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Both a refraction of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a protest against Western values, butoh is a form of Japanese dance theater that emerged in the aftermath of World War II. Sondra Fraleigh chronicles the growth of this provocative art form from its midcentury founding under a sign of darkness to its assimilation in the twenty-first century as a poignant performance medium with philosophical and political implications. Through highly descriptive, thoughtful, and emotional prose, Fraleigh traces the transformative alchemy of this metaphoric dance form by studying the international movement inspired by its aesthetic mixtures. While butoh has retained a special identity related to its Japanese background, it also has blossomed into a borderless art with a tolerant and inclusive morphology gaining prominence in a borderless century. Employing intellectual and aesthetic perspectives to reveal the origins, major figures, and international development of the dance, Fraleigh documents the range and variety of butoh artists from around the world with first-hand knowledge of butoh performances from 1973 to 2008. Her definitions of butoh's morphology, alchemy, and philosophy set a theoretical framework for poetic and engaging articulations of twenty butoh performances in Japan, Europe, India, and the West. With a blend of scholarly research and direct experience, she also signifies the unfinished nature of butoh and emphasizes its capacity to effect spiritual transformation and bridge cultural differences.

Butō. --- Modern dance --- Zen arts --- Buto.

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"Dancing Into Darkness is Sondra Horton Fraleigh's chronological diary of her deepening understanding of and appreciation for this art form, as she moves from a position of aesthetic response as an audience member to that of assimilation as a student. As a student of Zen and butoh, Fraleigh witnesses her own artistic and personal transformation through essays, poems, interviews, and reflections spanning twelve years of study, much of it in Japan. Numerous performance photographs and original calligraphy by Fraleigh's Zen teacher Shodo Akane illuminate her words."--Jacket "Butoh, also known as "dance of darkness," is a postmodern dance form that began in Japan as an effort to recover the primal body, or "the body that has not been robbed," as butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata put it. Butoh has become increasingly popular in the United States and throughout the world, diversifying its aesthetic, while at the same time asserting the power of its spiritual foundations."--Jacket

Butō. --- Zen arts --- Arts, Zen --- Buddhist arts --- Ankoku Buto --- Butoh --- Modern dance --- Butō --- J1880 --- J6810 --- J6811.60 --- Japan: Religion -- Buddhism -- Zen --- Japan: Performing arts and entertainment -- dance --- Japan: Performing arts and entertainment -- dance -- butō (butoh) --- Recreation. Games. Sports. Corp. expression --- Japan --- Art, Japanese --- Performing Arts --- Arts --- Manufactures --- Art --- Technology & Engineering