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'Butoh: between material/immaterial

‘It is you that opens the door to the world of Butoh now.’ (Waguri, 1998)

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​ Butoh notation (Butoh-fu) is a method of ‘choreography’ that uses words to create an imaginative time and space, physicalizing imagery. Taking inspiration from the late Yukio Waguri’s systematic notation of Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata’s ‘butoh-fu’, we will create our own more improvisatory and personal investigations of what it might mean to shift between the material and the immaterial. In particular we will focus on entering an internal ‘world of walls’ exposing the body to processes of density, becoming stone, erosion, decay. This is then contrasted with an exploration of ‘the world of anatomy’ with a focus on melting, oozing and viscerality. We then bring these two worlds together into a free dance of transformation. 

 

Methodologies of both choreographic form, structured and free improvisation are explored and the workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. 

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