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Greetings Butoh Tribe,
Please welcome our February 2007 highlighted artist, Bob DeNatale from NYC. I first met Bob in Olympia, WA at Olympia's first and only Butoh Festival at The Evergreen State College. I participated in his workshop there and that was back in '98, so Bob has quite a lengthy history in Butoh, theatre and other mind-body disciplines and a wealth of performing and teaching experience. Please take the time to read about Bob below and check out his links. He recently moved to NYC, his homecity, after living in San Francisco for many years. If you are in or around the NYC area be sure to stay in touch with Bob to see where he'll be performing next. He is currently settling in and establishing himself here so stay on the lookout for when he begins teaching again!
home.earthlink.net/~bdenatale/
Bob DeNatale, February 2007 Butoh Artist of the Month
1) Please tell us about yourself:
I’ve been doing butoh since 1990. On the West Coast until very recently, I have been producing solo and group performances under the rubric of my company, Flesh & Blood Mystery Theater. My main collaborator during this period has been Lenny Gonzalez, an amazing electronic musician/composer who works under the name Chango Feo (you can find him at changofeo.net).
My first butoh teachers were Hiroko and Koichi Tamano who taught very much in the Hijikata style of the late 60’s early 70’s. Having had the good fortune to be living in San Francisco at the time, I was able to study with numerous butoh artists, through the auspices of the San Francisco Butoh Festival and other producers, most importantly, over a period of many years, with Akira Kasai.
Though my first exposure to butoh was in the highly-choreographed Hijikata style, I have gravitated toward the more personalized, improvised style of butoh, exemplified by Akira Kasai and, of course, Kazuo Ono. I find this work more about ritual and personal transformation and finding my own voice, and infinitely more challenging than the more stylized and choreographed butoh, and much more satisfying to me as an artist.
I have also tried to explore Western roots of this type of performance and have been influenced by Antero Ali’s work in Ritual Theater and also Sara Shelton Mann, a modern dancer in San Francisco who is focused on performance as a means of personal transformation. Her work incorporates Body-Mind Centering, Contact Improvisation, and her own explorations in ritual and energy states.
2)How did you first begin to study butoh/why?:
As a performer, I have always been interested in performance as public ritual, influenced by Artaud, of course, and my own Catholic upbringing. I spent many years playing music in theatrical punk/art/industrial rock bands, composing music for dance pieces, and also doing a very talky form of performance art (this being the 1980’s). I began to feel both that I wanted to eliminate the distance I felt between myself and my instruments as a musician, and also that it was too easy to be insincere with words, whereas I felt (and still do) that I cannot lie with my body.
I became convinced that I wanted to use my body as a means of expression, but had no interest in modern dance or ballet. I began to explore the rather fertile Bay Area scene for performance ritual. I began to study with Sara Shelton Mann and her various Contraband dancers, as well as exploring my own approach to using my body in public ritual. This was also when I encountered the work of Antero Ali. who’s Ritual Theater has many similarities to Butoh. This is when I consider that I first started to do butoh, even though it was only about a year later that I took my first butoh class.
I had seen a Sankai Juku video some years before and was blown away by it (as most people are by their first exposure to butoh) but was always intimidated having had no experience as a dancer. But one day I saw a poster for a workshop the Tamano’s were giving (I had seen them perform by this time), and at this point, I thought, what have I got to lose? Even if I never become a great dancer, studying butoh can only make me a better performer. It didn’t take me long to realize butoh is a very different kind of art that doesn’t care you were not dancing since you were seven years old.
3)do you teach? if so, please provide info on your classes and how people can reach you - include a brief description on your teaching style
I have taught and plan to again, but have no current classes planned. I moved back to NYC a few months ago, and I’m still trying to stabilize everything else in my life. I’ll certainly let Tribe know when I am teaching again.
In my teaching I try to balance both the personal transformation aspects of the work and the performance aspects, since, for me, it is the dynamic between the two that makes the art form fascinating and keeps it from lapsing into self-indulgence. I have a restless personality and am always trying to find new avenues of exploration.
4)do you perform? any upcoming performances people can check out?
My only upcoming show I know of is an invitation-only performance in Boston February 17, but I’m actively working to line up some shows soon in the New York City area. I’ll certainly keep Tribe posted as to any upcoming shows I have.
You can keep up with my activities at my website
home.earthlink.net/~bdenatale/
5)any special butoh story you'd like to share?
I visited New York City in December 1999 to see Kazuo Ono perform a retrospective of his life’s work entitled “Requiem for the 20th Century.” It included excerpts from pieces like “Admiring La Argentina” and “My Mother,” and also featured Yoshito Ono doing choreography by Hijikata. Kazuo Ono was 93 years old, and these were his last overseas performances. I went to the performance three nights in a row. Whereas Yoshito danced the same choreography each night, his father improvised, bringing different movements different feelings, even different costumes on the last night, to each performance. The power and emotion and vulnerability and openness of his dance grew each night to a point of being almost overwhelming. He danced to the Elvis Presley song “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and as Elvis sang “Take my hand, take my whole life too,” it was clear that Kazuo was offering us everything that was left of his life, all his heart and skill and energy and memories in a selfless act of loving dance. I feel blessed to have seen it, and it is a memory I will cherish forever.
