I’ve always been fascinated with the traditional underground dance of Butoh. Does anyone know if the original dance can be found anywhere now? I know they preform these in theaters but it’s more pg than the original dance and that’s not really what I want to see.
4 comments
head on up to Sado
I saw a performance in Kyoto in oct 2018. Very small venue with only about 10 ppl in the room. I’ll try to find the flyer later and get back to you.
Dude, I never thought I’d see a post about this.
I lived in Japan for 2 years, and saw Butoh at the Butoh theatre in Kyoto 3 times. I became like a Butoh-nerd for sure, but purely for the horror element. It. Was. Weird. But it makes you understand where the kind of horror like The Ring comes from. There are deffinitely ties there.
Check out the
* Butoh-kan ([https://www.butohkan.jp/](https://www.butohkan.jp/))
* TIX = ~3800円/$38per person
The venue is SUPER small. Only about 6-8 people can watch a show at a time. I did see ONE show that featured female nudity, just a heads up, but I assure you, it was not played to be sexy. Its all about shock.
Back in the eighties before the net seeing something new and “avant garde” often meant staying up late on the weekend to see what PBS had going and I remember they did a Butoh show. It made a huge impression on me and I did go to Butoh-kan in Kyoto and enjoyed it a lot. There were only three of us in the audience that night which was a little sad but the people putting on the show were still enthusiastic. I would love to see it again if I ever go back to Kyoto. It is performed in a [Kura](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_(storehouse)) and for a history nerd that was a real treat to finally get inside one.