Word: bugaku
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...Choreographer George Balanchine, the dancers of the Japanese Imperial Household, who made an American tour three years ago, offered more than an unfamiliar art form. They gave him a novel idea: Why not apply the technique of the classic Western ballet to the spirit and music of Bugaku, the Japanese court dance? Bugaku's 1,200-year-old tradition of "noble music" left Balanchine unawed, and Composer Toshiro Mayuzumi was asked to write "some Japanese-flavored music" that Balanchine could set to dancing. Last week, with the New York City Ballet's premiere of the new Bugaku, Balanchine...
Sexual Fantasy. Bugaku opens on an empty stage suggestive of a court or an arena. The music begins with atonal violin glissandos so delicately feline that the sight of the first dancer coming on stage is a silent shock-like a slipper thrown at a cat. Five girls dance alone in a ritualistic largo, then five men replace them, moving with the elaborate logic of karate fighters. Each gesture is answered with architectural symmetry, each movement implies a countermovement...