A monk who has just arrived in the capital meets an old man who is carrying buckets of water, saying he's taking them to the salt marshes. The monk asks where there are salt marshes in Kyoto and the old man explains that when Minamoto no Tôru built his residence there, he made an exact replica of a bay in Mutsu province, including the salt marshes of this bay. This is where he carries this water. He reveals that he is Tôru's ghost and disappears. Later, he appears as the Prince himself, recounts the splendours of his palace, and dances.

Source: Festival d'Automne à Paris

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon

Most of the NÔ interpreted today were composed by Kan'ami (end of the 14th century) and especially by his son Zeami, at the beginning of the 15th century, at the time of the Kyoto Shôguns. "An original and special form to Japanese literature, moreover, the first manifestation of dramatic art, a summary and in some way a synthesis of the arts of an already long past, such are the aspects in which the NÔ presents itself. It resuscitates before us, in a striking form and which his lyricism makes still more powerful, the feelings, the thoughts, the beliefs, the superstitions, the aspirations, all the intellectual and moral life of these tumultuous and restless generations, he makes act before our eyes their gods, their lords, their religious, their miracle workers, their warriors, their heroines and even their ghosts; above all, he shows us marvelously the deep imprint with which Buddhism had marked the men of this time, the poetry that he knew to draw for them from the spectacle of Nature, and how it clothed with it the instability of things and the universal impermanence."

Source : Noël Péri - Cinq Nô, Festival d'Automne à Paris

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