Ko Murobushi (1947-2015) was a legendary Butoh artist whose company performed at the Pillow on a shared program with Natural Dance Theatre, both Japan-based groups making their Pillow debuts. He studied with Butoh originator Tatsumi Hijikata in the late 1960s and became universally recognized as a leading inheritor of Hijikata’s vision. Ko expressed this vision as “a way to overcome the distance between the dancer and the body, and between the body and the universe.” While Ko didn’t perform as part of his company’s program in the Doris Duke Theatre, he improvised this solo for an Inside/Out preview of the engagement. In a Post-Show Talk at the Pillow, he described his work as “…very beautiful, and also grotesque.”
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