Bugaku

Music Bugaku Toshiro Mayuzumi (1962)

Choreography George Balanchine (1963)

Bugaku is one of the oldest dance forms in the world. These deeply beautiful expressions of balance and restraint were the dances that made up the four elements of Bugaku, the dance of the Japanese Imperial Court.

Balanchine’s choreography paid tribute to the refinement of Japanese music and the bugaku dance tradition. NYCB had visited Japan in 1958 and the Gagaku Company of the Imperial Household came to the US in 1959. In 1962 , Balachine worked with the composer Mayuzumi to meld music and dance into what would become Balanchine’s deeply respectful nod to the dance form and tradition that is bugaku.

While the instinct to photograph white garments is to maintain the lightness, I felt that having black as the backdrop enabled he materials and their shapes to really pop. The dark background gives more dimension to the rhinestones that bejewel this heavily ornamented leotard.