Butoh dancer Yuko Kaseki and ballet-based Megumi Eda present their first collaborative dance work, DIVINE, inspired by tragic tales of two wronged and resilient women: ballet’s “Giselle” and the classic Kabuki ghost story “Oiwa.”

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These two dancers, with their radically different approaches to movement, assume characters plagued with discomfort and instability in unfamiliar, distorted bodies.As these two figures from different worlds meet, they cross paths in sympathy with each other but are filled with confusion and feel the dissonance of their different realities.

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Their suffering and persistence echo the paths of Giselle and Oiwa and countless other women whose divine spirits have endured objectification, coercion, and violence in images and lives not of their own choosing or making.

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Concept, Direction, Performance: Yuko Kaseki & Megumi Eda

Music Composition: Reiko Yamada (using voice samples of Ilona Schneider)

Language: Japanese, English, German

Duration: 70 Min.

World premiere May 28, 2023 at Dock 11 Berlin

This work is supported by a commission from CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing), and Theaterhaus Mitte Berlin.