Productions

Author, choreographer and performer Isso Miura (Japan)

The 88-year-old Japanese Butoh master Isso Miura brings to the stage an extraordinary life experience and a deeply warm presence.

His performance speaks of the fragility and intensity of life — of every breath as a gift.
A meeting with Isso Miura is something rare and unrepeatable — time seems to stand still, offering the audience a chance to experience something profoundly human.

Sensei Isso Miura’s Butoh Philosophy

"Every time I dance, I do it with the thought that it might be my last. I enter the space with respect and calm — as if it were the final light, the final sound. There is no guarantee that the next breath will come, that the heart will keep beating. This awareness does not depend on age — people are mistaken when they believe they are immortal.

That is why every breath, every heartbeat, is a miracle — a gift. To dance now, in this very moment, without seeking meaning or reward — that is the greatest happiness.

I move in search of my body; sometimes I stop, as if in eternity. I welcome my body’s weaknesses and pains, sweat together with others, share their breath and microbes — and through silence, we enter another world.

I begin to doubt whether everyday life is truly normal. Perhaps it is this tense, conscious time within dance that is real — and the everyday world that is false and distorted.

Those brief 30 minutes on stage may be the only true moments in a day — a journey into eternity. That doubt is beautiful, and I no longer wish to return to the careless use of my body in daily life.

That is why I always want be gentle with my body. But ordinary life urges me to hurry, burying me beneath obligations and destroying stillness. That is why I long to return to dance — where moments truly meet and vibration arises — my only irreplaceable home: my own body."