“Yoshimoto’s Ruined Body at DNA takes us around different dark corners as it stretches time and some nerves as well. He appears painted white, with blue eye shadow, red lips, and a spray of gray hair, in a magnificent tapestried paper cloak with Renaissance ruffle. The candle he holds is the only light onstage; it illuminates the maniacal grin stretched across his face as we listen to what sounds like Bach on a dusty gramophone. He advances slowly, slowly, slowly towards us. I’m afraid he’ll eat me. He makes his way glacially to a chair and sinks into a crouch, his open mouth weirdly sexual, looking like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. He balls his costume up above his knees so painstakingly it grates my nerves. I feel as if I’m watching a man in prison organizing dust or counting toothpicks, filling the void of his life with small meaningless tasks. Time feels expanded and compressed.
Later, the timeless, nightmarish court jester half-dons a dress and throws his red shoes. He slips one shoe on and walks haltingly, bobbing his head. He is an old lady with Alzheimer’s flirting with herself. He limps slowly, each step like a day, creating a string of days, like the arc of one life.”
– Erika Eichelberger,”CAVE New York Butoh Festival – The Butoh-Kan Phase October 23-November 25, 2009″, The Brooklyn Rail, 2009
