Sound in Body
What happens when music and movement tell the same story?
"Fractures of the Mind" — Grand Rapids Ballet (2024)
Choreographer Julian Gan described his piece as "the journey of life and the coming and going of people in your life — each individual can have an impact on you, both positively and negatively." Ritsu composed and performed the original score to accompany his story.
Time Curves (2024)
A reinterpretation of William Duckworth's Time Curve Preludes — reimagined for electric violin and spoken word. In this video, butoh artist Rachel Finan wrote and performed original spoken word, her voice and gesture meeting Ritsu's live playing in real time. Two bodies of expression — one sonic, one poetic — tracing the same arc.
video by Seth Thompson at Green Frog Studio
"Titus" — Halloween at Standard Gallery (2021)
A Butoh interpretation of Shakespearean tragedy. Rachel Finan as Lavinia — raped, mutilated, silenced. A performance about betrayal, madness, and violence told through the body and the bow.
The Standard Gallery, Grand Rapids Michigan curated by Michele Bosak
In the Beginning (2015)
The Creation story told backwards. Starting with Pachelbel's Canon, the musical journey undoes the seven days of creation, moving from rhythm and harmony into chaos and nothingness. Performed as a trio with percussionist Hugo Claudin and dancer Carolina Gil-Ortegon a the Blue Bridge in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Nosferatu vs. Ritsu — Wealthy Theatre Halloween (2009)
Commissioned by then-director Erin Wilson, Ritsu created and performed a live original score not as accompaniment to F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film classic — but as an equal on stage with it. The premiere was performed and recorded at Wealthy Theatre, Grand Rapids, MI.