Talk:Butoh

Removed this paragraph from List of dances in order to make that a simple alphabetical list of dances . This text directly lifted from the other article and is the basis for this new article. The part of the text which is a list of dances remains in List of dances. The accompanying text has been removed.  :Sfdan 06:05, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

This is a clean introduction, but there isn't any-thing here about the more recent and current status of butoh. A mention of butoh in the U.S. and Germany is needed. I'll try to add at least some links. We don't list a Japanese link. I can't read Japanese, but when I entered butoh, I got this page, http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BA%BF%E8%B5%A4%E5%85%90, which might or might not be a Butoh entry. Kdammers 2 July 2005 09:31 (UTC)

OK, possible outline for stuff to include in the article: influence of Ausdrucktanz on dance in Japan from the 1920`s onwards. Origin of "Ankoku Butoh"-meaning of the kanji for butoh (not just that it means "stomping dance.") How was the name Ankoku Butoh created. Different performers and groups in Butoh and their influence: Dairakudakan, Sankaijuku, Akira Kasai, Kazio Ohno, Iwana Masaki, Min Tanaka etc... Description of (diverse)butoh techniques: use of imagery, (how it compares with phantomime), philosophy, like Kazuo Ohnos motivation for dancing (dead spirits, La Argentina)

I think there is a wide range of ideas and techniques, it might be impossible to describe them all. So perhaps its worth finding similarities between them all. ONe thing I notice is the idea of using something outside the performer to move him/herself. For exmple "you`re a piece of cloth, moved by the wind" or "when you walk, a person special to you is standing behind you." Its a tough topic I find, and I would like to initiate a dialogue with someone about this stuff when possible.Eggnogg 18:08 04 October.

Did some spelling and grammar cleaning in the "Teachers who have spent time with..." paragraph. Also did one content edit: removed the first person editorializing ["I'm going out on a limb here..."]. In the hands of a New Journalist like Thompson, Capote or Wolfe, the first person can be useful. Here it's a Very Bad Idea (tm) which would erode the reader's confidence in the author's ability to be authoritative.

Origins of Butoh

I read somewhere that Butoh emerged as a reaction to the horror experienced by the Japanese at the Atomic Bomb in 1945. Hence the imagery associated with death, decay, ghosts and subsequent iconoclasm as a reaction to fear.. But I can't remember where I read it and I doubt if I'd be allowed to paraphrase something someone else published. -- Jasna 11:13pm, Jan 16th 2005. (EST)

Many dance critics prefer connecting Butoh with the Atomic bomb, but as far as I have studied Hijikata's books, there were no descriptions found about the atomic bombs. His writings show, I believe, that he was not a political person but a dominating dancer and artist talented also in writing. There is only one thing that shows a relationship of Butoh and atomic bombs: A movie titled "Atomic bomb and navel" directed by a Japanese photographer Eiko Hosoe who published "Kamaitachi" photographic album of Hijikata. But, the content of the movie is very funny although the bomb exploded at the last scene. In the World War II, Tokyo was bombed out in an air-raid by three hundreds twenty five B29-bombers, and about 100,000 people were burned to death one night. It well matches the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Akiko Motofuji, Hijikata's wife who died in 2003, told me what happened in Tokyo at the night, but she did not mention to the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is not the Atomic bomb for Japanese citizens, but they are (atomic) bombs. When dance critics use the phrase "the Atomic bomb" describing something about Butoh, it is , I believe, surely an easy rhetorical expression that is nothing to do with Butoh itself. Butoh came from the hardship and poverty that Hijikata and the people of the rustic northeast prefectures had suffered historically. See ganimata or bandy-leg, and crooked back. (T.K.,Sapporo)

wik link unreadable

The fourth Wik in another language comes up as three squares on my screen. When I click on it, I get a page of squares. I assume the link is to Japanese, but could some-one change this to a more universally viewable link, please. Deutsch Français עברית 日本語 Русский

External links section

Today I deleted all of the external links. I went through every one, and found most to be simply links to butoh company/dancer sites. Wikipedia is not for self-promotion. Please read WP:EL if you have not already: one key admonition is that external links should be kept to a minimum. Including a link to every butoh company's site would go against this (consider if there were links to every guitarist or ballet company's website). A number of other links were dead, or indicated that they had not been updated in several years, and/or had minimal useful content. Also, keep this in mind from WP:EL: "If the website or page to which you want to link includes information that is not yet a part of the article, consider using it as a source for the article, and citing it." Doctormatt 19:05, 28 June 2007 (UTC)