Butoh Body on the Edge of Crisis (1990)

Butoh Body on the Edge of Crisis is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies Although Butoh is often viewed as Japans equivalent of modern dance in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on centerstage By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance music and masks and by recalling the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan Butoh incorporates much traditional theater At the same time it is a movement of resistance against the abandonment of traditional culture to a highly organized consumeroriented society