UNDERSTANDING BUTOH: Performers enter states of “Becoming Other”;
.jpg)
UNDERSTANDING BUTOH BY ARA FIG 2026 Kazuo Ohno once said of his Work: "The best thing someone can say to me is that while watching my performance they began to cry. It is not important to understand what I am doing; perhaps it is better if they don't understand, but just respond to the dance." Butoh is less a traditional dance and more a form of performance art, ritual, and somatic confrontation. It occupies a liminal space between dance, theater, body art, and shamanic practice. Traditional dance prioritizes technique, line, musicality, and often beauty or narrative clarity for an audience. Butoh rejects these. Movement is not “shown” or polished; it arises from deep internal states, poetic imagery, and the body’s hidden residues. The result feels closer to performance art or a shared ritual than to ballet, modern dance, or even classical Japanese forms like Noh or Kabuki. The Lived Experience For the performer, the core is the *butoh-tai* (Butoh body): a state in whic...
