BUTOH Showcase
Presenting: Katsura Kan & Saltimbanques
BUTOH
(舞踏, BUTŌ)
is a form of Japanese dance theater that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Made by Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, Butoh often referred to as 'the dance of darkness' due to its avant-garde style that often expressed taboo topic. The creation of the dance go way back to the 1959 during post-World War II in Japan. This showcase was performed in Dalemwangi Art Space Bandung, February 1st, 2020; and here's my documentation.
The movements in Butoh performance is often a slow, awkward, and detailed movements expressing pain or torture. Thus makes the dance look so grotesque and disturbing for some people. It was said that it's because Butoh was made when the Japanese society went through the post-World War II. A mixture of confusion, caused by the industrialization process of their traditional culture, and horror, caused by the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, heavily influenced the creation of the dance.
On some interviews and articles, it was also written that Death has been a recurring theme in Butoh.
KATSURA KAN
Also one of the reasons why I came to the showcase.
Katsura Kan, a Butoh maestro from Kyoto. Also a founder of the Butoh group “白虎社/ Byakkosha”.
He is famous for his exploration of 'curious body' as a method to understand Butoh as ideas of movement and coreography. He has performed Butoh for over 20 years in solo performances or collaborative, as a performer and coreographer.
