Yesterday’s post tried to establish through fashion a sort of cultural bridge between Italy and Japan.
Let’s continue this thread today with a post that focuses more on Japan, though it is still somehow connected with Italy.
Tomorrow the Tokyo Ballet will indeed present at Milan’s La Scala one of its best performances, The Kabuki, that originally debuted in April 1986 at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan with choreographies by Maurice Béjart.
The Tokyo Ballet is considered as the main corps de ballet hailing from Japan. Classical ballet started being appreciated in the country only in 1922, after Anna Pavlova performed for the first time in the Far East.
The history of the Tokyo Ballet started in the early 60s, also thanks to the support of its present director, Tadasugu Sasaki, who contributed to create a truly professional corps de ballet.
In many companies, dancers weren't even paid and were burdened with the duty of having to sell tickets to the shows.
The Tokyo Ballet changed the rules by removing this duty and paying the performers, so that professional dancers were finally able to concentrate on their work taking it to a new level.
One of the main reasons of the Tokyo Ballet's success is the fact that, through its productions, it managed to go beyond cultural boundaries: though inspired by Russian ballets, the corps de ballet started presenting also pieces taken from the Japanese traditions choreographed by Maurice Béjart and John Neumeier, becoming the only ballet company from Japan to regularly perform abroad.
The Kabuki is considered as a cutting edge performance for many reasons: it represents a perfect synthesis between the West and the East, and fuses together modern themes and traditional Japanese tales.
When he created the choreography for this ballet, Béjart moved from traditional kabuki stories and reinterpreted them in a modern and universal key.
The Kabuki is essentially inspired by Chushingura, a story better known as The Revenge of the Forty-Seven Ronin. This tale based on the bushidō or samurai code of honour, that has actually got a universal meaning, tackling themes we often forget about in our lives, such as sacrifice and loyalty.
The performance mixes classic and
modern dance, gidayu, geza and contemporary music and opens in the present times, in Tokyo, with a group of young boys dancing on rock music.
The scene moves to the past when the leader of this gang is magically transported to a legendary time after finding a samurai sword.
The main story, involving revenge, honour and samurais committing seppuku follows.
The connection between this performance and fashion doesn't stand only in the extraordinarily rich and inspiring costumes designed by Nuño Corte-Real (who also worked on a few amazing performances by the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris) and in their bold mix of violet, red, black and gold nuances.
The late choreographer Maurice Béjart represents indeed another strong link with fashion.
Béjart was really passionate about Japanese culture and often collaborated with fashion designer Issey Miyake (see also the first video embedded at the end of this post, an extract from Jean Claude Wouters’ documentary).
The choreographer was also famous for his collaborations with Gianni Versace, that started in 1984 and continued with a posthumous homage to the Italian designer, staged at La Scala in 2007 to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.
This ballet, entitled Thank You, Gianni, with Love: a Tribute to Gianni Versace, featured a series of costumes Versace had designed for Béjart's works (ballet connoisseurs play at recognising them in the embedded video).
My favourite ones remain the black and white silk doll costume with satin, velvet and net appliqués from 1989 ballet Elégie pour elle (check out the video around 0:35) and the purple and green silk taffeta costume for the character of Morte Torchon in 1986 performance Malraux ou la métamorphose des dieux that was based on Marlene Dietrich costumes and sculptures (2:38) and also included six colourful gowns with a matching beaded face mask (from 1:44) by Gianni's sister, Donatella (note her 'not sure what I'm doing here'-face during the rehearsals and her attempt at making herself useful by fixing costumes that do not need to be fixed…).
One final note on The Kabuki: The Tokyo Ballet has been consistently touring the world with this performance, so if you miss it in Milan, don't worry, you will hopefully be able to catch it at a theatre near you one of these days. But remember: if you are a costume or fashion designer, don't forget to bring your notepad with you: you wouldn't like to be caught unprepared by sudden inspirations.
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These are some of the most colorful display and use of colors! I love Japanese designs!