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 Ohno was credited along with Tatsumi Hijikata as a founder of Butoh
-- a dance form characterized by slow movements executed in a low
crouched stance and often performed in whiteface. He died Tuesday of
respiratory failure, Japanese media reports said.
Ohno was one of the chief players in the formative years of Butoh,
starting in the late 1950s. Butoh is now studied all over the world.
Among Ohno's signature pieces was "Admiring La Argentina," a solo
originally directed by Hijikata in which Ohno pays homage to and
impersonates Spanish dancer Antonia Merce, whom Ohno saw as a
student and deeply admired.
Over the years, Ohno has influenced every Butoh performer, including
the U.S.-based Eiko and Koma, a pair of dancers who studied with
Ohno at his Yokohama studio.
"He was a miraculously extraordinary dancer who taught us the lesson
that existence is a fragile state of nonexistence," said Akaji Maro,
leader of the Tokyo-based dance troupe Dairakudakan. "May he
continue to shed light as a spiritual guardian for all young Butoh
dancers."
Unlike Hijikata's performances, dominated by themes of violence and
defiance, Ohno's messages in his dance were gently whimsical but
equally provocative and daring in raising questions about
definitions of beauty and death.
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 Ohno was born on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, a son of
a fisherman. He began to study dance after graduating from college
in the 1930s, including under Japanese modern dancer Baku Ishii.
Ohno was active in his 70s and 80s, performing in the United States,
Europe and elsewhere. He remained determined to perform even in his
90s, so that he "danced" seated in a chair.
Wearing long dresses and fancy hats, sometimes a tattered kimono,
Ohno appeared on stage, often curling his body, contorting his face
and bending his arms crookedly.
Yet, at the same time, he would transform into a graceful, eternally
beautiful woman in the essence of his statements and otherworldly
presence.
"Both strength and kindness were expressed in his works. He
delivered hope through dance," Eikoh Hosoe, a photographer who
documented Ohno for a half-century, told The Nikkei newspaper. "We
have lost a giant jewel."
Funeral arrangements were undecided. He is survived by his son,
dancer and collaborator Yoshito Ohno, another son Yukito Nagatani,
his brother Masao Ohno, two sisters Sachi Shigeno and Fujiko Ohbe,
and three grandsons, according to his dance studio office.
[Associated
Press; By YURI KAGEYAMA]
Copyright 2010 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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