Buto (dance)

Butoh owes its origin to the activity of the collective, which began in 1961 under the direction of choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata , called “Dance of Darkness” ( 暗 暗 舞 踏 派 Ankoku butoh: ha ) . Since the next 1962, in the joint work of several avant-garde Japanese groups, a specific butoh style began to form, uniting choreographers, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and representatives of other creative professions. Despite the fact that the association broke up after the farewell performance held in July 1966 , its choreographic component, headed by Hijikata, continued its active work, which did not stop even after the death of its founder in 1986 . Now this direction of modern dance is widely known primarily under the name "buto", and not under the original "ankoku-buto".

Among those who had a great influence on the origin of the butoh was the German choreography Der Neue Tanz. So, after studying in Germany at the school of modern dance Mary Wigman and returning to Japan, the married couple Takay Eguchi and Soko Miya opened their own school, which later became one of the founders of Butoh Kazuo Ono . Having studied for a while with Eguchi and Miya, Ono, feeling dissatisfaction with the dominance in the school of Western European choreographic doctrines, left her in search of her own style. In contrast to the tradition of classical ballet, which pirouettes , jumps, and other tricks into the “world of celestials” turned to, It began to emphasize the otherworldly dance, its orientation toward the floor and the ground in low squats, crooked legs, and others. Deeply inspired by Ono's ideas, Hijikata founded the Ankoku-butoh group ". The aesthetics of Dadaism , which both Ono and Hijikata found close to themselves in their youth, also influenced the formation of butoh.

Having entered the dance world of his time, butoh generated a lot of controversy. Having won the position of prominent writers of Japan of that era (including Ikuya Kato , Tatsuhiko Sibusawa , Shuzo Takiguchi , Yutaka Khaniya and Yukio Mishima ), to the extent that some of them personally took part in the productions of Tatsumi Hijikata , but it nevertheless remained a marginal phenomenon for orthodox choreography, having received the status of heresy and the object of ridicule there, and for most viewers it came down to a set of stereotypes: shaved heads, white makeup, naked bodies, savagery, mutated in Japan the kind of modern dance of the 1960s, pseudo-art your not knowing the basic technique of amateurs. In recent years, however, butoh has become widespread and has been highly praised primarily in Western Europe (under the name "BUTOH").

The stereotypical idea of ​​the appearance of butoh artists comes down, as a rule, to a shaved head and white makeup. However, in fact, neither one nor the other is strictly required. You can even say that the butoh will be no less self if the actor puts on a business suit and prefers a side part to a shaved head. The only significant thing is the extent to which the performance corresponds to the butoh philosophy and aesthetics.

Aesthetics of butoh, referring to the specifically Japanese corporeality of crooked and short legs and seeking to return to the bosom of the Japanese tradition in the spirit of kagura , but also kabuki in order to break with the dichotomy of the center and periphery imposed from the outside, where the place of the latter was given to Japanese under the influence of modern Western European choreography , It is difficult to give a simple and intelligible description. In butoh there are no jumps, hops, spins. Sometimes there are no movements at all - simply maintaining a position, stance or squat without any apparent intention to ever get up again. Butoh's philosophy is connected with the esoteric trends of Buddhism , and the true meaning of the dance will always be hidden from the uninitiated. There is a widespread opinion that the butoh effect was also greatly affected by the consequences of atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki , but in reality this is not so. The emphasis in the butoh is on the body itself. Distorted, scattered plastic, movements, as if breaking up in space, are the basis of the butoh technique. And in deliberate slowness, in inner concentration, and in calm contemplation, more ancient sources can be guessed, coming from the No theater and the three-hundredth hokku . Butoh dancer, like the old Japanese poet, seeks to merge with nature, appealing not to reason, but to the feelings of the viewer. Barefoot improvisers liken the body to a vessel that must be emptied, freed from everything personal, to fill it with something alien, foreign, whether it be the spirit of a tree , a dry leaf or an old woman. The beauty of the body no longer matters.

Thus, one of the proven fruitful ideas embedded in the butoh was the redefinition of dance from the simple art of movement to the manifestation of a sense of the essence of one’s own body. Therefore, the rhythm of movements in a butoh is not determined mechanically, but based on certain words and images presented through Hijikata’s innovative approach to dance notation, called “butoh-fu” ( 舞 踏 譜 ) .

You can cite the following examples of “buto-fu”: “Become a flounder floating in your womb”, “Imagine that your head has increased tenfold”, “Express yourself only as if you were walking straight by the word“ nostalgia “”, “You, surrounded by the whole family gathered, look at the fireworks ” and others. Recalling the mondo used in Zen Buddhism , “buto-fu” serve as an impulse for the actor to improvise movements, by your personality determining the specifics of buto as such. Naturally, the existing methods of classical ballet, as well as gymnastics, are unacceptable when the actor reacts to “buto-fu”, therefore he has to go by touch in many ways, creating a dance. At the same time, some minimum of standardization still exists: it is known that Hijikata collected a set of bodily “responses” to certain words. It is important to note that the “notation” of the butoh is not limited to the verbal description, since for this purpose paintings and any objects in general are widely used. Hijikata especially often referred to the paintings of Francis Bacon .

The specific method by which Hijikata tried to find a synthesis of the human body and imagination later penetrated many elements of modern choreography.

• Classic butoh (first generation)
  • Key representatives: Tatsumi Hijikata , Yukio Vaguri , the troupe " Dairakudakan ", " Hakutobo " and others.
  • Distinctive features: emphasized anti-technicality and protest against the norms, grotesque , aesthetics of Hijikata.
• Modern butoh (second generation)
  • Key representatives: Sankai Dziuku troupe (leader Usio Amagatsu ), Byakkosia , etc.
  • Distinctive features: getting rid of specifically Japanese traits inherited from the first generation due to the fact that Hijikata's ideas about the "Japanese body" led to the perception of butoh as Japanese exoticism , instead of the widespread spread of butoh art desired by the second generation.
• Post-Modern Butoh (Third Generation)
  • Key representatives: Saburo Tesigawara , Setsuko Yamada , Kim Ito and others.
  • Distinctive features: along with the preservation of many ideas of butoh, there are numerous deviations from the "canon"; considered as one of the trends of modern dance.

If the first and second generations of butoh actors used white makeup, then starting from the third, this tradition was lost. At the same time, however, it is worth noting that in the 1980s the third generation, which had not yet found its own style, for some time traditionally used makeup.

• Post-Buto (fourth generation)
  • Key representatives: Yukio Suzuki , Tsuyoshi Shirai , Kaya Ohashi , troupe “ SALVANILA ”, “ Bivakei ”, InZhest Theater, etc.
  • Distinctive features: in fact, it is a modern dance, perceiving the elements of the "classic" butoh. It is impossible to clearly draw a clear line between the fourth and third generation, but actually the fourth generation is difficult to name.

Nihon buoy