An evening of butoh performance
Rebellious Bodies Festival
About An evening of butoh performance
LIMITED EARLY BIRD TICKETS AVAILABLE. BUY TICKETS FOR MOTHER FOREST AS WELL TO RECEIVE A FESTIVAL DISCOUNT*
Rebellious Bodies Festival comes to London for two nights of radical Japanese butoh dance. Butoh is an avant-garde dance form born of fierce experimentation in post-war Japan, and this festival aims to hold true to that spirit, bringing five contemporary Japanese butoh dancers to the UK.
This evening features four short butoh performances. MUTSUMINEIRO return to the UK after a sell-out performance in 2025 with The Last Two, a magical duet in which their two distinct worlds collide. Seiji Tanaka’s UK debut Pulse of Absence trembles in the space between the visible and the invisible. Makiko Takamatsu's Naked Rabbit offers a darkly playful solo inspired by one of Japan's oldest myths. The evening culminates with A Requiem for Her, as the legendary Mitsuyo Uesugi, 76, returns to The Place for the first time in 46 years, when she performed alongside Kazuo Ohno.
*The Early Bird discount applies at checkout. The Rebellious Bodies Festival discount applies at checkout when both shows are added to your basket
About Rebellious Bodies Festival
Rebellious Bodies Festival comes to London for two nights of radical Japanese butoh dance. Butoh is an avant-garde dance form born of fierce experimentation in post-war Japan, and this festival aims to hold true to that spirit, bringing five contemporary Japanese butoh dancers to the UK.
About Mitsuyo Uesugi
Mitsuyo Uesugi was born in Fukuoka in 1950 and trained in classical ballet before moving to Tokyo in 1967. At twenty, she became a student of butoh founder Kazuo Ohno, appearing in his experimental film Mr. O's Book of the Dead (1973) and performing in his European tour in 1980. She went on to establish herself as one of the first female solo butoh dancers, creating work that continues to explore the depths of the body across five decades of performance. Winner of the Dance Critics Society of Japan Award (2009). Recent work includes Melancholia - A Portrait of M at Theatre X, Tokyo in 2024.
About Makiko Takamatsu
Makiko Takamatsu graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in film, winning the Kirin Art Award in 2001 for her 16mm work Idleness Dada Theater. As a student she danced at Shogun, the show club founded by butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata, before beginning her study under Mitsuyo Uesugi in 2002. Solo butoh performance is the heart of her practice. She premiered Naked Rabbit in 2023, and created the video work for Uesugi's Melancholia - A Portrait of M in 2024. She is the sole dancer with WCN, Yokohama's improvised music collective. In 2025 received the Dance Critics Society of Japan New Artist Award for her solo work Idleness.
About Seiji Tanaka
Seiji Tanaka studied under Yoshito Ohno at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio before establishing his own Butoh Studio in his hometown of Nara in 2011. That same year he was invited to perform at the Düsseldorf Butoh Festival as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Japan-Germany relations, to critical acclaim. Since then he has toured extensively across Europe, with butoh performance and workshop tours in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2024. He continues to perform and hold workshops across Japan and throughout Europe.
About MUTSUMINEIRO
MUTSUMINEIRO is a Japanese butoh duo formed by Mutsumi and Neiro, who began collaborating in 2012 after meeting at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, where they studied under Yoshito Ohno. Mutsumi brings a background in ballet, Neiro in mime, and together they create evocative, experimental physical works deeply influenced by Mitsuyo Uesugi. Their internationally toured piece Tonight or Never... established their distinctive voice. Currently based in Norway, they continue to tour globally, sharing butoh as a living and transformative experience across cultures and audiences worldwide.
Credits
Rebellious Bodies Festival 2026 was put together with thanks to Arts Council England, The Japan Foundation - 国際交流基金 and NPO Dance Archive Network
