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What is the Japanese death dance?
Butoh (舞踏, Butō) is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.
Who is Sharon Stern?
Sharon Stern, 32, of Hollywood, Florida, was drawn into butoh, a Japanese style of contemporary dance also called the ‘dance of darkness’ which explores the taboo themes. Her family claim the married yoga teacher lost her sanity and committed suicide, allegedly driven to despair by her butoh master, Katsura Kan.
Who invented Butoh?
Tatsumi Hijikata
Butoh was founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno in late 1950s Japan. Translated from Japanese, “butoh” means “dance step”.
What is Butoh English?
Definition of butoh : a form of dance or performance art of Japanese origin typically involving slow movement and often white makeup Fujiwara’s solo piece, Lost and Found, draws more on her background in the Japanese modern dance form butoh. — Erika Thorkelson, Vancouver Sun (British Columbia), 12 Jan. 2013.
Why is butoh so popular?
Butoh is perhaps one of Japan’s more bizarre artistic endeavors, and certainly one of its hardest to define. Starting in post-war Japan as an avant garde dance form which ran counter the prevailing performance arts winds, butoh has since spread its tendrils across the globe and is now performed and adored worldwide.
What does butoh look like?
Butoh (舞踏) is the name given to a variety of performance practices that emerged around the middle of the XXth century in Japan. For the general audience, it appears as a type of dance or silent theater which displays extreme visual images created by skinny, white painted dancers.
Why do butoh dancers paint themselves white?
The white paint, and/or white clothing, associated with butoh is supposed to reflect a childlike purity in the performers, stripping away all potential preconceptions of the dancer(s) in question.
Why was butoh created?
Butoh was born from a deep disassociation from the athleticism portrayed by classical dance forms. It sought to revolutionize the socially conditioned response of the dancer to exhibit strength, athleticism, and balance. Rather, Butoh dancers would often explore the diseased, the age-worn, or the weakened body.
Why do Butoh dancers paint themselves white?
What does Butoh look like?
Why is Butoh white?
This white makeup is part of Butoh’s aesthetic as the “dance of the dead” in which the dead are symbolically reanimated to perform. Tatsumi Hijikata, one of the pioneers of Butoh, “talked about the dead dancing with him” (Goldberg).