Born in Osaka, Japan, Michiyasu Furutani is a Berlin-based choreographer, dancer, and performance artist whose work and expression grow from Butoh technique and practice. In the process of continual research, he has developed his vocabulary of movement to encompass improvisation and a variety of modern and classical dance techniques, forming necessity, possibility, and contingency in interdisciplinary live performance art.
Furutani studied BA Theatre at Nihon University College of Art, Department of Theater in Tokyo, where he began working with Dairakudakan, led by Akaji Maro, Masaru Kaita, Akiko Motofuji, and Yukio Waguri—the generation that established the earliest era of Butoh—as well as younger generation groups including Yan-shu, Sal Vanilla, and Daizuko-farm, and individuals such as Toyo Matsubara, Yuko Kawamoto, and Akihito Ichihara. During this period, he began collaborating with musicians, that forged his strong spontaneous physical reaction toward sounds, including Shibusa-shirazu Orchestra, Rovo, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Kan Mikami, Merzbow, Sun Ra Arkestra, Marshal Allen, and GuruGuru, performing at music festivals including Moers Jazz Festival, Uncool Festival, Multiversal, Fuji Rock Festival, and Rising Sun Rock Festival to name a few.
Moving to Berlin in 2012, Furutani became a founding member of Gape – Berlin’s Experimental Lounge as a curator to promote active inter-exchange amongst artists in Berlin’s independent art scene. In 2019, he completed his Master’s degree in “Solo/Dance/Authorship” at HZT – Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz, a joint program between the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch.
Furutani has collaborated frequently with theater directors, filmmakers, architects, painters, and musicians, aiming to broaden the communicational passage amongst diverse art disciplines. He believes that improvisation is a crucial factor in discovering new spaces for mutual sharing and exchanging experiences and knowledge of embodied experience. He has performed and taught at universities, theaters, galleries, and festivals throughout Europe and Aisa including the academy of performing arts in Prague (HAMU), Columbia Global Centers | Paris, Aurillac Street Theatre Festival, Sophiensæle, Dessau Bauhaus, Benaki Museum, Fylkingen, Humboldt Forum, MeetFactory, Lilian Baylis Studio – Sadler’s Wells, El Teatre Lliure | Barcelona, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Malaysia National Theater, InternationalDanceBiennale at Inchoen, Korean National Theater, Echigo Tsumari Art Field, Oya Stone Museum, and continually investigating new modes of expression and movement. His work has received recognition including MileniumArt Festival’s Best Audience Award for Daizuko-Farm’s “Ayako,” CanAsian Dance Festival’s DORA Award for Best Choreography and Best Performance for Yan-shu’s “HA-SU,” and the unconventional and creative Award at 46. FAMA GAZ-SYSTEM TERMINAL SZTUKI 2016.
Furutani has received several grants from the city of Berlin, Akademie der Künste, and Goethe-Institut in support of his research, performances, and film works, establishing himself as a significant voice in contemporary experimental performance art that bridges Far Eastern and Western artistic traditions.
Long-time interest
As a choreographer, a researcher, and a practitioner of dance, I explore the fields of physical movements based on the idea of how to adapt to gravity, which is inherent in all objects no matter how small and big and continuously affects the moving body. At the same time, I also see emotions such as love, friendship, and solidarity as a form of movement, since gravity already affects the stillness before any events begin, and attracts all matters with each other. I consider that this gravity-centering concept, but not tend to be ego-centric, will delineate the internal and external movements’ structure to approach hints that unravel the correlation of individuals and society.
I am also interested in and engage in the visual art form to deploy not only regarding bodies and objects but also about phenomena related to light, sound waves, the temperature in a designated space by mingling the idea of movements. I believe that this approach might lead to propose an insight into current social problems and environmental issues such as water depletion, energy challenges, all matters we face in the coming time.