General-Barby-Straße 513403 Berlin
Mobil: 0174 60 88 666
E-Mail:elektrokagura@gmail.com
Web:
http://elektrokagura.com
Youtube:
KAGURA ELEKTRODOCUMENTATION ABOUT PREVIOUS
ARTISTIC WORKELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ABOUT ARTISTIC WORKELEKTRO KAGURA
Dance / Theater / Film / Animation / Digital painting

direction/scenography

Yukihiro Ikutani
http://sankomedicalart.de/yukihiro_ikutani.html

dance/choreography

Sachiko Kunieda (aka Ichi Go)
http://ichi-go.mystrikingly.com/

music / composition

Cedric Douhaire (aka AXL OTL)
http://www.axl-otl.com

ProductionDaniela Halpick
Tomoya Kawamura

2ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ABOUT ARTISTIC WORKELEKTRO KAGURA is an interdisciplinary artists' group founded in 2016, who live and work in Berlin: Ichi Go, aJapanese female dancer, Yukihiro Ikutani, a Japanese scenographer and visual artist, and AXL OTL, a Frenchcomposer.
The aim of "ELEKTRO KAGURA" is to create a double dialogue between two epochs and two cultures through afusion of contemporary dance, digital projection and electronic music. On the one hand between the sacred dance"KAGURA" and the modern subculture, on the other hand between Japan and Europe.
In the center there‘s the transmission of KOJIKI, the oldest epic poem of Japanese mythology as historic source,
literary oeuvre and spiritual basics. The stage play “ikutaniSAN” (2016) was produced as a first part of a series
based on KOJIKI. In 2017 it continued with the play “G8.000.000”.
2018 a little distanced to the mythologic KOJIKI the novel of Abe Kobo “Woman in the Dunes” is used as a pattern
for the play “Desert Widow (Die Wüstenwitwe)“, presented at WABE and Theaterhaus Mitte.
ELEKTRO KAGURA (EK) is also interested in regional activity, has been developing in 2017 supported byDezentrale Kulturarbeit Reinickendorf an interpretation of Goethe's ballade “Erlkönig“ for the Humboldt-Library. In
January 2020 it will be presented at the Goethe Institut in Tokyo.

Live Animation “Desert Widow” 20193

ikutaniSAN (参)Video from performance in Performing Arts Festival Berlin 2018 ：https://youtu.be/22rz4x8qIfk

A piece of a much broader puzzle that the transmedia group Elektro Kagura is building up years after years:Ikutani SAN (参) is amodern interpretation of a famous episode from the ancient Japanese text called Kojiki (古事記), often referred as the JapaneseGenesis.We chose this particular part because it leads to the birth of the sacral dance: Kagura, performed for the first time in frontof thousands of gods (kami), by the Goddess Ama no Uzume in order to restore light on the Earth at a time when Deities andhumans were still living together. This dance is still performed today in Shinto shrines all around Japan.This symbolical unity,
between people, arts and culture is the very essence of our Elektro Kagura. Ichi Go, our Japanese female dancer will interpret thecheering and erotic Goddess, Ama no Uzume, surrounded by a visual whirlpool of digital painting created and projected in live byYukihiro Ikutani, mixing pop culture and traditional references. The composer AXL OTL, supports the ceremony with an hypnotic
and psychedelic Electronica largely improvised and inspired by the moment.
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ikutaniSAN (参)“ikutani SAN” Performing Arts Festival 2018

5

ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ABOUT ARTISTIC WORK

ikutaniSAN (参)PREVIOUS PERFORMANCESWEB
https://elektrokagura.com/works/ikutani-san/2019
VIDEO

RECESS Salon, NY, Chez Bushwick, solo showpresented by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundationin Bakelit, Budapest,2017
Teaser in Theaterdiscounter, Berlin 2018
Teaser in Theater Zukuft am Ostkreuz, Berlin 2016
Full Ver. in Theater Zukuft am Ostkreuz, Berlin

2018
THEATERDISCOUNTER Berlin in programm of Performing Arts
Festival Berlin 2018

Guest artists:

Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte
ATRIUM-youth art school Reinickendorf

David Kantounas (Dramaturg),
Akin Si (Projection-Mapping)
Fumihiro Ono (Percussion),
Renu Hossain (Percussion),
El Kongo Allen (Trumpet),Nino Ruggieri (Elektronische Gitarre),
Sebastian Schunke (Keyboard)

2017
Bakelit Multi Art Center Budapest, Hungary
Theater Saal ZUKUNFT am Ostkreuz (Premiere)“48 Stunden Neukölln”, Studio NIKIBI & Werkstadt
SPEKTRUM – art sience community

6

DESERT WIDOW (砂の妻 )Sand: a metaphor for a mass in it’s inexorably motion, impossible to tame, impossible to ignore. A powerful body, in which we all need to find
our own path as individuals, as single grains. A nightmarish representation of society. With this new dance piece, the group ELEKTROKAGURA delivers its very own version of this timeless symbol with an aesthetic mixing post-pop modern dance, imaginary stage design andelectronic music.

7DESERT WIDOW (砂の妻 )CONCEPT
Elektro Kagura proposes to adopt the controversial Japanese text
“Women in the Dunes”, its strong aesthetic, themes andcharacters to create an original piece of narrative dance theatre.
A Tokyo school teacher is out searching for insects in a desert
landscape. Nearby villagers offer him hospitality, leading him to ahouse that can only be reached by a rope ladder. The nextmorning the ladder is gone and he is trapped, having to work
every day to clear sand from the house with the woman who lives
there. At first he struggles for his freedom against the sand, heat,and villagers, but eventually, he submits and manages to findsome kind of peace in the hardship, but has he been saved, ordamned?
Kobo Abe’s novel is a nightmarish parable about individualism thatfeels more relevant and fresh today than when it was written in
1962. The freedom that individualism has afforded us has had aheavy price, as loneliness, depression, and anxiety are at apandemic level in modern western culture. Politically stagnant, andfacing ecological disaster we all know we have to make sacrifices
and find new ways of living but are we willing to give up some of
the freedom we hold so dear?
The striking aesthetics of the novel are tremendously fertile interms of visual and performance art. With an extreme landscape ofendlessly tumbling sand, unbearable heat and the strange housein a pit there is a lot to be inspired by. It’s also ripe for a danceinterpretation, a deeply atmospheric text full of movement andrepetition, that has enigmatic characters with complex
physiologies.

Taking on a rich and complex cult Japanese text and pushing theboundaries of performance technology by integrating digital
painting, electronic and acoustic live music with dance andsinging, Elektro Kagura continues to bring Japanese culture to thestage, looking for references to old answers to current problems.

“DESERT WIDOW” 2019 in WABE
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DESERT WIDOW (砂の妻 )STAGE DESIGNLive camera (projected on the wall) with Untertitle, WABE

stage, Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte

9ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ABOUT ARTISTIC WORKDESERT WIDOW (砂の妻 )WEB
https://elektrokagura.com/works/wuestenwitwe/

VIDEO
https://vimeo.com/365709940

SHOWS 2019:
WABE BERLIN (PREMIERE)Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte – Open Air ShowGUEST ARTISTS / TEAM:
Ryota Maeda (JP), Dance / Acting
Tomoya Kawamura (JP), Kuroko
Andreas Heilig(DE), Technic
Akin Si (CH), Subtitles
Bernd Kumar (DE), Live Camera“Desert Widow”2019 Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte

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ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ABOUT ARTISTIC WORK

G8.000.000 (八百万)Long, long before the present Heads of State and of Government
decided to discuss issues of global politics in an exclusive circle,
8.000.000 japanese gods assembled in shrine of Izumo everyoctober. This gathering of the Gods, also known as „Kaminarisai“,should be called here: the G8.000.000-Summit.

