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In the Butoh workshops we worked with given and personal image-based

exercises and improvisations to realise embodiment, stillness and inner


movement (session 1), corporeality and metamorphosis in relation to costume
(session 2) and to the environment through sensorial awareness (session 3 on
Body Weather).
Starting from your own experience, choose and discuss an aspect of each
session.
The previous three weeks have been a combination of Butoh exercises. Emerging after the turmoil
of the second world war, Butoh was an expression of the rejection of authority and a evolutionary
style of dance that erupted in Japan. Butoh was a reaction to current dance style which could be
considered to be constant imitation. Butoh pushes to not be inspired by classical Japanese
dance/theatrical performance therefore it's basic material is the body itself in itd changing
conditions. It is furthermore a hybrid form of dance, linking physical and spiritual cultures from
around the world, also accounting for ageing bodies as well as the buoyant qualities of youth
(Fraleigh, 2010, p. 11).
The first of the Butoh workshops were based around the inner workings of physicality and inner
movement in relation to the natural environment. Allowing this embodiment of movement the
performer is therefore able to express an outer consciousness of dance and performance. We started
with walking in strict, straight lines; placing one foot in front of the other, this felt rhythmic and had
a liquid feel, especially as the rest of the group was moving in synchronisation. We then began
moving our hands in a figure of eight motion and were given instructions to implement the sense of
change within our inner-self; such as walking through excrement, walking on animal, nails, walking
through grass, hot coals or walking on shards of glass. This added the element of the inner-self and
a strong feeling of embodiment within movement as Duckwalter asserts;
In Butoh, an image- often from the natural world is used to elicit movement. The image
in Butoh is not used as imitation or representation where, for example, a dancer makes
swanlike movement with her arms, representing the swan on the stage. In Butog, the image,
of a swanlike neck, for instance, is internailized, and movement comes (with practice over
time) from focusing on the image to the point of the dancers movement. (Duckwalter, 2010,
pg. 100)
The second session focused was inspired by Tanaka and Yoko Ashikawa and was based on the
manipulation clothing had on a body and the metamorphoses that the performer had to undergo in
order to perform. With the work on the inner-self and embodiment of movement from the previous
session. we had built up a cacophony of skills for our tool-kit within Butoh movement exercise. We
were instructed to chose a piece from the clothes rail; and to perform how we saw fit within the
manipulation of the prop. I choose an old blanket that I wrapped round myself; immediately I felt a
wave of cathartic emotion that dragged me to the floor, in which I held this position and embodied
the feeling being an old broken building which is what I had chosen to be.
Constricted clothing and good behavior drive the inner forces of the dancer as she metamorphoses
through several states. (Fraleigh, 2010, p. 161)
The final stage to the workshop the group walked down to the seafront in relation to Butoh's Body
Weather. We relied on our sensorial abilities to guide one another around the city. We then preceded
to move onto exploring our surroundings with the loss of sight and attached ourselves strongly to
the feeling touch. The final part of this weeks workshop took place along the beech where the group
was instructed to find a partner and to attach one end of red string in their mouth and the other to

their partners. I found this workshop interesting in the way it dealt with movement in relation to the
body and the environment, the wind blew the string which in tern manipulated our movement and
therefore resembled the glorious purity our surroundings.
Bibliography
Buckwalter, M. (2010). Composing while dancing: an improviser's companion. Wisconsin:
University of Wisconsin press.
Fraleigh, S. (2010). Butoh: metaphoric dance and global alchemy. Illinois: University of Illinois
press.

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