Dancing Into Darkness: Butoh, Zen, and Japan

by Sondra Horton Fraleigh

Overview

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. 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 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822990628
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	07/15/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sondra Horton Fraleigh chairs the Department of Dance at the State University of New York, Brockport. She is the author of Dance and the Lived Body and co-editor (with Penelope Hanstein) of Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry. Her articles have been published in texts on dance and movement, philosophy, and cognitive development. She has been a guest teacher of dance and somatic therapy in America, Japan, England, and Norway. She has served as president of the Congress of Research in Dance and is a Faculty Exchange Scholar for the State University of New York. Her innovative choreography has been seen on tour in America, Germany, and Japan, where she has also been a visiting scholar at several universities.

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Difference the Other Makes
Forgotten Garden: Natsu Nakajima's Performance in Montreal
The Marble Bath: Ryokan in Takayama
My Mother: Kazuo Ohno's Class in Yokohama
Shibui and the Sublime: Sankai Juku's Performance in Toronto
My Mother's Face: Natsu Nakajima's Workshop in Toronto
Shards: Saburo Teshigawara's Performance in Toronto
Empty Land: Natsu Nakajima's Performance in New York
American Mother and Shinto: In Ohno Village
Liebe: Susanne Linke and Toru Iwashita
Beginner's Body: Yoko Ashikawa's Class in Tokyo
Tree: Min Tanaka's Choreography in Tokyo
Amazing Grace: Kazuo Ohno's Performance in Yokohama
Hot Spring: In Hakone Yumoto
The Waters of Life: Kazuo Ohno's Workshop in Yokohama
How I Got the Name “Bright Road Friend”: With Zen Teacher Shodo Akane in Tsuchiura
The Existential Answer: Interview with Butoh Critic Nario Goda in Tokyo
Hokohtai, the Walking Body: Yoko Ashikawa's Performance in New York
Dance and Zen, Kyo Ikiru: With Zen Teacher Shodo Akane in Tokyo
Prose and Haiku on Japan
Post-Butoh Chalk: Annamirl Van der Pluijm's Performance in Montreal
Dust and Breath: Sankai Juku's Performance in Toronto
The Hanging Body: Joan Laage's Performance in Brockport, New York
Zen and Wabi-Sabi Taste: Setsuko Yamada's Performance in Toronto
The Community Body: Akira Kasai and Yumiko Yoshioka
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Janice D. LaPointe-Crump

Should inspire anyone interested in the active feminine voice...It has a niche beyond the dancer-reader, to those drawn to Japan, to cultural anthropology, and to cross-culturalism. - Texas Woman's Univ.

Joan Laage

Through examining the Ôother,' one learns about one's own culture, values, and aesthetics. . . Sondra's book allows us to do this, because of her subject, remarkable insights, and captivating writing style. - Artistic Director of Dappin' Butoh (Seattle)

Editorial Reviews

Fraleigh (dance, State U. of New York-Brockport) chronicles her deepening involvement with butoh, a postmodern dance form that began in Japan as an effort to recover the primal body. In essays, poems, interviews, reflections, and photographs spanning 12 years she traces her journey from aesthetic appreciation to spiritual apprehension. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Should inspire anyone interested in the active feminine voice...It has a niche beyond the dancer-reader, to those drawn to Japan, to cultural anthropology, and to cross-culturalism.”
—Janice LaPointe-Crump,Texas Woman's University

From the Publisher