Last night I had the rare opportunity to see the legendary Master Butoh performer, Katsura Kan and his duet partner Gabrielle Daris with live music by Francois Sardi, in a sold-out evening of "Global Butoh" at Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica.

This was my first time seeing Katsura Kan perform and it was his first visit to Los Angeles, although I'd been hearing about him for years in the Butoh circles. His strength and focus were tremendous and his choreography combined with the subtle lighting were riveting throughout his strenuous 55-minute piece. In physical movement the two performers were equaled in their individual beauty and abilities, but there was a distinct difference in the minute and steady control of the performers' eyeballs. Gabrielle's eyes occasionally darted in a way that indicated that she was "dancing in a choreographed piece" and was possibly checking to see if she was in sync with her partner. Never once did Katsura Kan's eyes move from the "eyes looking within" typical Butoh position of rolling back into the head. It was chilling to see only the whites/pinks of his eyes especially in the moments when his head was facing directly forward towards the audience. In his powerful solo moments moving around the stage, I felt tears stir from deep within my core.

The two other companies who shared the bill and were essentially opening acts for Katsura Kan in this evening of Butoh, Blackstone Ensemble from San Francisco and Corpus Delicti from LA, severely paled in comparison. In my opinion and experience of what I saw last night, they seemed amateurish and contrived in their subject matter and execution. Lack of physical strength, balance and mental focus was apparent on the performers' faces and bodies as they went through the choreography that felt like Butoh in a stereotypical manner. Blackstone Ensemble tried to incorporate humor and social commentary in their piece but the manner in which they did it did not seem innovative nor clever to me. But I commend them for doing their art and exploring territory that they deemed necessary to explore.

In Highways' connected gallery space, prior to the show, Corpus Delicti's live human video/audio/art installation was interesting and multi-textured while encompassing themes of post-apocalyptic life, not unlike the post-war Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, the time from which Butoh dance was born. Also displayed are beautiful performance photos of Katsura Kan and Gabrielle Daris photographed in front of classic paintings within museums by Karolina Bieszczad, and a photo collage by Simone Missirian and Ana Baer-Carrillo.

It was great to see LA-based Butoh artist Oguri in the audience along with some of his dancers. It would have been most excellent to have seen him perform on the same bill as Katsura Kan.

Kudos to Highways Performance Space for hosting great art and artists. The inspirational "Evening of Global Butoh" runs for just one night more, tonight, Saturday, May 26th @ 8:30pm.