Butoh

"Not thinking, Only soul"
Kazuo Ohno

Butoh  is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh  movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience. There is no set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.

Butoh appeared first in Japan following World War II and specifically after student riots. The roles of authority were now subject to challenge and subversion. It also appeared as a reaction against the contemporary dance scene in Japan, which Hijikata felt was based on the one hand on imitating the West and on the other on imitating the Noh. He critiqued the current state of dance as overly superficial.

Most butoh exercises use image work to varying degrees: from the razorblades and insects of Ankoku Butoh, to Dairakudakan's threads and water jets, to Seiryukai's rod in the body. There is a general trend toward the body as "being moved," from an internal or external source, rather than consciously moving a body part. A certain element of "control vs. uncontrol" is present through many of the exercises.

Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh

Dairy Log

Butoh is a style of performance that is meant to come from within and so to start the lesson, we practised a Butoh style walk which I think helped my understanding of how, traditionally, Butoh performers would express themselves. Then in pairs, we raced crawling across the room carrying each other as dead weights being told to really let our emotions out, not verbally but still with noises and physical interpretations. We then constructed a Butoh dance to 'Black Skinhead' by Kayne West which was actually quite good however I didn't particularly enjoy studying Butoh; for me it seemed more about strength and rebelling against western stereotypes than a focus on conveying a message to an audience.