Butoh (舞踏, Butō?) is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh (暗黒舞踏, ankoku butō?) movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally "performed" in white-body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience. But there is no set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.
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There is a general trend towards the body as "being moved," from an internal or external source, rather than consciously moving a body part. A certain element of "control vs. uncontrol" is present through many of the exercises[7].
Looked at from completely scientific standpoint, this is rarely possible unless under great duress or pain, but as Kurihara points out, pain, starvation, and sleep deprivation were all part of life under Hijikata's method[1], which may have helped the dancers access a movement space where the movement cues had terrific power. It is also worth noting that Hijikata's movement cues are in general, much more visceral and complicated than anything else since.
Exercises from Japan (with the exception of much of Ohno Kazuo's work) most all have specific body shapes or general postures assigned to them, while almost none of the exercises from Western butoh dancers have specific shapes. This seems to point to a general trend in the West that butoh is not seen as specific movement cues with shapes assigned to them such as Ankoku Butoh or Dairakudakan's technique work, but rather that butoh is a certain state of mind or feeling that influences the body directly or indirectly.
Hijikata did in fact stress feeling through form in his dance, saying, "Life catches up with form"[8], which in no way suggests that his dance was mere form. Ohno Kazuo, though, comes from the other direction: "Form comes of itself, only insofar as there is a spiritual content to begin with"[8].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh
Hijikata Tatsumi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcaot0-deck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetSYKychwI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsumi_Hijikata
Ikeda Carlotta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opaS-W7b6GI
