“Butoh is about as far away from mainstream contemporary dance as you can go. Butoh is the only dance aesthetic that we have discovered that recognizes that to change time and space in your audience requires you to change time and space in yourself.”

- Jay Hirabayashi

Butoh is a form of theatrical dance that originated in Japan after WWII. Its creation is credited to Tatsumi Hijikata (“the architect of butoh”) and Kazuo Ohno (“the soul of butoh”), who sought to subvert the hierarchy of classical dance and create a different poetic and surreal choreographic language. Influences included German Expressionistic dance, Antonin Artaud (Theatre of Cruelty), and European philosophy. By the 1980’s, butoh spread around the world and is practiced in Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, and North America.

While butoh defies categorization, it often incorporates the use of imagery to directly affect the nervous system and create qualities of movement. Performances often involve taboo subject matter and grotesque imagery.