Photography by Vikk Shayen
As I know it Butoh has come to reject tradition and definition, it speaks to a primordial way of being one that refers to the discomfort, awe, beauty horror and absurdity of life. Birth and death are very real ways to relate to this concept; incredible moments that are equally ugly as they are beautiful. Butoh operates from a phenomenological place, one that employs a descriptive attitude without judgement. A core aspect of butoh is ‘being moved”, not necessarily emotionally but allowing a deep true sense of something to physically move you, it is simultaneously the body being led and leading.
Butoh speaks of the possible body also know as the empty body or the open body as one that is free of thought and is open and receptive to the moment, responding to immediate stimuli in either the immediate environment or somatically.
Theres so much to it I have learnt, and this is all really just the tip of the iceberg, like all great movements it is one that defies definition and exists “outside of” societies attempts at relating/connecting or even understanding it.
ButohOUT! Festival: Odd Hours ★★★★
Abbotsford Convent, until May 23 2021
Five nights sold out.
“Yumi Umiumare’s distinctive antipodean take on the art of Butoh, a modern form of Japanese dance theatre, combines elements of avant garde cabaret, queer performance art, punk theatrics and a kind of gritty burlesque that emphasises bizarre exaggerations and parody.”
Being part of this has been transformative, my arts practise has always moved in and around multimodality but workshopping this performance truly spoke to the essence of creativity that I hunger for in life; visually, sonically, somatically, collaboratively.