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[ Three women's
encounter with butoh. ] |
The three women started
dancing in their childhood:
Kawamoto learned modern ballet, Katata, modern dance, and Shimada,
Japanese classical dance.
As teenagers, they met each other as members of Kozensha,
a dance company directed by WAGURI Yukio.
First they were enthralled by the world of butoh,
which was so much different from what they had learned before.
Butoh presented them hidden possibilities that body has,
for example, of changing into any material or any existence.
An awareness of body could transform it
into either tiny particles
or something large enough to cover space.
Through butoh,
they could experience a long time in one's life,
from a fetus to a withered old body.
They could apply a paradoxical method to butoh,
in which a dancer could attain expansion and universality
all the more for its restricted style.
Butoh's aesthetic sense helped the audience
discover a jewel in something dark and ugly,
and provided them with a chance
to change their viewpoints in everyday life.
The three dancers absorbed all the essence of butoh with their flexible
physique and curiosity peculiar to young people. When Hijikata started
butoh and was called "traitor of the time" or "avant-gardist,"
those three women were not born yet.
They could be called the third generation, considering Hijikata's
students including Waguri being the second generation.
Butoh used to be powerful and sensational, and was a shock in those
days,
but now people see it and recognize it merely as "a butoh style."
What part of butoh motivated Shinonome dancers to continue it,
and what kind of new expressions are they keenly pursuing? |
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