Kazuo Ohno

Kazuo Ohno (1906–2010) was a Japanese dancer and choreographer who helped develop butoh, a postwar avant-garde dance form. His performances joined improvisation, theatrical transformation, and deeply personal imagery.

Tatsumi Hijikata: A Japanese choreographer who co-founded butoh and shaped its early movement and theory. His collaboration with Ohno helped establish butoh as a postwar performance practice.
La Argentina Sho: A solo dance by Kazuo Ohno inspired by the Spanish dancer Antonia Mercé. This 1977 work made Ohno’s memory of La Argentina the center of a transformative performance.
Butoh: A Japanese avant-garde dance form that emerged after World War II, associated with stark imagery and transformed movement. Ohno helped develop this form, though his performances embodied only one of its varied approaches.
Butoh in the West: The reception and adaptation of butoh by artists and audiences outside Japan. Ohno’s international performances introduced audiences abroad to his distinctive butoh practice.
Yoshito Ohno: A Japanese butoh dancer and choreographer, and Kazuo Ohno’s son. He performed with his father and continued the Ohno family’s butoh work.
My Mother: A solo dance by Kazuo Ohno drawing on memories of his mother and family life. Its intimate imagery exemplifies how Ohno turned personal recollection into theatrical movement.
Improvisation: The creation of movement or performance in the moment rather than through a fully fixed sequence. Improvisation allowed Ohno’s dances to shift through memory, feeling, and changing stage identities.
Japanese avant-garde: Postwar Japanese artistic movements that challenged established forms and conventions. Ohno’s work emerged within a wider artistic climate of experimentation after the war.
Antonia Mercé: A Spanish dancer and choreographer known professionally as La Argentina. Ohno said her performance inspired his return to dance and became the subject of a major solo.
Admiring La Argentina: A dance work by Kazuo Ohno centered on his artistic devotion to La Argentina. The piece revisits the inspiration that had shaped his return to performance.

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Akaji MaroRelated: Ohno represents a distinct butoh lineage alongside Maro’s company-based approach.