Dance

All movement in nō is formalized. Some scenes focus on recitation, while others have sustained action where the actors move from area to area of the stage while performing strings of set movements (kata), together with chant and music. Because of the uninterrupted flow of the action,  these sections can be referred to as ‘dance’. Dance sections flow seamlessly from the stage action and also generally correspond to discrete units or segments (shodan) within the structure of a play.

In this section

1. Basic choreographic structure
2. Shimai 仕舞 (dance to song)
3. Mai 舞 (dance sections to instrumental music)
   1. Mai 舞 proper – long instrumental dance pieces
   2. Hataraki 働キ – short instrumental pieces

1. Basic choreographic structure

Dance sections can be broadly categorized in two main types:

1. Shimai 仕舞 – dance to song, performed with chant and  music.
2. Mai 舞 – dance to instrumental music, without chant
   • Mai 舞 proper – long instrumental dance pieces.
   • Hataraki 働キ – short instrumental pieces.

Here the use of the term shimai is a modern device that limits its original meaning of  仕 “to do / act” and 舞 “to dance” indicating stage movement to sung text in general. This modern use reflects the custom of extracting danced portions from a play for the purpose of short presentations performed between full nō without mask or elaborate costume. Amateur recitals typically include many shimai.

The latter type of dance can be further divided into two subcategories: long instrumental dance pieces (舞 mai) and short instrumental pieces (働キ hataraki). While in dance to song the correlation with the words allows meaning to emerge more distinctly and accentuates the narrative, the dances to instrumental music capture the emotional or lyrical atmosphere of the moment, or of the play as a whole. Shimai and mai seamlessly flow one into the other. Also, non-dance movement sections flow in and out of dance.

A basic structure underlines all the dance sections of a nō performance, both shimai, and mai. Usually, dances begin upstage, either in front of the musicians or at upstage right (jōza), move straight forward, then to downstage right corner (sumi) and proceed to circle the stage once or multiple times before returning to the upstage area. This simple choreography appears in the routine performed by the shite the first time the chorus takes over the narration and is known as shodō. The same choreography serves as model for the simplest instrumental dance, known as an iroe. Most dance sections, however, have a more elaborate structure combining circling the stage with criss-crossing it along the diagonals and punctuating this movement through space with other kinds of gestures. As the dancer circles the stage or crosses it in diagonals he seems to approach the audience only to recede, making full use of the three-dimensional space. While at times the actions appear abstract, they serve to underscore the chanted text lending it a visual vector.

2. Shimai 仕舞 (dance to chant)

Timing follows an ebb and flow dictated by the style appropriate to the character rather than the specific words in the text. Generally the movements are timed to whole phrases of text. During this line of chant spread the arms and step back. By the end of this line arrive at a certain point on stage. More precise matching of movement highlights a single word and the gesture tends to be more mimetic: stepping in an out of the torii (Nonomiya), looking into the well (Izutsu), striking an enemy (Atsumori).

Types of shimai

Shimai sections include kuse, performed to the kuse chant, which forms the central narrative scene in many plays; dan, another type of narrative scene where the song is in more regular rhythm; and final dances, which technically go by a variety of names reflecting the rhythm of the chant but which are loosely referred to as kiri. In addition, some entrance scenes, such as Sakagami’s michiyuki in Semimaru, constitute short dances.

Kuse

Kuse are loosely based on kuse-mai, a narrative dance-song which was popular in the early Muromachi period. Within a play, they are often used to narrate a story or to describe a scene.  Performed as a part of the narrative kuse scene that forms the highlight of the first act or takes a central role in the second act, these dances often have a similar structure and use predominantly ground patterns. Kuse have the most formalized structure among shimai types. The structure is divided into two parts. The first part is sung in the lower register and the shite dances with the fan closed. The second is sung in the upper register. In the passage called age-ha or age-ōgi, between the two sections, the shite opens the fan, holds it in front of the face and sings a line at the higher pitch which will be maintained in the second part. Double kuse return to the lower pitch and repeat the ageha single line sung by the shite that sets a new upper register.

