Gloss of Darkness

"Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis" is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies. Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan's equivalent of modern dance, in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism. Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance, music, and masks, and by recalling the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan, Butoh incorporates much traditional theater. At the same time, it is a movement of resistance against the abandonment of traditional culture to a highly organized consumer-oriented society.

A Collaboration Ima Tenko and Chie Ono.

A Butoh Performance by Butoh Company Kiraza.

Fill the goblet of lapis Iazuli With the life, joy, sorrow, death of this whole universe. This goblet must scoop up all. Who drifts in the isle of hollow. Mothers, babies, Sick women, filthy women, Those who praz, those who surfei, and those who accompany them. The moon goes around and attracts everything. Let us give a toast, Till the earth in the goblet turn inside out.