WEB
https://vimeo.com/277968355
https://elektrokagura.com/works/g8000000/

PREMIERE
2017 WABE BERLIN

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ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOKUMENTATION DER BISHERIGEN KÜNSTLERISCHEN ARBEIT

女魔王-Erlkönigin(ERL QUEEN)
Young artists* of different genres from Tokyo and Berlin have together developed a
new interpretation of the ballad "Erlkönig" (1782) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The collaboration resulted in the live performance "Erlkönigin", in which a dancer, asaxophonist and a djembé player participate, supported by electronic music and live
animations. "Erlkönigin" was first performed in 2017 by the artists' collective Elektro
Kagura in Berlin. The seemingly simple, but actually complex story between realityand dream, life and death, people and ghosts is told from a new perspective byTokyo and Berlin-based artists. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (freeversion)
Teaser： https://youtu.be/OBj1WCsVjJo
Short Video of performacne: https://youtu.be/epOYMBDZXJM
Web: EK-Erlkönigin / Goethe-Institute Tokyo
Previous Performances:
11.1.20
Goethe-Institute Tokyo
13. / 14.6.17 Theater ZUKUNFT am Ostkreuz, Berlin
25.11.17
Humboldt-Bibliothek Berlin Reinickendorf
Audience: 200
Duration: 50min

Guset Artists:
Mizuki Miura (Saxophone)
Teruhisa Nanbu (Djembé)
Rebellion H.A.L Works (Motion Graphics)
Takanori Terabe (PA und Tontechnik)
Tomoya Kawamura(Stage Director)
Damir Bacikin (Trumpet)

12Flyer designed by Yukiko Fukuda

The Kagura dancer is trying to talk to the spirits of the Erlkönig in her
interpretation “Erlkönigin(女魔王)“The story
Tokyo, a high school student named Sachiko (Ichi Go) learns about thefamous poem “Erlkönig” written by Goethe.
She has no particular interest in poetry, it is just not really appealing for ateenager from Tokyo.
During the class, her classmate Yukihiro, explains about the time when
the poetry was published in 1782,
During the same period, the Great Tenmei famine (天明の大飢饉, Tenmei nodaikikin) happened in Edo.
All of a sudden, it triggers the interest of Sachiko and an idea of a female
version named “Erlkönigin ” popped up in her head.
She let her imagination flows: the ghost, a mother who lost her baby,
because of the famine, her spirit stays in some trees in the forest, every
time a child passes by the tree, the spirit chases him.
-I want you, I miss you, come here, play with me…Now Sachiko can relate to the story, she explains her view in front of theclass.
The teacher starts to play the famous composition by Franz
Schubert on the guitar. The Erlköningin comes to life...
13Theme
The Erlkönig was written in Germany in1782, during a very harsh period.
Likewise, at the same time, Japan faced
the Great Tenmei famine (天明の大飢饉, Tenmei no daikikin).
Although the modern time in Tokyo andthe life back in those days are very
different, we, modern citizens, feel thesame emptiness, dissatisfaction andinsatiability, driven by some sort a devil
that teases us constantly to consume
more and more.
The Erlkönig is not only the metaphor ofdeath but also of an inner void, that wetry to ignore, that we try to escape as far
as possible, with too much makeup,ridiculous costumes, fake attitude, lies
and so on. In this regard, Tokyo is a
showcase of all those evils.
All of this is just an illusion, a mascarade,and deep inside, we all know. But justlike the father in the poem, we try to runaway.
Phot by Hizumi Yuge

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ELEKTRO KAGURA: DOCUMENTATION ARTISTIC WORKGRANTS & INVITATIONS TO FESTIVALS
2019•Die Wüstenwitwe (AT: Frau in den Dünen)WABE Berlin• RECESS Salon, NY, Chez Bushwick, soloshow
presented by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation2018•IKUTANI SAN-Dezentralen Kulturarbeit desBezirksamtes Reinickendorf•IKUTANI SAN -Performing Arts Festival Berlin
2018

2017
• G8.000.000 - WABE Berlin• Erlkönigin(Erl Queen) -Dezentralen Kulturarbeit des Bezirksamtes
Reinickendorf•15

ikutaniSAN- Artist in Residence, Bakelit Multi Art Center
Budapest