Dusk and Soil: New Butoh

“The performer with a capital letter is a man of action. He is not a man who plays another. He is a dancer, a priest, a warrior he is outside aesthetic genres. Ritual is performance, an accomplished action, an act. Degenerated ritual is a spectacle.” Grotowski, 1988.

In this post I would like to consider about what means the concept of “New Butoh”, this fusion of styles and techniques that integrate the traditional Butoh practice – or at least maybe that’s what they should be doing. Maybe we can call “New Butoh” to almost all contemporary Butoh forms since it’s about creating personal and new body languages and to interpret what Butoh says through our movement. There’s the New Butoh School in Italy, founded by Sayoko Onishi, that intends to spread and teach the New-Butoh style – a new concept of Butoh developed by Onishi and Yoshito Ohno, so, in a sense, it means that there’s this wish to institutionalize and officialize the new tendencies in Butoh practice. Maybe it’s needed to point out the “second stage”, if we can call it that way, that Butoh is taking.

1º stage – Butoh is founded in Japan and then starts spreading around the world, being welcomed and practiced by dancers from different backgrounds / 2º stage – Butoh starts being modified and acquiring new languages since it starts receiving distinct influences – not forgetting that Butoh never really had closed instructions, as it happens in conventional dance techniques, so maybe we’re been living in the 2º stage since the very beginning.

I came across the concept of “Afro-Butoh” when I was watching videos, and later visited the website, of the South African-born choreographer and dancer Tebby Ramasike. He has a background of theatre and different styles of dance. Being mostly interested in the spirituality of dances, Tebby Ramasike found in Butoh a dance form that could relate to ritual ceremonial dances and he found a way to include some of the rich tradition of African initiation rites. Here it’s part of the interview, my questions and his words:

Having a background of different styles of dance, how did you transport it to your Butoh practice? In which way did it become richer? Of course that it’s always a plus when the knowledge of your own body is already deep-rooted in you.
TR- Basically from my theatre studies background, particularly when I studied Kabuki Theatre, which later became the biggest parallel to how I used painting or make-up in my dance works. When I started to create my won solos, I drew from subject matters that dealt with pain, suffering, death and darkness, even the music that I used had a very dark background. Pain and suffering were very much a part of my me, as I grew up in a society where pain and suffering are pretty much a part of us. I needed to express this or tell story either through acting or dancing. To be honest, portraying this through dance became a very strong language for me and I felt much at home. But people told me I was doing Butoh, which I knew nothing about but became curious to find out what it was. My background as a Contemporary dancer didn’t influence so much my turn into Butoh, but African dance did at a later stage even then not the traditional dances, but the ritual ceremonial dances, which I have been interested in for many and have engaged in researching and studying different ceremonies, initiations and rituals. My very first encounter with the REAL Butoh and Butoh practitioners was in 1992, when I was introduced to a Butoh teacher, who in turn invited me to participate in her Butoh workshop. To my amazement my background in other dance forms didn’t even come through during this workshop. I found myself deep into this “new” exploration, which eventually I discovered I was really Butoh, thanks to the Butoh teacher who told me I was a natural in working with Butoh elements. Being interested in the spirituality of dances, Butoh was the closest to what I could find next to the ritual dances. This was a spiritual journey I was ready and willing to take.

What do you consider to be “authenticity” in Butoh? How could you define it? And what does “authentic” mean to you?
TR- Reality. Not faking the inner feeling and/or the transformation that the body is going through. Butoh happens from inside and time is important. If that element of time is not taken into consideration, I think what happens is not realistic but enacted. Although everyone has his/her Butoh and find different ways of dancing their Butoh. And how authentic is one’s Butoh, that is one question that I ask myself. Personally what is authentic should remain being that unique, genuine, realistic and personal.

In your point of view, besides tradition and cultural facts, what’s the biggest difference between Butoh practiced in its place of origin and Butoh practiced around the world?
TR- There is a very big difference. In the last years I have come across many different butoh practices, in all shades and colours. At times I questioned myself, “What is Butoh?” At the same I had to remind myself that everyone has their own Butoh and can portray it in their own way. As there not set rules, nor guidelines to follow, I guess the stage is open for different Butoh practices. Having worked with different Butoh practitioners, both from Japan and Europe, I have seen a distinct difference. Over the years Butoh has been to farther fields of development into fusing Butoh with other artistic practices. One way or another it has enriched the original. Taking Butoh practice in Europe for instance, I think Butoh practitioners have to find their own voice here and how to portray Butoh in Europe and/or Western culture. I have also seen that most of the original Butoh elements and/or principles are now not taken into consideration. People do something and call it Butoh. I wonder what we should consider Butoh these days. But with respect of all practitioners, a freedom of expression is allowed, but it is interesting to keep in mind those elements and/or principles and bring in something new and fresh into that.

Your concept of Afro-Butoh is a really interesting one. How is it different from New Butoh, since it is, as well, a fusion of styles and techniques? Do you think that “New Butoh” can be applied to categorize all the new evolving practices and researches of Butoh?
TR- This concept has raised a lot of curiosity and challenges, which has been and still is a very interesting journey and platform of research, discovery and exploration. As I know there other other artists who are calling their works Afro-Butoh, the approach and ideas and totally different and I must say from what i have seen it comes to be two different worlds.This has also made it a very interesting concept to discover how we all can be describing our work under the same concept and yet be different. Eventually I categorized my Afro-Butoh concept under the ‘New-Butoh’, since would be an umbrella term that encompasses most works that are fusing Butoh with other practices. So it is very correct that it is the New-Butoh, although I do not want to describe extensively as the ‘New Butoh’ for reasons that it may lose the content and importance of that spiritual entity of the Afro-Butoh.It makes sense to put all these new practices and researches under one umbrella otherwise we start having too many ‘platforms’ where we try to fit in or have our works placed under. The ‘New-Butoh’ thus sums up what we are all busy with in today’s artistic creative world that incorporates the practice of Butoh and the other.

Where do you think Butoh is being more developed? And by developed I mean in a brand new changing and transforming way?
TR- Butoh is being developed mostly everywhere. I discovered the festival in Barcelona, ‘Barcelona en Butoh’ organised by Rosana Barra. Having attended this festival as a visitor and observer eventually participating as both a performer and teacher, I realised Butoh was rich and growing in Barcelona and there is certainly a great following of Butoh there. Berlin is another city that is rich with Butoh practitioners and of course Germany was the first country where I discovered the REAL Butoh. In regards to my experience it all depends where most Butoh works are being shared through performances, workshops, lectures, discussion forums (the latter unfortunately does not happen much)and where it is supported most. There are many Butoh practitioners and they all travel outside their living areas to find inspirations in other countries to develop and share their Butoh- related works. Currently, Barcelona, Berlin and Paris are top on my list.

Featured image: Günter Brus, Action “Ana”, 1964.