(Insist on originality, welcome to pay attention to "half a cup of coffee to read a good book")
The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games has been going on for a while, and everyone is relieved.
Now we can finally talk about what kind of "horror dance" japanese people danced at the opening ceremony.
A few days ago, the dance of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was circulated on the Internet.
The painting style is strange, like a hundred ghosts traveling at night, nuclear radiation changes, and the virgins appear.
However, after watching the live broadcast, I found that these strange GIFs did not come from the opening ceremony.
After verification by netizens, this is the content of the Tokyo 2020 Japanese cultural festival "Wassai".
In "Wassai", the actors tell the birth and evolution of water, fire, wind, people, and days through body language.
However, at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, a dance by Japanese dancer Moriyama in the future was not as frightening as "Wassai", but it was also really scary.
Moriyama, wearing a miserable white makeup, struggled to move under a beam of light, and the atmosphere was once heavy and gloomy.
At the opening ceremony, Moriyama Mirai dances
It turns out that this is a mourning dance, pinned on the mourning of the lost life in the new crown epidemic, so it is understandable.
This dance of Moriyama, which has a similar style to the dance of the circulating GIF, is a unique Japanese "dark dance" style.
"Dancing", a product of Japan's defeat in the 1960s, is one of Japan's most iconic dances.
Its founders were Japanese dancers Togata Ando and Kazuo Ohno.
Earthworks
Kazuo Ohno
Unlike traditional dances that show the beauty of the body, the Japanese dance is a rebellious creation:
Do not pursue the beauty of the body, rough skin, obvious ribs, gaunt description, just in line with the dance style.
Makeup is not only not aesthetically pleasing, but also often ugly and frightening, even the whole body is brushed white, but the lips are dark or even blood red, looking like the walking dead.
Clothing can't be exquisite, it can't be beautiful, it's best to be tattered, ragged, and sometimes a rag is enough.
The movement abandons the graceful posture, hunched over, bent legs, abnormally twisted arms, and staggers like a dying struggle.
Don't want to be happy in the voice, as if it is a ghost crying wolf howl, making people's hair stand upside down...
So, how did this alternative "dance step" come about?
Kazuo Ohno Tatsumi Hijikata
This brings us to the story of Kazuo Ohno and Togata.
Born in 1906, Kazuo Ohno studied gymnastics and dance at a sports school, and after graduation became a physical education teacher, gradually becoming exposed to modern dance.
During World War II, he accompanied the expedition and became a prisoner of war in New Guinea.
This experience deeply imprinted the cruelty of war in his heart.
After returning to Japan after his prisoner-of-war career, Kazuo Ohno seemed to have changed as a person.
The cruel and bloody scenes of the war always came to mind one by one, which profoundly affected his dance style.
In 1949, Kazuo Ohno compiled his war interrogation into his own dance " Jellyfish Dance " .
At the age of 43, he was as thin as wood, his face was haggard, and he completed an unprecedented performance with painfully struggling movements.
The audience was stunned, including the Japanese dancer Togata.
This dance resonated with Tufangxun, and the two formed an indissoluble bond and became artistic partners.
They have a consensus:
At that time, no dance genre could express the mentality of post-war Japan.
Whether it is An oriental dance or a Western dance, it is too beautiful to deeply shock the soul.
As a result, in the stirring of the soul, the two created a subversive "dance step" and formed the above-mentioned near-death dance style.
The idea of this dance, which rejects all traditional beauty, almost realistically represents disease, death, debilitation, defilement...
Once, in order to reflect the theme of hunger, Tufang sunda actually fasted for 10 days.
Skinny and bone-skinned, hungry and dazzled, earthwork and sundass are vividly expressed in dance movements.
In 1959, the two collaborated and starred in "Forbidden Colors", the debut of this dark dance, which suddenly caused a sensation.
The dance embodies a pair of gay people, struggling in reality.
Almost on a dark stage, their limbs resemble entanglements, struggling, entangled, and looking very heart-wrenching.
In the next 7 years, the two made the "Dark Dance" have a place in the Japanese dance world.
In the early 1980s, they also frequently toured Europe and the United States, which shocked the Western dance world.
The Japanese Dark Dance is also one of the three major dance genres.
However, when the dark dance is too "dark", it will cause the audience to be extremely uncomfortable, and even trigger moral criticism.
In particular, in the passionate performance, there are occasional unexpected and frightening performances.
In one performance, a rooster ran to the stage and The Earthworks improvised to dance with the rooster.
The performance reached its peak and he actually clamped the chicken to death with his legs!
In the face of this bloody scene, the audience left the stage amid boos, and Tufangxun was later removed from the dance association.
Compared with the extremes of the Earthworks, Ohno Kazuo's dance is more feminine and delicate.
He accepts the cruelty of time calmly, has been living in the state of dance, and shows the gradual aging, haggard and ugly side of the body that has been eroded by the years to the dancers.
People watched his dance, and while they were shocked, they also triggered reflections on life, death, war, and human crimes.
What is amazing is that Kazuo Ohno is still dancing until he turns 90 years old, and he has perfected his realm.
At the age of 100, he was paralyzed in his lower limbs and insisted on going on stage in a wheelchair, dancing with his witded arms as the music played.
Kazuo Ohno and his son Keihito Ohno on the stage
Kazuo Ohno, 100 years old
What is even more impressive is that when he is in better shape, he even abandons his wheelchair and crawls on the stage to become a real soul dancer.
In 2010, Kazuo Ohno died at the age of 104, ending his legendary dance life.
Today, dance steps, which have been born for more than 60 years, still continue to have an artistic life in Japan.
The dance on the stage of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics is a kind of japanese dance step.
Kazuo Ohno's son, Yoshito Ono, inherited his father's art of dancing
The reason why the audience is not adaptable is because Japanese culture is extremely special.
The Chrysanthemum and the Knife by the American cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict is a book on the study of the nationality of Japan.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of Japan's national character. "Kiku" symbolizes the Japanese Imperial Family; "Sword" symbolizes the spirit of Japanese Bushido.
"Chrysanthemum and sword" represents the contradictions in the Japanese character: belligerence and peace, arrogance and monk etiquette, bravery and cowardice...
Especially after Japan's defeat in the war, on the one hand, they maintained the lofty status of the emperor, on the other hand, they tried their best to curry favor with the United States, and even did not hesitate to sell their own interests, forming a sense of shame in their bones.
So Ruth Benedict concludes that Japanese culture is a culture of shame.
Coupled with the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone island country with frequent disasters and limited resources, it seems that the end of the world can come at any time, and they have little expectation for the future.
So, on the one hand, their nerves are highly tense, they pay attention to details, and they are cautious; on the other hand, they also have a mentality of apocalyptic carnival.
This unique culture is evident on their dance steps.
It is not surprising that there was this dance at the opening of the Olympic Games.
(Image from the Internet)