Speaking in Tokyo a year ago, Josef Nadj, one of the most respected choreographers in the contemporary dance world, said that for his next project in Japan he wanted to create something playful for the audiences in collaboration with Japanese dancers and Japanese culture. The 49-year-old Yugoslav-born resident of France had already come to Japan with his productions of "Woyzeck" in 2000 and "Habacuc's Commentaries" in 2001. Now, as promised, he has returned with a work titled "Asobu (Play)" that he's created with four male Butoh artists, two female Japanese contemporary dancers and nine European dancers.
It is not the first time "Asobu" has been performed, having been presented at the prestigious Festival d'Avignon in France last summer, where Nadj was appointed an "associate artist." The Japan Times spoke with with the cast's four butoh dancers -- Ikko Tamura (29), Yusuke Okuyama (29), Pijin Neji (26) and Tomoshi Shioya (27), who dance with the Tokyo-based Dairakudakan company under butoh master Akaji Maro, after they recently returned from a two-month European tour.
How did this project start?