Where did Butoh dance come from?

Butoh, a form of avant- garde dance originating in Japan in 1959, started as a reaction against Western influences in Japanese culture after the Second World War. From major cities to small communities, this dance form has an underground following in the USA that draws disciples from every background.

Who founded Butoh?

Tatsumi Hijikata
The seeds of Butoh were planted in the experimental atmosphere of the late 1950s, when Tatsumi Hijikata and co-founder Kazuo Ohno began to question the nature of dance itself.

What is Butoh dance and why is it like this?

If dance is unfamiliar, butoh can seem unapologetically strange. Birthed in Japan nearly 60 years ago, butoh (boo-tow) dance has been mutating like crazy around the world, drawing on traditions like white body paint, outlandish or nearly nonexistent costumes and “ugly” movements defying interpretation.

What are the characteristics of butoh?

While there is no one style of butoh, the form often has certain characteristics: allover body paint, typically white but sometimes gold, silver or another color; shaved heads; and movement that is extremely controlled, often very slow, and imagistic rather than narrative in character.

Where is butoh performed?

Japan
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.

How would you describe butoh 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. The art form is known to “resist fixity” and be difficult to define; notably, founder Hijikata Tatsumi viewed the formalisation of butoh with “distress”.

What is the meaning of Daling Daling?

Daling-Daling is a traditional courtship dance which means “My Love, My Love”. It is popular among the Muslims of Jolo, Sulu. This dance was brought over to Sabah from the Mindanao archipelago by the Suluks (i.e. the Tausugs).

Which is the best definition of Butoh dance?

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.

What does the kanji for butoh stand for?

The two Kanji characters that form Butoh (舞踏) translate to dance and step, although it was originally called ankoku butoh (暗黒舞踏), ‘dance of darkness’.

Why was Butoh created after the Second World War?

Remember that Butoh arises within the Japanese society after the Second World War. A mixture of confusion, caused by the industrialization process of their millenary traditional culture, and horror, caused by the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cross the social vision of life. Artists, of course, react in their ways to these circumstances.

Who is the founder of the Butoh movement?

Though, butoh aesthetics are much wider and its practice is more than just a new choreographic and visual trend, discovered and developed by the Japanese modern artists.