The frontman for Antony and the Johnsons says everything changed for him when he discovered the Japanese butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno. Antony Hegarty talks about the "very ghostly and otherworldly" butoh master and explains how this grotesque, yet beautiful art form helped Hegarty define himself as an artist.
"In my early 20s I was feeling quite shadowy, quite hopeless," says Hegarty. "And he was an artist, an elder, who embodied a profound sense of hope. I decided he was my art parent. Someone who's footsteps I would follow in. I would trust him."
Video: A Kazuo Ohno performance, set to Antony's song "The Spirit Was Gone"





Comments [6]
Just amazing...So pure and perfect, emotional like Antony and the Johnsons. I've cry the first time when I've seen this.
Antony's song, River of Sorrow, changed my life.
I was astonished at his courage to compose a song that seemed to express all the sadness in my life and the deaths of so many of my dear friends. Suddenly it was much easier to endure the pain. I love all his songs, but River of Sorrow stikes a deep chord which resonates and lasts and heals.
Thank you, Antony and all your Johnsons!
Thanks for this story. Antony is amazing and it was great to hear him speak about a person/art form that he is so passionate about.
fANTASTISCH WAR DIESER MENSCH UND DIE MUSIK VON ANTONY DAZU;ICH MU? ES IMMER WIEDER SEHEN:
Wonderful!
I'm not a dancer. I dislike watching, even the idea. But five years ago a friend brought me to Kazuo Ohno's workshop in Yokohama. It was taught by his son, already I think in his 70s.
And it was extraordinary.
Anthony Hegarty does it justice, I think, because I can also feel how it has moved him. Maybe that doesn't come across to people who haven't experience butoh. If you get the chance, go. Dance as soon as the words and message and sensation reaches you.
Interesting to hear how it affected Anthony's sense of performance – it feels to me like the least "performed" dance created.
Will the talk be recorded?
Even just the audio would be great.
Thanks
Cole
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