Natsu Nakajima began her dance career in 1955, at age 12. At age 19, she began a collaboration with Kazuo Ohno, and at age 20, in 1963, with Tatsumi Hijikata.
Hijikata is the founder of the butoh dance movement, with its first performance in 1959, Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors). He worked with Ohno for many years and together they define the two main branches of butoh.
Hijikata represents the wild and taboo-embracing branch. He was the youngest of 9. He was suspended from school for urinating on teachers and engaged in petty crime in his early Tokyo days. He worked with images of nature and the landscape inspired by the rural Japan of is youth and the indigenous nature-based religion of Japan, Shinto.
Ohno was a Christian and represents the soulful branch of butoh. He first encountered butoh later in life, at age 53, and worked with themes of birth, death, the mother and flowers. Many butoh dancers perform at advanced age. Ohno performed unassisted into his early 90's, and sometimes in a wheelchair in his late 90's, passing at age 103.
Initially butoh was entirely made by male dancers. Nakajima was the first female dancer with whom Hijikata worked. At age 26, she formed her own group, Muteki-sha (Fog Horn Dance Company). For a few years, Hijikata choreographed works for Muteki-sha.
After his performance, Nikutai no Hanran (Revolt of the Flesh), Hijikata undertook a four year reexamination of butoh. He returned to visit his home town in rural Japan. His meditations on the female spirit, including his lost sisters, who had been sold or married to feed the family, in the period of famine of his childhood, weighed upon him. In 1972, he formed the first all female butoh group, Hakutobo, with his lover, Yoko Ashikawa, and other women with no previous dance background.
Meanwhile, Nakashima carried on her own work, including a collaboration again in 1976 with Hijikata, Sorewa Konoyouna Yoru datta (It was a Night Like This).
Nakashima's signature work is Niwa (The Garden), first performed in 1982. It has been continuously adapted to the present time. "Niwa is a forgotten garden, very tiny, very Japanese. I wanted to see my life from the perspective of a woman seated in the garden, watching it bloom and wither." She has also made stunning and moving works with untrained intellectually and physically disabled dancers.
At age 69, she teaches regularly in Tokyo and travels internationally to perform. This week she offers a series of workshops in Portland. Opportunities to work with Nakashima are Wednesday-Friday from 7PM-9 and Saturday 12PM-3. Registration information and details are at www.theheadwaters.net/?service=natsu-nakajima-intensive-butoh-workshop At the Headwaters Theater, by www.witdpresents.com 55 NE Farragut St. #9. The theater is in the back of the building by the railroad tracks facing Winchell Street.