Finding Kokoro through the Eyes: Butoh in Roberta Carreri’s Work and Pedagogy

Abstract

In 1984, Roberta Carreri, Odin Teatret actress since 1974, saw Niwa (The Garden), a Butoh dance performance by Muteki-Sha, and attended a three-day workshop with Natsu Nakajima, direct heir of the Butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata. In 1986, she traveled to Japan to work with Natsu Nakajima and Kazuo Ohno. The meeting with the Asian masters changed her approach to training and the creative process. For her, the most remarkable aspect of this apprenticeship was the work with the eyes. The way the eyes are used in Butoh conditioned Carreri’s training and the creative process of her solo performance Judith (1988). Since those same years, the Italian actress has been developing her own pedagogy. Today, she travels globally leading the workshop Dance of Intentions, which includes “flexing the eyes,” an exercise whereby the actress transmits to trainees how it is possible to shape the quality of scenic presence through the eyes. Drawing on a rich bibliography, Roberta Carreri’s work diaries, unpublished documents, and audiovisual materials kept at the Odin Teatret Archives, this paper aims to analyze how the actress embodied the ability to find the kokoro (Japanese for “heart” or “soul”), its application to the creative process and the performance, as well as her pedagogic work, and how this Butoh apprenticeship conditioned her professional identity.