MOTHER FOREST
SØNDAG 22. NOVEMBER 2026
UTBYGDA GRENDEHUS, TJØME︎︎︎18:00
Billetter: kr 150
Utbygda Grendehus, Bjørnevågveien 7, 3145 Tjøme
Parkering nedenfor Grendehuset og de som kan gå ti minutter kan parkere ved Moutmarka.
Mother Forest is a performance featuring MUTSUMINEIRO, Mitsuyo Uesugi, Makiko Takamatsu, and Seiji Tanaka. A collaboration between Rebellious Bodies (UK), the Kazuo Ohno Dance Archive, and APARTE.
Performance title: Mother Forest
Length: 60 minutes (approx)
Performance type: Group performance (5 dancers)
Five extraordinary Japanese butoh dancers come together for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Mother Forest is a striking once-in-a-lifetime ensemble piece, in which three generations of butoh lineage come together in an homage to Kazuo Ohno (one of the key founding figures of butoh) and his philosophy of dance as something spontaneous and unrepeatable. The group is led by Mitsuyo Uesugi, who trained and performed alongside Ohno for several decades, and she is joined by four extraordinary artists: Makiko Takamatsu, Seiji Tanaka and the MUTSUMINEIRO duo, who have each been shaped by Uesugi’s practice whilst bringing their own fierce, distinctive voices to this living continuation of Ohno's spirit.
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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 (performing alongside him at The Place theatre in London). 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 Mat Theatre X, Tokyo in 2024.
Makiko Takamatsu graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in film, winning the Kirin Art Awardin 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. Her solo work Naked Rabbit premiered in 2023. She also created the video work for Uesugi's Melancholia - A Portrait of M in 2021. 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.
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.
http://web1.kcn.jp/seijitanaka/
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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.
https://www.mutsumineiro.com/
Supported by Arts Council UK, Japan Foundation, Norsk kulturråd.
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Performance title: Mother Forest
Length: 60 minutes (approx)
Performance type: Group performance (5 dancers)
Five extraordinary Japanese butoh dancers come together for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Mother Forest is a striking once-in-a-lifetime ensemble piece, in which three generations of butoh lineage come together in an homage to Kazuo Ohno (one of the key founding figures of butoh) and his philosophy of dance as something spontaneous and unrepeatable. The group is led by Mitsuyo Uesugi, who trained and performed alongside Ohno for several decades, and she is joined by four extraordinary artists: Makiko Takamatsu, Seiji Tanaka and the MUTSUMINEIRO duo, who have each been shaped by Uesugi’s practice whilst bringing their own fierce, distinctive voices to this living continuation of Ohno's spirit.
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 (performing alongside him at The Place theatre in London). 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 Mat Theatre X, Tokyo in 2024.
Makiko Takamatsu graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in film, winning the Kirin Art Awardin 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. Her solo work Naked Rabbit premiered in 2023. She also created the video work for Uesugi's Melancholia - A Portrait of M in 2021. 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.
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.
http://web1.kcn.jp/seijitanaka/
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.
https://www.mutsumineiro.com/
Supported by Arts Council UK, Japan Foundation, Norsk kulturråd.
We are on the brink of stepping into a new realm, towards the Mother Forest...
This is an homage to the butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.
Half a century ago... Perhaps even longer.
At the rehearsal studio in Kamihoshikawa, Mr. O opened a book of Bosch paintings: “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, “The Last Judgement”... He held his hand over the pages, tenderly tracing the images with his fingers. “I am in here. Hidden within everything. This is the kind of dance I want to do.”
Mr. O’s soul was parched. I spent so long in that space with him.
Do we have the courage to take this on now?
No, no doubts. Our chance has come. There is nothing to fear.
Because this project has now begun, and while we have our generational differences, Mr. O’s ideas are etched into our bodies
Growing as Desire.
Let us play on the palm of Mr. O’s hand, clinging to each finger
With our own thirst and passion, mayhaps even to a world of despair.
But now, let us be led, delicately, boldly,
into a world of fables, brimming with mystery.
“The world is created within this transparent glass sphere.”*
— Mitsuyo Uesugi
*from Kambara Masaaki's Reading Bosch's 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'
