Out of the ashes of radioactive clouds like a phoenix, lingering over the ruins of the spirit of avant-garde, one art form stood the test of time and simply refused to fade into oblivion: Butoh, a dance that is more akin to the movement of soul, will be revived in Hong Kong come March 2019 through an unprecedented collaboration between Butoh-Kan (Kyoto, Japan) and cellist Oliver Coates (The Highlands, Scotland).

Hong Kong has historically been a site of forgetting and leaving behind as much as it has been one of breakneck progress and change. What has been abandoned often remains only in the form of nostalgia, where it’s “safe” and “appropriate” to acknowledge such past(s). In other words, most of us are already suffering from selective amnesia, or actively, wittingly and forcefully engaging in its practice.

Sidestepped: a dance for selective amnesia absorbs the artificial lights that defines this city, reflects and projects to us its forgotten histories. It is a uniquely intimate experience of motion and music for an audience all within touching distance of the performers. Beyond the familiar celebration of “utter darkness” and despair often associated with Butoh; Oliver Coates’ haunting cello composition interlacing with asymmetrical piano loops decaying with tape effects will join Masami Yurabe and Miwako Inagaki, and together they will produce a transformative and mesmerizing spectacle of bodies, light and sound that ultimately guide those in attendance through a journey into and out of the abyss of pain and madness, and into the life-affirming light.

In memory of Abel Coelho.

Photos: Special performances at a secret location, 23rd and 24th March 2019
Video: Street performance in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, Thursday 21st March 2019