Ai: A Butoh dance about the delicacy of love

Posted on March 10, 2023 by Design News in Art

Jacki Job with Beauty Photographed by Rob Keith

Jackï Job once again raises the bar for contemporary dance performance in her new work, Ai. Meaning ‘love’ in Japanese, Ai is a Butoh ballet, a form of Japanese dance theatre, and speaks about the impossibility of love, and finding it in unusual spaces.

In Ai, Job performs with acclaimed French ballet dancer Alexandre Bourdat, who has recently finished a performance season at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. She also joins forces with her long-time collaborator, award-winning classical pianist José Dias, whose talents are regularly seen with the Cape Town Opera, and most recently in Master Class, which features Sandra Prinsloo as Maria Callas.

The tour de force of Ai, which is performed in the garden of the Irma Stern Museum, lies in the unusual duet between Job and a horse called Beauty. Within their meeting, the majestic and the mundane sensitively merge, and love is reimagined. Surrounded by green, audiences can delight in a dance between animal and human natures.

Job has been applauded for her crafting of dance with subtle and jarring, symbolic and visceral elements. She was nominated for a Naledi award and received the UCT Meritorious Award for her innovation and creativity in her ongoing dance series, And Then…