JAPANESE IMPORT: THE DANCE-DRAMA

TO the stage world, Japan's Kabuki theater is a respected example of traditional dance-drama. Its beginnings go back more than 350 years to an Izumo priestess, O-Kuni, who is said to have developed the Kabuki theater from ceremonial shrine dances. At first, most of O-Kuni's female players were young courtesans, and as time went on, their costumes, gyrations and behavior developed an air of such gay abandon that "many people were led astray," say Japanese authorities. In 1629, women were forbidden to take part in the Kabuki theaters, and male actors have played all the female roles ever since.

One dance-drama of the early Kabuki called Shibaraku (Wait a moment), first seen in Tokyo in 1697, is still performed (see pictures opposite). Its hero, like many others in rough & tumble Kabuki tales, is a typical Oriental Superman who can lop off the heads of many opponents at a blow, lift houses with one finger, crush temple gates with his bare hands. The plot: a villainous lord, who has usurped the rule of the country, orders the decapitation of some people accused of losing a precious sword. Suddenly the brave hero appears, shouting "Shibaraku!" He then exposes the true culprit, the villain's henchman, thus saves the innocents' lives.

This week a troupe of dancers in the Kabuki style, under the leadership of Tokuho Azuma, the daughter of a famed Kabuki star, brings a sampling of these traditions to the U.S. for the first time.

Unlike the classic companies of Japan, the Azuma group will feature female as well as male dancers. But the color of the traditional Kabuki remains: stylized postures, garish costumes and makeup.

The Kabuki company plans to entertain New York for four weeks, move on to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, then to Europe. Sticklers for authenticity, the dancers brought their own cypress stage with them. This week, as is the custom when a brand-new stage is used, an official of the company consecrated it and invoked traditional Kabuki blessings--before any union stagehand was allowed to lay a hand on it.

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