Life-Size Dance: Improvisation, Somaesthetics, and the Practice of Toru Iwashita

Toru Iwashita, born in Tokyo in 1957, is a dancer specializing in Butoh and improvisational dance. From the 1980s until 2024, he performed with the internationally renowned troupe Sankai Juku while also developing a parallel solo practice. He continues to be active today, presenting numerous improvisational works Since the 1980s, Iwashita has also led dance therapy workshops, including long-term work at a psychiatric ward in Saga Prefecture. He has explored improvisation as a form of empathetic communication—with oneself, others, and the world. His “life-size” dance is based on everyday movements such as lying down, rolling, or standing up, rooted in his own experience of overcoming a mental health crisis by reconnecting with his body. Evolving from “dance as a scream” to “dance as communication,” his improvisation seeks states where the self emerges and is pushed out through the body, moving beyond choreographed form or representation.