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I give a karate demonstration, left, and Pina Bausch tries on a black dress, right. (Photo courtesy of Yohji Yamamoto)
Yohji Yamamoto

Dance and karate: Yohji Yamamoto (23)

An avant-garde stage where the contradictions blend together

Yohji Yamamoto | Japan

For some reason, I seem to find kindred spirits in German artists. When I first saw a performance by Pina Bausch, the avant-garde dancer who led the Wuppertal dance company, I was greatly shocked by her finely honed talent, the ultimate physical expression.

The first word that came to my mind was "antinomy". It was as if dignity and elegance were walking before my very eyes. Love and solitude, violence and tenderness, tension and relief ... these conflicting emotions were expressed in such a way that they were elevated into art.

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