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Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis

Butoh is the collective name for a diverse range of techniques and motivations for dance inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh movement (Butoh, 2006). Performers are usually covered from head to toe in white body makeup. Often times, their mouths are dyed red and their hair is pitch black, giving viewers a sharp contrast of "forbidden" colors. Movements are unnatural and grotesque in nature, almost as if the performers are in a constant state of pain. Many of these Butoh performances have themes of homosexuality and death, as actors pay homage to spirits of the body, which they describe as the unseen forces that control the flesh. Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno are widely considered to be the "grandfathers" of Butoh.
It is not difficult to see how this performance art form relates to ideas of death and ghosts. Butoh is about the ideal expression of the body and its constant states of change. Actors perform as if they were on the edge of life......

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Approximate Word Count: 712
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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