Masaki Iwana was born in 1945 in Tokyo. He was one of the most acclaimed butoh artists. He has begun his career as a dancer in 1975, and until 1982 he has presented 150 experimental performances in which he had been standing straight, completely naked and perfectly still.

In 2015 I went to his house in Réveillon, in the Perche (France). I wanted him to teach me how to dance. Masaki Iwana died of a lightning cancer on the 11 November 2020. From that moment, the frontiers between history and legend start to be blurred.  

How can we make present the memory of a sunny afternoon when we would go fishing silence ?Which one of us owns the truth on that afternoon ? Is that truth important ? What truth is more important ? The one of the facts ? Of the experiences ? The one of our dreams ?

How do we, precisely, keep an archive of our dreams and experiences ?

‍Till top of toes is an attempt to invoke presence, through a ritual dance practice. To relate not only to experiences and dreams but also to persons which remain present in our bodies.

By stretching and training we will prepare the physical body in order to make it available for dance. Then we will work with our spiritual body through a few fundamental movements from every day life : walking, raising up, crouching, rolling on the floor and turning. And, be doing this, we might experience the reason for which we are here, our dreams and desires that define a dance.