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Butoh
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BUTOH – is a counter-cultural form of modern dance which came into existence in Japan, at the turn of the fifties and sixties. Butoh, called the ‘Ankoku butoh’ – the dance of darkness, breaks with the canons of traditional art, not only Japanese. It developed during the atmosphere of rebellion against the traditional form of Japanese theatre and dance, and against the domination of Euro-American culture. Butoh refers to old beliefs, rites and the folk aesthetics of ugliness. Its other sources of inspiration were: Expressionism, the concept of Theatre of Cruelty by Antoin Artaud, the philosophy of Nietzsche, the writings of Bataille, the works of Genet; and in itself is a celebration, a rite releasing inner energy and exploring the darkness of the subconscious. It deliberately exposes the so far forbidden areas of life. It is not grounded in any technique, in the traditional understanding of dance technique. It proposes ‘total presence’, which can be achieved through a specific psycho-physical attitude attained by the dancer and described through the concept of butoh-body (jap. butoh-tai), in the place of choreography or a dance figure. This does not mean the physical body, but a state of mind, or rather the unity of body and mind. This state – similar to the state of lucid dreaming – is the transgression of the dualism of object-subject, consciousness-unconsciousness. The body of the butoh dancer is not a controlled object and is not steered by the will of the subject. The butoh dance is a process of pure experience (movement meditation), in which it is not the dancer who dances, but ‘he is being danced’.e. A butoh dancer does not dance, he is danced. Tatsumi Hijikata The butoh dance is a metamorphosis not a metaphor. Ko Murobushi The body is the link. Nario Goda
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