Abstract

After World War II, a unique dance form was created in Japan called Butoh. Incorporating its own body shape, makeup, facial expressions and movements, the intent of its creators was to reject both western dance forms and the traditional Japanese dances. The body is visually represented in Butoh in many ways, involving body shape and makeup, facial expressions and movements. In butoh, the image never stands still. It always contains a movement, a contradiction. The contradictions that butoh refers or represents are the weakness and the needs of the human life. One should not separate body and the spirit from each other when talking about butoh. When it comes to the spirit, the technique of butoh is secondary. All possible images are used as canals toward an expansion of the body to the outer world. One can also view butoh as the abstract expressionist counterpart to the history of dance. Like the abstract expressionist painters, the butoh dancers aspire to the purest, the most direct expression of their emotions. Butoh dance is an art that began in Japan as a revolutionary underground dance movement, and although it is known through out Europe and America, it is still relatively unknown in Japan and in many other countries. The tradition, which was the reactionary catalyst for the birth of butoh, is also the conservative inertia, which may be preventing it from gaining acceptance in Japanese society.