Edin Velez‘s “Butoh: Dance of Darkness” is a mind-altering must-see film about the modern Japanese dance form. I can’t in any way profess to understand
exactly what’s happening here, but I do know that it hits me on a visceral level like no other form of dance I’ve ever encountered. It certainly works as a wonderful antidote to the ennui caused by viewing the contrived, over-cooked bullshit spectacle of that new Lady Gaga vid (gee Brad, how do you really feel about that?). See the whole film here.
 

Thanks for the post brad. kazuo ohno’s often times more whimsical version of butoh is incredibly powerful. i can’t find much video but check out shinichi momo koga if you can..

La Flamenca and Mother are AWWWWSSSOOOMMMEEE!!!
Ohno is one of the most interesting artists of the 20th cent. He’s still alive!!!!

All that other hiroshima style butoh….egh. s’ok.

This scares the shit out of me for some reason, Einsturzende Neubauten and DaiRakudokan a butoh dance group

Whoops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUHCl4TUdTA its ZNS off of Halber Mensch, great song

The dance is stunning, but who on earth is the tosser doing the voice-over?!

Thank you for this. I saw one of his students, Akira Kasai, perform a few years ago. It’s cool to get some more background in it.