Late night TV

Japanese TV is pretty bad - game shows, food shows, Samurai soaps and shows which humiliate animals are some of the highlights, but then there are sometimes long and wonderful programmes about music, art, Noh Theatre, Nihon Buyo (traditional Japanese dance) and so on. Watching TV late, an older woman is dancing - first on old film in black and white - she looks around 60, completely without the Miyake Odori coquettishness I had come to associate with women's Nihon Buyo. Short, almost dumpy, with an intense power, deriving I think from her extreme precision of placing, eyes, dynamic and gesture. Extraordinary sudden jumps, one landing on two knees, and fierce stamps out of the blue. Later, more film of her, now in colour and probably aged about 80, with white hair and a face more mask-like than ever, in a samurai dance. Revelatory - the title of a booklet documenting a Butoh festival in Budapest is 'The Intensity of Age'. It could refer to this amazing performer.