Butoh
Butoh is a Japanese dance theatre that emerged in post-war Japan in 1959. Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno pioneered it; the first work, Kinjiki, is credited to Hijikata and was inspired by a Yukio Mishima novel. Early on it was called ankoku butoh, the "dance of darkness", and it rejected both imitation of Western dance and the refinement of traditional Japanese aesthetics.
Performers often use white body makeup and slow, tightly controlled movement, with grotesque imagery and taboo themes; the form resists a fixed definition. Hijikata's materials are kept in an archive at the Keio University Art Center. From the early 1980s butoh groups performed abroad, and today practitioners, studios and festivals exist in many countries, including Italy, Sweden, the USA, the UK and France.
Sources
- Butoh (Wikipedia)
- Keio University: Ankoku Butoh and the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive
- Takashi Morishita (Japan Foundation, Performing Arts Network Japan)
- Dairakudakan (official site)
Organisations connected with this dance
- Keio University Art Center (Tatsumi Hijikata Archive)
- Dairakudakan (Maro Akaji)
- Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio
Listed as references; being listed is not an endorsement by or of the organisation.