In collaboration with la Nouvelle Cinémathèque de la Danse
Hôsôtan is a tribute to Hôsôgami, the Japanese god of smallpox, a merciless god who bends bodies. Great butô master Hijikata is a clumsy, bent character, with protruding painful joints. On the soundtrack, the rain is falling and the wind is blowing. Other dancers join him, trying desperately to anchor themselves to the ground, re-enacting parts of Nijinski’s Faun. Keiya Ouchida’s film is a beautiful testimony of what butô was: a dark dance of resistance and survival.