Lower register (closed fan) → ageha (open the fan) → upper register (open fan)

A kuse choreography typically begins with stamps (ashi byо̄shi), followed by a pointing and opening sequence (shikake hiraki). The shite then advances to the downstage-right corner (sumi e yuki), pivots at the corner (sumi tori), and then circle left to the upstage-center area (hidari e mawari). This structure may be enriched with the addition of extra kata or abbreviated, in adjustment to the number and content of the lines of the lyrics. A “small left-right” sequence (ko-zayū) ends the section and leads into the age-ha, which is followed by a “large left-right” sequence (ō-zayū) where the shite traverses the stage in diagonals, ending at center front. Various extra patterns might be inserted after this, but the concluding series of patterns involve going to the downstage-right corner, extending the fan (kazashi), and circling to the left ending in front of the hand drummers. Of note in this formal structure is the role the fan holds play in delineating the beginning, middle, and end. Despite the formality of the choreographic structure of a kuse, the correlation with the words gives meaning to the abstract patterns, which in context may appear more or less illustrative. Although design kata are used sparingly, their insertion serves to underscore important moments in the narrative.

Dan sections

Dan (lit. “section” or “scene”)  are shimai sections centering on a specific image, sometimes coinciding with a property manipulated by the shite. While the choreography of kuse features mostly ground kata, interspersed with a few design kata, the structural looseness of dan sections allows for more frequent use of design kata. The result is a visually rich scene in which the shite moves without interruption. Not only is the choreography of dan sections less formalized than kuse, but also the musical features of dan pieces are not consistent across plays. The “bell scene” (kane no dan) in the play Miidera enacts the ringing of a bell. The “net scene” (ami no dan) in the play Sakuragawa depicts a mother scooping up cherry petals from a river. In the “jewel scene” (tama no dan) in the play Ama the shite, a woman diver, narrates how she retrieved a jewel from the dragon palace under the sea. Although the opening and closing patterns of these dan dances tend to follow the same structure as kuse dances, they do not include ageha and have looser structural rules, allowing for more explicit enactment of the narrative.

Final dances (kiri)

Other types of dances to song

A few danced sections in nō do not fall into the categories described above. Not all are named. Their choreographies tend to be an extension of the basic formula of traversing the stage in a left circle, like the shodō mentioned above, or a series of ground pattern fillers. Special examples coming at the beginning of a play are Sakagami’s michiyuki in the play Semimaru, and the opening scene of Hyakuman. In both cases, the inclusion of sustained movement series early in the play helps to evoke the crazed nature of the shite.

3. Mai 舞 (dance sections to instrumental music)

While shimai make use of the verbal, corporeal, and musical dimensions of performance to advance the narration of the story in a play, mai are “pure dances” lacking the verbal component. Mai are among the highlights of a play, and are usually performed when the story reaches its climax, and thus have a key role in the narration. Instrumental dances may occur when a character in the story performs a dance, for example in celebration of a fortuitous event. Often, however,  mai have no explicit reference to the fact that a character is going to dance. These dances may be interpreted as expressions of the nature, or of the mental state of a character. By virtue of the lack of lyrics, mai able to capture the atmosphere of a play, concentrated in its central character, the shite. Most plays feature at least one instrumental dance, usually occurring toward the end of the play.

Dances to instrumental music can be generally subdivided in two subgroups:

1. Long instrumental dance sections. These relatively long dances mostly feature ground patterns.
2. Short instrumental dance sections (hataraki 働キ). “Action pieces”. These dances are shorter than mai and usually have only one or two sections.

3.1 Long instrumental dance sections

The choreography of long dances can be seen as an extension of that of the kuse discussed above. It is made up of sections, called dan. The standard long mai has four or five dan, preceded by an introduction (kakari), and each is characterized by a different way of holding the fan. The actor changes the way the fan is held at the junctures between dan. 

The progression is:

closed fan → open fan → fan held reversed in the right hand → fan held in the left hand → fan held reversed → open fan → extended fan.

