IN THE PLAY OF LEELAリーラの遊びのなかで

Virginie Marchand's tribute to Kazuo Ohno
Credits: Virginie Marchand (Installation + performance concept.), Jonas Mekas (camera),
Zoltan Hauville (camera), Robert Weddle (on screen pianist), Tommy Rogers (poet + music performer),
Jay Pasquale Greco + DJ TeeM (DJ), Ji-Bêt (VJ), Agustín Schang (installation coordinator)

IN THE PLAY OF LEELA
Virginie Marchand's tribute to Kazuo Ohno.
Oct.24th (Tue) at SuperDeluxe MAP
B1F 3.1.25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031, Japan
T: 03.5412.0515 | F: 03.5412.0516
open 19:00 | 1500 yen
Press dossier:
Kazuo Ohno is the most celebrated and influential performer of the generation of the butoh dancers who emerged from Japan in the latter half of the 20th century. When in 1977, after a ten-year pause he reemerged with his own definite butoh style, Kazuo named his performance "Admiring La Argentina".. When asked about the title he revealed that when he was twenty three he saw "La Argentina" dance in Tokyo and was so taken by it that he decided to become a dancer. La Argentina was the stage name of the famous Argentinean dancer, Antonia Mercé.
In the Fall of 2005, Virginie Marchand, a filmmaker and a butoh dancer came to Japan to film some scenes for her feature fiction film, EPILEPTIC OPERA BUTOH, and to reconnect with her childhood. She spent the first five years of her life in Japan. Jonas Mekas, the filmmaker, came with her as one of the two cameramen /Zoltan Hauville was the other cameraman/. There was another reason for coming to Japan: Kazuo Ohno had agreed to dance with Virginie Marchand for the film.
The first meeting/dance between Virginie Marchand and Kazuo Ohno took place on October 27th, Kazuo's ninety-ninth birthday. The meeting and the dance were spontaneous and very moving. The two dancers immediately connected through the butoh language. Two more intense dance sessions, each lasting over three hours, took place in November. A beautiful connection developed between the two dancers. The youth and the old age met and connected through butoh in the most beautiful, subtle and loving way that only art can foster.
The first installation/performance, presented at the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente was conceived by Virginie Marchand as a loving tribute/love letter to both, Kazuo Ohno and La Argentina. The installation was made up from footage of Kazuo/Virginie dances. There was a live dance performance during
the installation by Virginie Marchand. Jonas Mekas and Zoltan Hauville filmed the performance and their footage was incorporated via VJ into the projections during the performance. This was the world premiere of the installation / performance and also Virginie Marchand¹s first public appearance as a butoh dancer.
Virginie Marchand refers to her upcoming project
IN THE PLAY OF LEELA to be presented in Tokyo:
"I came back last year to Japan to see and film the town where I grew up.
I met Kazuo Ohno for his ninety-ninth birthday and I danced with him at his home.
We both were so moved by the dance that we decided to dance for two more evenings.
Our dance did not need make-up or costumes, everything was already there: life with light, rhythm of blood, of breath, of the eyelashes. We were in the here and now of the butoh.
The homage in Buenos Aires was a homage to Kazuo Ono and Antonia Mercé. It was an installation consisting of videos, two DJs, a singer, a VJ, and Jonas Mekas and Zoltan Hauville as cameramen who followed and showed precisely how the dance was taking over the body. This is because the expression of the dance sometimes is so minimal for the audience to see: the camera is needed to perceive it, and this method of filming the dance, showing exactly where the dance is happening was possible after two years of training/filming, almost every day, with Jonas. We watched the tapes; I explained where the emotion was taking place and where it wasn't. And we arrived at the best way of filming a dance so that it would be seen at its deepest. We went through the same process with Zoltan, the other cameraman.
Here, in Tokyo, the installation will be conceived the same way, but different videos will be screened, and with new sound, and new energy. It will also be full of images from India and Japan, images of some people with no direct link to Kazuo. To give my best, my heart needs to be surrounded by a team of people I love, with videos made in the countries that are for me full of memories for me, by the sounds I feel close to, with no separation between myself and everything around me. To be true, no more consciousness, nothing more than my soul, in order to connect with love, and with Kazuo Ohno."
Credits:
Virginie Marchand: installation + performance concept.
Jonas Mekas: camera.
Zoltan Hauville: camera.
Robert Weddle: on screen pianist.
Tommy Rogers: poet + music performer.
Jay Pasquale Greco + DJ TeeM: DJ.
Ji-Bêt: VJ.
Agustín Schang: installation coordinator.
Contact information: Agustín Schang
agustin_schang@yahoo.com.ar
Virginie Marchand
Film-maker and Butoh dancer.
First Grade school in Japan. Presently lives between Paris and Brooklyn.
Epileptic nocturnal.
Father a surgeon. Mother "schizophrenic bent on hallucination", Ikebana artist.
Adopted father: orchestra and "metrise" conductor.
Adopted mother: musician and singer of Seventeenth century music.
Bachelor in Philosophy, College of Caen, France.
School for Painting and Trompe l'oeil, Nantes.
Diploma with "special mention for sensitivity," School of Beaux Arts.
A book of poetry that includes 33 short novels, "Funny Brain".
Five short and medium movies under the title FAITH 2002/03 premiered in November 2005 in New York.
A feature fiction film SWEDISH BLOOD, shot in Brooklyn in 2004 now in
sound post production.
EPILEPTIC OPERA BUTOH, a feature fiction film, scenario and dance by Virginie Marchand and cameramen Jonas Mekas (hand-held camera) and Zoltan Hauville (trypod), with the special and beautiful appearance of Kazuo Ohno, in editing.
LOVE ON THE BEAT, three dances, Kazuo Ohno / Virginie Marchand, 2005.
Feature, in editing.