SCENE IT: The dance of darkness obscures boundaries in Cape Town with 1-2-3 AS ONE

Maria Kearns

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Friday evening saw a remarkable first celebrated in Cape Town: a display of the Japanese art of butoh at the University of Cape Town’s Little Theatre. Billed as a Japanese-South African collaboration, 1-2-3 AS ONE is to be the opening of a new research initiative with support from UCT and the Japanese Embassy in South Africa.

Butoh, a type of dance theatre that emerged in the post-War era, involves controlled, animalistic movements and grotesque expressions and is often referred to as ‘the dance of darkness’ for its preoccupation with difficult or taboo topics.

After a word of welcome by a representative from UCT and some well-chosen opening remarks (and a toast) by Mr. Fumio Shimizu, Japan’s ambassador to South Africa, the evening’s first dancer took to the stage.

jackï job, Associate Professor at UCT’s Centre for Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, performed a heart-rending piece called Dielah that exposed the enormous burden of intergenerational pain shouldered by South African women. job's precise, almost trance-like movements and expressive face made it absolutely impossible to look away as she movedacross the stage encumbered by a large, bare branch that refused to retain its shape, shifting as the piece progressed to take on a multitude of meanings.

To perform Vanish, Yukio Suzuki, his skin painted gold, appeared like some malevolent spirit clinging to the wall of the auditorium. His slow, ragged breathing and furtive eye movements presaged a haunting, discomfiting performanceabout ‘things that appear and vanish’—concepts that came to life through Suzuki’s quiet, unannounced entrance and repeated blending into the lit-up upstage wall.

Mitsuyo Uesugi arrived as if from the mists of time—a pale, looming figure with fish-like hands and a darting tongue, the latter screened by a net covering the dancer’s face, which gave the whole piece the look of an out-of-focus photograph. This performance, titled Requiem for Her, was by some distance the evening’s most unsettling. Lighting designer Valentino Davids and music editor Riccardo Moretti deserve applause for their undeniable contribution to the disturbing magic on stage throughout all three pieces.

The evening’s remarkable programme culminated in a group improvisation that saw the three dancers respond to one another’s movements sensitively (and with more than a touch of humour and playfulness—one wonders whether the noble art form often comes this close to encompassing a twerk).

Butoh bursts on to the stage as if through a dense, impenetrable forest; indeed, undefinability is a characteristic of the style, which means a fair bit of creative collaboration is required from the audience.

An adequate description of the deeply affecting spectacle provided by job, Suzuki, and Uesugi therefore proves hard to arrive at to the butoh-uninitiated, but may Cape Town’s audiences benefit from many more such cross-cultural collaborations.

1-2-3 AS ONE was on at the Little Theatre on the 5^th and the 6^thof December 2025. All three dancers will be presenting masterclasses on Hiddingh Campus on the 8^th and 9^th of December. Book for 1-2-3 AS ONE Masterclasses through Quicket.