Dance

From its beginnings with the nembutsu odori of Okuni, kabuki has been associated with dance (in fact the character for "bu" in "kabuki" means dance). With the creation of the all male yarou kabuki it became a major part of an onnagata's role enabling a more significant part to be played by a female character who otherwise by social dictate would have been kept in the background.

Generally, dances tends to be more "earth bound" than Western styles and whilst ensembles do occur, the majority of dances are solos which remain the prerogative of the principal characters. (In some ways a tachimawari could be considered a choreographed ensemble). They are replete with symbolic gesture, and can be accompanied by music from the geza, debayashi, or any of the joururi ensembles (tokiwazu, kiyomoto, gidayuu). The actor does not match his movements precisely to the rhythm of the music, and as with the relationship between the chanter and shamisen player of the chobo, it is considered inartistic to be exactly synchronised and the dance phrases tends to lag behind the music.

The performance kata of shosagoto is completely given over to dance.

Three distinct styles of dance may feature in a shosagoto performance - Odori, mai and furi.

Odori

tends to be quite lively, often incorporating contained leaps into the air and stamping. It was derived from the fashionable dances (fuuryuu odori) of the time which in turn were developed from the earlier nembutsu odori . The stamping has its origins in the symbolic quelling of demons.

Mai

derived largely from the Noh theatre and is characterised by a deliberate turning and pivoting, and use of suriashi. Unlike the typical kabuki posture where one foot tends to be thrust forward of the other, the "at rest" posture in mai places the weight equally on both feet.

Furi

essentially pantomimic, stage props are often incorporated and will be used as a focus upon which to form a series of movements. The actor can use the prop (a fan or such like) to make allusion to the text sung by the chorus or chanter. For example in Kanjincho the principal character, Benkei, opens his fan to simulate a mountain range when the text refers to "midst mountain places", and mimes sculling a boat when mention is made in the narrative of the principal character being emotionally "adrift as if at sea".This is known as ateburi.

An extreme form of ateburi is kiyabo. This more of a word game where the performer ignores the most obviously appropriate meaning of the Japanese characters, and punningly mimes a subsidiary sense of the word. This characters for kiyabo from which the name if this style is taken represent "living", "wild", and "evening". However the mime performed relates to alternative meanings for these sounds which are "tree" (ki), "arrow" (ya) and "pole" (bo).

Dance scene from Musume Dojoji

Unlike ateburi another performance kata, fuseiburi ("elegant" furi) , complements a verbal image with a visual image which is related but does not duplicate the meaning. For example whilst the text may refer to powerful volcanoes, the actor may mime the smoke rising from a stick of incense.