The haunted path of Yoko Higashi

Extract of Butoh dance & music solo performance rehearsal for Rencontres Bandits Mages in Bourges (France), November 2015. Composed & performed by Yoko Higashi.
Picture by Brice Lollens.

YÔKO HIGASHI

Yôko Higashi was a pupil of Akiko Motofuji (the wife of Tatsumi Hijikata) and Masai Iwana, who taught her butoh. She also performs in Noh dramas with the actors Norinaga Umewaka and Manzaburô Umewaka.In 2003, after playing in numerous butoh shows, she started putting on dance performances in France, in solo or jamming with musicians.From 2004, under the stage name HamaYôko, she developped her solo career in experimental pop music, borrowing techniques from concrete music.The originality and innovation of her style have often been praised, notably on the French radio channels France Culture and France Musique.Apart from butoh, since 2007 she has played a regular part in the musicals of JeanPaul Delore.