SAYOKO ONISHI / LIVIO MINAFRA

Livio Minafra: piano and more
Sayoko Onishi: dance

A dancer who plays. A musician who dances.

Sayoko Onishi is the creater of the New Butoh dance, a method that blends the roots of classical Butoh dance with contemporary dance and other disciplines. She danced all over the world and currentry, she founded the New Butoh School in Italy together with Mimma di Vittorio and is regular choreographer in Man’ok & Cie in France.

Livio Minafra did not invent a style but has one of his own, decidedly parallel to Onishi, where classical music meets improvisation, contemporary music, ethnic music.

Born for Miniature, the festival of the Associazione per la diffusione della danza New Butoh in Italy, the duo bases its approach on the hic et nunc, absolutely inspired by here and the moment. Without rehearsals, without agreements and without pre-made songs or scenes. A spirit that recalls the freedom of a certain type of avant-garde jazz, often inclined encounters with dance. The dance aims to be free from any kind of style and form for this spirit.

A strong and fragile duo, true and open-minded, which brings to mind Peter Kowald or Misha Mengelberg’s Instant Composers Pool.