Please welcome our February 2007 highlighted artist, Bob DeNatale from NYC. I first met Bob in Olympia, WA at Olympia's first and only Butoh Festival at The Evergreen State College. I participated in his workshop there and that was back in '98, so Bob has quite a lengthy history in Butoh, theatre and other mind-body disciplines and a wealth of performing and teaching experience. Please take the time to read about Bob below and check out his links. He recently moved to NYC, his homecity, after living in San Francisco for many years. If you are in or around the NYC area be sure to stay in touch with Bob to see where he'll be performing next. He is currently settling in and establishing himself here so stay on the lookout for when he begins teaching again!
home.earthlink.net/~bdenatale/
Bob DeNatale, February 2007 Butoh Artist of the Month
1) Please tell us about yourself:
I’ve been doing butoh since 1990. On the West Coast until very recently, I have been producing solo and group performances under the rubric of my company, Flesh & Blood Mystery Theater. My main collaborator during this period has been Lenny Gonzalez, an amazing electronic musician/composer who works under the name Chango Feo (you can find him at changofeo.net).
My first butoh teachers were Hiroko and Koichi Tamano who taught very much in the Hijikata style of the late 60’s early 70’s. Having had the good fortune to be living in San Francisco at the time, I was able to study with numerous butoh artists, through the auspices of the San Francisco Butoh Festival and other producers, most importantly, over a period of many years, with Akira Kasai.
Though my first exposure to butoh was in the highly-choreographed Hijikata style, I have gravitated toward the more personalized, improvised style of butoh, exemplified by Akira Kasai and, of course, Kazuo Ono. I find this work more about ritual and personal transformation and finding my own voice, and infinitely more challenging than the more stylized and choreographed butoh, and much more satisfying to me as an artist.
I have also tried to explore Western roots of this type of performance and have been influenced by Antero Ali’s work in Ritual Theater and also Sara Shelton Mann, a modern dancer in San Francisco who is focused on performance as a means of personal transformation. Her work incorporates Body-Mind Centering, Contact Improvisation, and her own explorations in ritual and energy states.
2)How did you first begin to study butoh/why?:
As a performer, I have always been interested in performance as public ritual, influenced by Artaud, of course, and my own Catholic upbringing. I spent many years playing music in theatrical punk/art/industrial rock bands, composing music for dance pieces, and also doing a very talky form of performance art (this being the 1980’s). I began to feel both that I wanted to eliminate the distance I felt between myself and my instruments as a musician, and also that it was too easy to be insincere with words, whereas I felt (and still do) that I cannot lie with my body.
I became convinced that I wanted to use my body as a means of expression, but had no interest in modern dance or ballet. I began to explore the rather fertile Bay Area scene for performance ritual. I began to study with Sara Shelton Mann and her various Contraband dancers, as well as exploring my own approach to using my body in public ritual. This was also when I encountered the work of Antero Ali. who’s Ritual Theater has many similarities to Butoh. This is when I consider that I first started to do butoh, even though it was only about a year later that I took my first butoh class.
I had seen a Sankai Juku video some years before and was blown away by it (as most people are by their first exposure to butoh) but was always intimidated having had no experience as a dancer. But one day I saw a poster for a workshop the Tamano’s were giving (I had seen them perform by this time), and at this point, I thought, what have I got to lose? Even if I never become a great dancer, studying butoh can only make me a better performer. It didn’t take me long to realize butoh is a very different kind of art that doesn’t care you were not dancing since you were seven years old.
3)do you teach? if so, please provide info on your classes and how people can reach you - include a brief description on your teaching style
I have taught and plan to again, but have no current classes planned. I moved back to NYC a few months ago, and I’m still trying to stabilize everything else in my life. I’ll certainly let Tribe know when I am teaching again.
In my teaching I try to balance both the personal transformation aspects of the work and the performance aspects, since, for me, it is the dynamic between the two that makes the art form fascinating and keeps it from lapsing into self-indulgence. I have a restless personality and am always trying to find new avenues of exploration.
4)do you perform? any upcoming performances people can check out?
My only upcoming show I know of is an invitation-only performance in Boston February 17, but I’m actively working to line up some shows soon in the New York City area. I’ll certainly keep Tribe posted as to any upcoming shows I have.
You can keep up with my activities at my website
home.earthlink.net/~bdenatale/
5)any special butoh story you'd like to share?
I visited New York City in December 1999 to see Kazuo Ono perform a retrospective of his life’s work entitled “Requiem for the 20th Century.” It included excerpts from pieces like “Admiring La Argentina” and “My Mother,” and also featured Yoshito Ono doing choreography by Hijikata. Kazuo Ono was 93 years old, and these were his last overseas performances. I went to the performance three nights in a row. Whereas Yoshito danced the same choreography each night, his father improvised, bringing different movements different feelings, even different costumes on the last night, to each performance. The power and emotion and vulnerability and openness of his dance grew each night to a point of being almost overwhelming. He danced to the Elvis Presley song “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and as Elvis sang “Take my hand, take my whole life too,” it was clear that Kazuo was offering us everything that was left of his life, all his heart and skill and energy and memories in a selfless act of loving dance. I feel blessed to have seen it, and it is a memory I will cherish forever.
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