The Ageing Body in Dance – What Goes Beyond Dance

Artistic director of the Butoh Company KIRAZA and director of the Ima Tenko Butoh Studio. From 1980 to 1994, she was a member of the Butoh company Byakkosha. In 2000, she established her own Butoh company under the name Kiraza. In 2005, her company went on a tour to Europe, including performances in Spain, France, and Germany. From 2007 to 2016, her company performed at the historical Gojo Rakuen Kaburenjo Theatre in Kyoto on a regular basis. From 2016 to 2020, she performed a long-run performance of her solo work "Hisoku" at the Kyoto Butoh Kan Theater, a specialized theater for Butoh. In 2019, commemorating her 60th birthday, she created the performance “YAMI NO TSUYA” at Pontocho Kaburenjo in Kyoto.

In 2020, she was awarded an Excellency Award for her Butoh Performance "Diamond" (held at UrBANGUILD, Kyoto) at the 75th edition of the National Arts Festival organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan. In 2025, her company will premiere the Kiraza Butoh Performance "Blood of Coral" at UrBANGUILD in Kyoto.
She explores and expands the boundaries between art and herself within the avant-garde field of butoh. Her art is underpinned by “tamafuri”-the act of “reviving the soul”—a practice found in the origins of Japanese performing arts.
 

Reginald Lefebvre was born in Corsica and began his dance training at the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse in Bastia before joining the École Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower in 2008.

In 2012 he graduated from the Rudra Béjart Lausanne ballet academy and moved to Madrid for one year to study at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila. Having completed his training, he joined the Youth Company IT Dansa in Barcelona in 2013, where he had the opportunity to work with a large variety of choreographers including Alexander Ekman, Rafael Bonachela, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jiří Kylián, and Nacho Duato among others.

Subsequently, Reginald moved to Germany and worked with Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart for five seasons, performing repertoire by choreographers such as Hofesh Shechter, Ohad Naharin, Marco Goecke, Shahar Binyamini, Cayetano Soto, Nadav Zelner, Barack Marshall, Andonis Foniadakis, Eyal Dadon, and many others. In 2021, he is thrilled to join the ensemble of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
 

Julie Anne Stanzak was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up in New Orleans, taking ballet classes and attending summer schools that were taught by renowned teachers in the US.

In 1976 she went to Chicago to join the Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet under Maria Tallchief. After auditioning for various ballet companies in Europe, Rudi van Danzig invited her to join Het National Ballet in Amsterdam, where she remained from 1979 to 1986, dancing in their extensive and diverse repertoire. During this time, Julie watched Pina Bausch’s creation process for a piece for the 1982 Holland Dance Festival and was fascinated by the ensemble and its unique atmosphere.

Julie has been a permanent member of the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal since 1986 and has danced in more than 30 of Pina Bausch’s pieces. She now also assists in the restaging of Pina’s repertoire and is a rehearsal director. She directs workshops, educational activities and publicity projects for the Tanztheater, while also assisting in numerous ventures by the Pina Bausch Foundation.
 

Noh master, Shitekata actor, Kita School
Born in Kyoto in 1935. From early childhood, he received training exclusively from his father, Ginji Takabayashi. In 1971, he became a professional actor of the Kita School of Noh. Since April 1982, he has continued to present the "Kita School Yūsen Noh" performances in Kyoto, which carry a 400-year tradition, dedicating himself to the dissemination of Noh, the preservation of its traditions, and the cultivation of successors. His stage debut was in 1938 as a child performer in "Asukagawa." He performed three prominent old-woman roles: "Sotoba Komachi" in 1998, "Ōmu Komachi" in 2009, and "Obasute" in 2012. In 2016, he retired from performing the main role (shite) after his final performance in "Eguchi."
 

Dr. Nanako Nakajima is a dance scholar and dramaturg. She received the Special Commendation of the Elliott Hayes Award in 2017 for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy from the Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas. She has worked with festivals, theatres, and universities, where she integrates her research on ageing into dance. She was a Valeska-Gert Visiting Professor for the 2019/20 academic year at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and is currently an Associate Professor in dance studies at Waseda University, Japan. Her publications include The Aging Body in Dance (Routledge, 2017), Oi to Odori (Keiso Shobo Publisher, 2019). She is currently preparing for her monograph, Dance Dramaturgies of Aging (Routledge, 2025).