Please join us for a very special evening with Natsu Nakajima - one of the first ladies of butoh, and a foundational figure in 20th century dance and physical theater. The focus of this lecture will be Natu’s extensive work with disabled dancers in Japan and beyond. This may be Natsu’s last visit to Portland, so we are incredibly honored to be hosting this incredible dance legend one final time.

ABOUT NATSU
Natsu Nakajima (b. 1943 Sakhalin) has been one of the most prominent figures in butoh dance since its foundation in Tokyo in the 1960s, and one of its foremost pioneers abroad. Training under both Hijikata Tatsumi and Kazuo Ohno, Nakajima went on to establish her own dance company, Muteki-sha, in 1969, with whom she has been performing and choreographing internationally since the early 1980s. Her highly acclaimed performance of ‘Niwa’ at LIFT ‘83 (London) marked the beginning of this international touring career, and led to performances at festivals such as FIND (Montreal), the Nancy Festival, and the Sydney Biennale. In addition to her performance and choreographic work, Nakajima has over thirty years of experience as a teacher, and has been one of the forerunners of dance for the disabled in Japan.

PAST LECTURES