopin, before he became a composer, like his father Mikołaj, was a rebel. He fought with all his being against the forces threatening Poland. Four years ago, on New Year's Eve, I danced to three very fast piano pieces by Chopin, including the "Revolutionary Etude." On New Year's Day, I couldn't even get up. I learned to take steps, one meter a day. Finally, after a year, I started walking normally again. During that year of stepping step by step, it was as if I was reborn. Everything changed. I visited Poland for the first time forty-six years ago. The bus from the airport to the hotel in Warsaw drove through a forest completely immersed in darkness. To this day, I vividly remember only that darkness. And now again, here in Poland, I stand in the darkness. What awaits me? It is impossible to predict. I turn to him, only to him, to Chopin! --- After the performance, we invite you to meet the artist. --- AKIRA KASAI is one of the pioneers of butō and one of the most outstanding dancers; he is also a teacher and choreographer. He began practicing butō in the 1960s. He studied under the creators of butō dance: Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, with whom he also performed. Before that, he engaged in other forms of dance. From 1971 to 1979, he ran his own dance studio – a school and ensemble – Tenshi-Kan, after which he moved to Germany, where he studied eurythmy. He returned to Japan in 1986. Eight years later, he resumed the activities of the Tenshi-Kan studio and performed in the dance spectacle Seraphita. Since then, he has been creating choreographies, performing, and teaching in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Kasai has developed his own syncretic dance style. The artist has never performed in Poland. --- Akira Kasai's performance "Dancing Chopin" is presented as part of the 28th International Festival of Performing Arts ROZDROŻE 2025. https://www.facebook.com/events/2941787069501596/ --- Funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund, as part of the "Dance" program implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.