Kazuo Ohno

Kazuo Ohno co-founded the avant-garde dance form known as Butoh alongside Tatsumi Hijikata in the late 1950s. While Hijikata choreographed the strict physical vocabulary, Ohno provided the emotional, spiritual, and expressive heart of the movement. His deeply personal solo performances heavily defined the art form.

Kazuo Ohno's most famous and enduring solo work is *Admiring La Argentina*, which he first performed in 1977. The piece was choreographed by Tatsumi Hijikata and paid homage to the Spanish dancer Antonia Mercé. It earned Ohno the prestigious Dance Award of the Critics' Circle in Japan.

Kazuo Ohno famously continued to perform Butoh well into his 90s, long after his body had become frail. He argued that aging allowed the soul and inner experience to shine through the physical body more clearly. He performed his final stage appearance in 2007, just two years before his death at the age of 103.

Before creating Butoh, Kazuo Ohno was heavily influenced by German Expressionist dance, particularly the work of Mary Wigman and Harald Kreutzberg. He studied at a missionary school and was also deeply inspired by Christian mysticism and figures like Jesus Christ. This blend of Western expressionism and Japanese spirituality formed the basis of his movement.