ATELIER BENI
Creating unique works
since 1987

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Alelier Beni was founded in 1987 in Tokyo by Tadashi Okamura and young artists to search for possibility to built a quite new performing art. The unique aspect of the group was that almost all members concerned fine art except Okamura. He was working as a scientist and had experience of learning butoh with Tastumi Hijikata who is its initiator. Such a rare combination might provided fertile soil where new kind of artistic creation was generated. They showed series of works as the result of the experimental studies on body-mind based on Okamura's thoughts about butoh, which were relevant to their inherent expression.

In 1991, Tadashi Okamura began to introduce his new methods to the group to create advanced performance, and at the same time the group was reorgnized as a butoh troup. For about ten years, they showed variety of unique perfomances at small theatres in Tokyo which were familiar spots for butoh. They used to perform butoh with numbers of members of the group. However, they gradually changed their performances to be organized compactly since indivisual situations did not permit to keep the initial scale.

Bigining of this 21 century was time to open the groupe for collaboration. They carried out collaborative performances with both domestic and oversea artists with different backgrounds. On these days Tadashi Okamura teaches his butoh to new comers with variety of nationalities. He welcomes not only butoh students and collaborators but also to have talks with people who are interested in butoh by means including the internet.

　

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