Works
1969 Eric – a film (Cambridge Massachusetts)
1998 Sacramento River -Lifeblood of California (Sacramento, California)
2018 Fire Crane Butoh Dance (Berkeley, California)
2018 Ashes-Fire Crane (Berkeley, California)
2018 Ashes | Momotaro (San Francisco, California)
2019 The Engulfed Cathedral (California)
2019 Father of Haku (Japan)
2019 Lucky Dragon 5 Museum Dance – Introduction (Tokyo, Japan)
2019 Lucky Dragon 5 Museum Dance – Short version (Tokyo, Japan)
2019 Lucky Dragon 5 Museum Dance – Full version
2019 Rose Ashes (Berkeley, California)
2020 Ashes | Pikadon (San Francisco, California)
2020 Sangettan (Oiso, Japan)
2020 Itchiness Being (Kanazawa, Japan)
2020 Cherry Prayer Blossom (Tokyo, Japan)
2019 Rose Ashes (Berkeley, California)
2020 Ashes | Pikadon (San Francisco, California)
2020 Sangettan (Oiso, Japan)
2020 Itchiness Being (Kanazawa, Japan)
2020 Cherry Prayer Blossom (Tokyo, Japan)
2020 Cherry Prayer Blossom (Yanaka Park, Japan)
2020 Meguro Cherry Prayer Blossom (Meguro District, Tokyo, Japan)
2020 Ashes of Pikadon (San Francisco, California)
2020 Rose Ash (San Francisco, California)
2020 Rose Ashes Annotated (San Francisco, California)
A film conceived, directed and filmed by Goodwin Harding
A collaboration with Eric Larsen
1969
Harvard University
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Lifeblood of California
Premier: Berkeley California March 2018
Choreography: Eric Larsen, assisted by Hiroko Tamano
Performer: Eric Larsen
Original Music: Mark Deutsch
As a kid in the early 1950’s, I lived in Tokyo, where my mother worked with people suffering the effects from Hiroshima. It is impossible for me to forget that, and the awareness has been growing within me ever since. This dance is to remember.
Ashes | Fire Crane
Works in the Works
Choreographers’ Performance Alliance
Western Sky Studio
November 18th 2018
Berkeley, California
A crane in a sea of fire. This solo butoh dance performance, Ashes – Fire Crane, was inspired by Hiroko Tamano. The work arises from the experience of Eric’s childhood in Japan in the early 1950’s, where his mother worked with people suffering the effects of Hiroshima, and by his awakening realization of the risks of nuclear wars.
Choreography: Eric Larsen, assisted by Hiroko Tamano
Dancer: Eric Larsen
Music: J.S. Bach, Frank Zappa, Evan Larsen (original composition for this piece)
This is one section of a four-part evening-length solo performance that Eric is choreographing and performing, related to bringing awareness of the nuclear tragedy in Hiroshima.
Ashes | Momotaro is a solo dance performance that is highly personal, autobiographical, and, at the same time, universal and mythical, with all the potency inherent in an age-old folk tale. Eric heard the story, Momotaro, as a child when he lived in Japan in 1952. His father was stationed in Tokyo, and his mother was involved with helping Hiroshima victims. The innocence and Japanese-folk quality of the story and the horror of war are mixed in his memory and psyche. A performance that heightens awareness of nuclear destruction is important in our world culture today. Through this dance, people can experience a mixture of innocence and tragedy that goes beyond words.
The premier performance, presented at Studio 210 in San Francisco on December 1, 2018, was dedicated to Cyndi Hayes, and to the memory of her 20-year-old son, Noah Davidson, who died a week before the performance, having struggled for many years with his own demons.
The Engulfed Cathedral
Choreography: Eric Larsen, assisted by Hiroko Tamano
Dancer: Eric Larsen
Music: (Original) Performed and composed by Mark Deutsch
Premier:
Ankoku Butoh Gathering
Birth and Death Celebration
Berkeley, California
March 23rd 2019
Art Space
“Haku” is taken from the movie “Spirited Away”
by Hayao Miyazaki.
Haku appears as a young boy who helps
the young girl, Chihiro.
With her help, he discovers
that he is a river spirit –
the Kami of the Swift Amber River –
the Spirit of the Kohaku River.
Dance: Father of Haku
Choreography:
Moe and Kae Yamamoto
with Eric Larsen
Dancer: Eric Larsen
Premier performance
Kamaitachi Museum,
Akita, Japan
October 12, 2019
This dance is dedicated to
my wife,
sons,
my mother
and father.
