ABSTRACT
The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance provides a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the global art form butoh.
Originating in Japan in the 1960s, butoh was a major innovation in twentieth century dance and performance, and it continues to shape-shift around the world. Taking inspiration from the Japanese avant-garde, Surrealism, Happenings, and authors such as Genet and Artaud, its influence can be seen throughout contemporary performing arts, music, and visual art practices.
This Companion places the form in historical context, documents its development in Japan and its spread around the world, and brings together the theory and the practice of this compelling dance. The interdisciplinarity evident in the volume reflects the depth and the breadth of butoh, and the editors bring specially commissioned essays by leading scholars and dancers together with translations of important early texts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |22 pages
Introduction
section 1|155 pages
Butoh instigators and interlocutors
chapter 1|12 pages
On the Eve of the Birth of Ankoku Butoh
chapter 2|15 pages
From Vodou to Butoh
chapter 12|14 pages
Returns and Repetitions
section 2|64 pages
The second generation
chapter 22|11 pages
Light as Dust, Hard as Steel, Fluid as Snake Saliva
chapter 23|12 pages
The Expanding Universe of Butoh
section 3|115 pages
New sites for butoh
chapter 36|15 pages
“We Need to Keep One Eye Open …”
section 4|48 pages
Politics, gender, identity
chapter 38|10 pages
Death Rituals and Survival Acts
chapter 39|7 pages
When the “Revolt of the Flesh” Becomes Political Protest
chapter 40|11 pages
Butoh beyond the Body
section 5|74 pages
Pedagogy and practice
section 6|58 pages
Beyond butoh