Each change of fan hold occurs at a specific spot on the stage. The fan is first opened upstage right or center, the first backward-held fan at stage left; left-hand fan at downstage right, etc. The middle dan also have short passages called oroshi where the music slows and the dancer is still (see music chapter). Oroshi may also be characterized by sleeve manipulation and stamps.

Sometimes the mai are shortened from five dan to three or two dan, at other times they are extended to eight or even thirteen dan. In these cases, the fan holds and position on stage where the change occurs indicate which dan is skipped in an abbreviation. Closing the fan at the end of the mai sends the signal that a new set of dan will start at the beginning again. In such cases, the flute generally shifts the musical mode.

Chart of the long instrumental dance sections

Style

As mentioned above, all the long mai are based on the same choreographic structure. What distinguishes the different mai–and they do appear quite distinct in performance, so much so one would not guess they are identical in form – is the style. Style is first and foremost apparent in the way an actor stands and walks. Tempo is also a factor: generally speaking, the jō-no-mai is slow, while the kami-mai is fast. Tempo implies not just speed, but also the impetus to the movements. Slow the feminine jō no mai may be, but it is never frozen. Rather, each gesture, drum phrase and melodic line swells and recedes like gentle waves in a deep ocean, gradually gaining overall speed as the mai progresses. The male otoko mai, in contrast, has sharply delineated beginnings and ends. It rides the beat rather than blurring it, its movements are vigorous and clearly punctuated. Kami mai, performed by vigorous deities, though significantly faster than otoko mai, has more grace and flow. The musicians and dancers focus on such details to turn a model format into a variety of distinct dances each with their own style. Of course, costume and mask also contribute to creating the image of each dance.

3.2 Short instrumental dance sections (hataraki 働キ)

Short instrumental dances range from brief passages that express the essence of a character, or the general mood of a scene, as with iroe (color dance), to dramatic scenes, such as the inori (exorcism dance). Composed of one or two sections (dan), these dances begin with standard pointing, moving to the corner, and circling left, but the rest of the dance may vary depending on the type. As with any other mai, these dances are based on set choreographies, but in some of the short instrumental dances, such as kakeri or tachimawari, the actors and musicians adjust the timing of gestures and music in a process called mihakarai (“watch and adjust”).

Iroe, kakeri and tachimawari, and standard kakeri are different types of stage circling routines and have relatively simple choreographies. The maibataraki is a sequence of abstract movements (left circling, large left-right, right circling) evoking the nature of a character: Gods, demons, or dragon deities perform maibataraki displaying their power.

Short instrumental dances also include less dance-like passages that incorporate more complex movements and enact a narrative in movement. For example, the kakeri in the play Utō (The Bird Catcher) is totally different from the standard kakeri. Here the ghost of a hunter returns and recounts his love of hunting. In particular, he relished hunting the baby utō chicks on the beach. The kakeri enacts sneaking up on a nest of chicks, striking at them with a stick, watching as birds scatter, retreating to the hashigakari as the hunter follows their flight and then cautiously closing in on the nest as they resettle, this time hitting his mark.

Other short musical pieces go beyond the boundaries of what one might want to call “dance.” The inori and kirikumi, are not only highly mimetic, they involve interaction among characters on stage and the focus of the scene is on the action. In an inori, Buddhist priests exorcise a demon by rubbing their prayer beads as the enemy tries to strike them with a mallet. The combat begins to chanting the sutras flows into the inori music section and returns to chanted text in a continuum of counter-attacks that makes it difficult to classify it as “dance,” though all the movements are choreographed.  Kirikumi are fight scenes in which warriors draw swords and fall one after the other in various ways. They similarly have more interactive choreography than a standard dance.

The flute player Morita Mitsukaze (1931) categorized short instrumental dances into four types: iroe, brief passages that add color to the moment in women’s roles; kakeri, expressing the anguish of a madwoman or a warrior fallen into hell; maibataraki, embodying the power and vitality of a deity, ghost, or demon; and hataraki, incorporating realistic action dramatizing an event like the exorcism and the bird hunting described above, or a clash of swords in a fight scene.

Chart of the short instrumental dance sections​

Contributor: Monica Bethe and Diego Pellecchia