Premier performance
Daigo Fukuryu Maru Museum,
Tokyo, Japan
October 2019
This dance is dedicated to
the people of Japan who suffered nuclear ..
Daigo Fukuryu Maru Museum Lucky Dragon 5: voyage of Hope by Chris Fiore
Daigo Fukuryu Maru Museum,
Tokyo, Japan
October 2019
This dance is dedicated to
the people of Japan who suffered
nuclear poisoning
A film by Chris Fiore.
Choreography by Eric Larsen
Assisted by Yoshito Ohno
Performed by Eric Larsen
Music composed and performed by Mark Deutsch
This dance is to be aware
of the insanity of nuclear weapons.
As American and Japanese brothers and sisters,
we unite to melt hardness that led to
Hiroshima and other nuclear atrocities.
Together, we invite, we invoke,
we create – a peaceful world.
Premier performance
November 24, 2019
Choreographers Performance Alliance
Works in the Works 2019
Western Sky Studio
Berkeley, CA
“PIKADON is a word that has been integrated into the Japanese vocabulary as a result of the atomic bombs. Translated, PIKA means brilliant light and DON means boom, representing what was seen and heard when the bombs were detonated. The establishment of new vocabulary to refer specifically to bomb-related incidents is indicative of the magnitude of the bombings and their impact on Japanese culture. It also helped to initiate a type of solidarity based on the shared experience of the victims. (From “In their words…” https://1945neveragain.wordpress.com/)
I Hear You
Torifune Butoh Sha
Oiso Japan
March 2020
ITCHINESS BEING
Created at Kanazawa Butoh Kan Studio
Kanazawa, Japan
March-April 2020
Choreography: Moe Yamamoto and Eric Larsen
Performance: Eric Larsen
かゆ の と
金沢舞踏館にて制作
金沢、日本
2020年3月〜4月
振付：山本萌とエリック・ラーセン
パフォーマンス：エリック・ラーセン
Yanaka Cemetery
Tokyo, Japan
March 26, 2020
Choreography and performance : Eric Larsen Yuumi Babawitch
Photography : Tomoko Kusuge
さくらんぼ 谷中墓地 東京、
日本 2020年3月26日 振付とパフォーマンス エリック・
ラーセン ババウィッチゆうみ 写真撮影 楠木智子
Cherry Prayer Blossoms
Yanaka Park
Tokyo, Japan
March 26, 2020
Choreography and performance
Eric Larsen
Yuumi Babawitch
Photography
Tomoko Kusuge
さくらんぼ
谷中墓地
東京、日本
2020年3月26日
振付とパフォーマンス
エリック・ラーセン
ババウィッチゆうみ
Meguro District
Tokyo, Japan
March 27, 2020
Choreography and performance
Eric Larsen
Yuumi Babawitch
さくら祈り
東京、日本
2020年3月27日
Invoking a prayer for peace in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan.
Yuumi san took us to the temple with a good friend of hers.
He asked what we were working on;
and we took off our shoes,
took up the black lipstick she was carrying,
and did a moving prayer.
Fudo danced in the background.
東京都目黒で平和への祈りを呼び起こす。
ゆうみさんは仲良しの友達と一緒にお寺に連れて行ってくれました。
彼は私たちが何に取り組んでいるのか尋ね、
私たちは靴を脱いで、彼女が持っていた黒い口紅を取り上げ、
感動的な祈りをしました。
不動はバックグラウンドで踊った。
Performed May 22, 2020
For San Francisco’s EXIT Theater
IncivilitySF
Subversion work series
As a child in the early 1950’s, I lived in Tokyo, where my mother worked with people suffering the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima. That has haunted me, and the awareness has been growing within me.
This dance is to remember.
Eric Larsen
Music: Mark Deutsch
Subversion/Incivility
San Francisco California
July 24, 2020
This performance is dedicated to Japanese Dancer, Choreographer, and great soul, Yoshito Ohno, who inspired and helped create the work. I also want to recognize Mark Deutsch who created the music for this piece, and who is a true inspiration, and finally, to the folks at Subversion who continue to give us an atmosphere to resist the social, political, and economic plagues of our society.
The first week in August marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear incineration of the people and landscape of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the long-term radiation poisoning that has scarred their lives and social fabric for the past 75 years. This performance invokes a transformation of violence into peace.