Service, 15th March, 2018
Nr. 62 Süddeutsche Zeitung (meaning South German Newspaper)

Dubious Seduction, The Tale of Prince Genji

(…) The pianist Masako Ohta (photo right) and the dancer Eiko Hayashi (photo left) take this tale as a basic framework for presenting a broader spectrum of emotions of Rokujo, one of the female figures loved by Prince Genji: longing, passion, jealousy, fury, lost love and …  the both artists blast here the strict formed dance movements of Kabuki, the traditional Japanese Theater form with their improvisational performance. Out of these sound and movements emerges an illusionary space which goes beyond the story telling itself. CLICK TO VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Free Time, 15th December 2017
Nr. 288 Süddeutsche Zeitung (meaning Southern German Newspaper)

The feet firmly on the ground

Japanese traditional Kabuki Dance - a story telling art form.

(…) The Kabuki Dancer, Eiko Hayashi, born in Japan, lives in Vienna and has danced since she was six years old. For her Workshops she makes trips to Berlin or also to Munich, etc.  When she presents her dance performances on the stages herself, she sometimes brings together her traditional dance movements from her homeland with European classic music.  In contrast to the ballet longing for airy and fairly high springs, this Japanese dance features rather the stable stance with the feet placed firmly on the ground, according to her explanation. Thereby the upper body should become light and free and able to make flexible figures or head movements typical for Kabuki dance. “This is to be compared with plants which get nourished through their roots and bring out the splendor of flowers in full bloom.” TEXT: FRANZISKA GERLACH

​

Eichstätt Courier // 29th September, 2008

Moving piece of rococo - Oscar Wilde's fairy tale in danced form

Eichstätt (mkh) – It is not very well known that Oscar Wilde also wrote fairy tales. One of them has been presented in the framework of the final program of Hortus Wander Wunder Kammer Project. The dancers, Eiko Hayashi and Sayuri Tronsberg, (both in Munich) performed Wilde’s “the nightingale and the rose“ in a beautiful and felicitous way to the atmospheric piano music composed by Paul Amrod at the mirror hall of the magnificent Resident. (…) By means of the vocabulary of choreography, both dancers expressed the ideas and emotions of the Wilde’s tale such as devotion, disappointment, vanity and sacrifice. Hayashi and Tronsberg complemented perfectly in a gracious as well as marvelous way. (…) In Eichstätt, the piece was performed for the second time after its premiere at the Gasteig theatre in Munich last year. It was a successful ending of the Hortus project, or, as an enthusiastic spectator expressed, it was like a moving piece of rococo at the marvelous mirror hall. CLICK TO VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE

​

 

Süddeutsche Zeitung // 25th September 2006
Neuroses in a mega city – Tokyo in Black Box

(…) Katrin Schaftiel and the classic ballet dancer Sayuri tronsberg follow the fluent movemements of steps of the Kabuki dancer, Eiko Hayashi, dressed in a bloody red Kimono. (…) In this way, the evening became a continuous trip between Kabuki citations and postmodern city neuroses (…). Silvia Stammen

​

 

Münchner Merkur // 23rd September 2006
East-West-Contrast – Dance theater Tokyo in Black Box

Eiko Hayashi, with long black hair over the fire-red costume, interprets wonderfully this flattering servility with the styled dance gestures of the Kabuki theatre. The choreographer was lucky (to have) the stage presence of this professional Kabuki dancer. (…). Malve Grading

​

 

Mainichi Shimbun (japanese Newspaper) // 2nd April 2003
Fuji-Musume (wistaria girl), danced in Vienna
Hitomoyou (arabesques)

(…) Nevertheless, the artist believes that the elegance of the Japanese dance and the cry of the soul as a catharsis of the oppressed mourning could find its equivalent in German speaking culture. (…) Eiko Hayashi-Kopitz developed the concept to combine the Japanese dance with European music (Crossover). (…) Eiko Hayashi-Kopitz (…) would like to try further more possibilities to express the Japanese aesthetic in connection with European music and to find the interface of Japanese and European cultures. Satoshi Fukui

​

​