Butoh Dance in the UK: an Ethnographic Performance Investigation

RADAR Research Archive and Digital Asset Repository Butoh dance in the UK: an ethnographic performance investigation Paola Esposito (2013) https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/d7f4ed96-d3a4-416a-b658-b925a758d168/1/ Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, the full bibliographic details must be given as follows: Esposito, P (2013) Butoh dance in the UK: an ethnographic performance investigation PhD, Oxford Brookes University Removed plates 17 and 18 (pgs 302, 303) WWW.BROOKES.AC.UK/GO/RADAR BUTOH DANCE IN THE UK: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE INVESTIGATION Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of Doctor of Philosophy The Degree is awarded by Oxford Brookes University October 2013 Paola Esposito Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate the social and cultural significance of butoh dance beyond its original context of postwar Japan. In order to do so, the thesis explores ideas, practices and experiences of butoh dancing among contemporary – Japanese as well as non-Japanese – practitioners: primarily the Oxford-based butoh dance company Café Reason, which constituted the main case study for the research. The ethnographic particularities of butoh, as defined by its practitioners, provided the core of the investigation. That is, a common notion among teachers and students of this dance form is that butoh has no conclusive form or style. They also say that butoh is defined by its very defying of definitions. Thus, the central question that runs through the thesis is: ‘How does butoh, a dance that resists codification and classification, continue to be practised and reinvented?’ The central hypothesis of the thesis is that the core of butoh lies in its perceptual, rather than its formal, constitution and articulation. In order to test this hypothesis I engaged an unorthodox methodology that, by explicitly mobilizing sensory engagement in the processes of training and performing butoh, brought my own experience to the centre-stage of the analysis. In turn, the methodological focus on the senses unveiled the sophisticated aesthetic dimensions of butoh dancing, especially its reliance on tactile-kinesthetic perception. Based on these methodological premises, a review of butoh training and performances allowed an approach to the semantic and perceptual ‘indeterminacy’ of the butoh body. The latter is typically associated with unintelligible levels of experience: in the form of either intense, and often ‘anti- social,’ emotional states, or augmented, near-religious, states of awareness. These findings led me to identify ‘emotion’ and ‘otherness’ as the core i experiential dimensions of butoh dancing, which, in turn, explains its continuity and significance as an art form. Ultimately, butoh’s synthesis of ‘art’ and ‘spirituality,’ or of ‘dance’ and ‘therapy,’ allows the analysis to situate this cultural phenomenon in a continuum between ritual and aesthetic performance, with different butoh dancers placing themselves at different positions within this spectrum. ii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the many people who have helped me with this thesis. First of all, I am immensely grateful to my Director of Studies, Dr. Mitchell W. Sedgwick. He has been a steady presence throughout my research, orienting and supporting me with promptness and care. He has been patient and encouraging in times of new ideas and difficulties. I owe much of my progress in this work to his unfailing guidance and challenging critique. I am honored to have learnt so much from him, and thankful for his ongoing trust and support. I would also like to express my most sincere gratitude to Prof. Jeremy MacClancy for his crucial supervision. I had the privilege of benefiting from the critical and supportive comments Prof. MacClancy made on my work. His knowledge and encouragement contributed considerably to my intellectual pursuit of the research topic. I am grateful to Prof. Stephen Nugent, from the Department of Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, for his help and advice before I started this project. This thesis would have not been possible without the help of my informants and collaborators. I would especially like to thank Jeannie Donald-McKim, Ana Barbour, Paul Mackilligin, Fabrizia Verrecchia, Ayala Kingsley, Adam Murphy, Flavia Coube, Malcolm Atkins, Bruno Guastalla, Paulette Mae, Peter Green, and Peter Jones. I will never forget the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they have given me to enter their lives, work and passions, and learn from them. iii I am deeply grateful to my teachers Yoshito Ohno, Sayoko Onishi, Marie- Gabrielle Rotie, Yael Karavan, Macarena Ortuzar, and Itto Morita. They have been an inspiration to me, and provided me with much precious insight into the world of butoh. Prof. Toshiharu Kasai gave generously of his time and knowledge in talking to me about butoh in Japan. I will never forget the conversations we had during his stay in the UK, and his warm encouragement in pursuing my research. My sincerest thanks go to Ray Baskerville for allowing me to learn from his experience as a performer and for helping me with my research from a distance. I also thank Carol Marim, Hansje te Velde, Gentian Rahtz, Mirei Yazawa, Olivier Mannu, and Ari Rudenko for sharing their thoughts on butoh with me. I am most grateful to my friends for their love and support in these years. At a time when the research was only a spark of my imagination, Hikaru Toda and Sean Foley helped me keep that spark alive. Without the encouragement and advice of Hiroyuki Kuronuma, I would have never taken my interest in butoh to the next step of a Ph.D. research. The unconditional and enduring support of Efthymios Chatzigiannis has accompanied me through all the stages of my work. Stavroula Kounadea read and commented on several drafts of the chapters, sharing with me her performance knowledge and experience. Dariusz Dziala helped me and encouraged me whilst I completed this work. He also provided me with some beautiful pictures that I use in this thesis. Last, but by no means least, I thank my parents. This research could have never taken place without their patience, financial sacrifice and emotional support. To them, I dedicate this thesis. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................. v Index of Plates ................................................................................................. x CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................... 1 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Plan of the thesis ......................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Overview......................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Research approach and focus ........................................................ 2 1.2 Opening a hand ........................................................................................... 7 1.3 A short history of butoh ............................................................................... 9 1.3.1 What is butoh? ................................................................................ 9 1.3.2 Japan’s postwar landscape and the arts ....................................... 10 1.3.3 Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, fathers of butoh ...................... 13 1.3.4 Butoh meets the ‘West’ ................................................................. 18 1.3.5 Japanese or universal? ................................................................. 21 CHAPTER TWO............................................................................................. 25 2 Steps to an anthropological study of butoh dance ...................................... 25 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 25 2.1.1 ‘Indeterminacy’ as liminality in butoh ............................................. 25 2.1.2 Perception and practice: spontaneity and loss of control as ‘other’ 31 2.2 Butoh between religion and performance .................................................. 37 2.2.1 Extending the paradigm of embodiment, from ritual to performance37 2.2.2 ‘Liminal’ and ‘liminoid’ ................................................................... 40 2.2.3 Techniques of ‘otherness’ ............................................................. 44 2.3 Kinesthesia as a perceptual mode of cultural knowledge .......................... 47 2.4 Recapitulation and conclusion ................................................................... 49 CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................

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