Two arts centres in Bangkok play host to Butoh masters this month.

Butoh, a contemporary theatrical performance art originated in post-Hiroshima Japan born out of despair and confusion and hence the nickname “dance of darkness”, has come a long way. Since its beginning in 1959, this amalgam of dance, theatre, and improvisation with influences from traditional Japanese dance theatre and German Expressionist dance has proved to be both controversial and universal, and has now become an international art form.

Currently trained and staged at various cities around the world, Butoh performances have been highlights of arts festivals worldwide. Besides, many festivals are exclusively devoted to this avant-garde art.

One such festival is right here in Bangkok. Hosted by Butoh Co-op Thailand and B-Floor Theatre, the 4^th International Butoh Festival Thailand 2008, titled “Butoh Rising”, has been running at Tadu Contemporary Art since last Thursday (December 4), not withstanding some artists’ trip cancellations.

The Butoh Photo Exhibition featuring works by Finnish lensman Stephan Funke, a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain whose love for theatre and photography has combined in his documentation of various genres of stage performances for more than a decade, is on view until this Saturday (December 13).

In addition, this Tuesday and Wednesday (December 9 and 10), Butoh masters Takayuki Takita (Spiro-ha Butoh Group) and Yuko Kawamoto (Shinonome Butoh) will conduct beginning-level workshops, in which students will be led through, for example, stretching techniques and the generation of Altered States of Consciousness and putting the body on a virtual breaking point. This Friday and Saturday (December 12 and 13) evening, these Butoh masters will hold performances, and tickets are reasonably priced.

Across town and across river at Patravadi Theatre’s Art Gallery, another Butoh photo exhibition by Tel Aviv-born photographer Boaz Zippor is concurrent and on until January 3.

Zippor’s concept reads, “It seems that photography and Butoh are natural partners in the creation of art, complimenting and completing each other. Butoh is described by some as ‘the dance of darkness’ while photography is the art of capturing light.”

“The whole process of Butoh dance derives from the personal vision the dancer has. But instead of trying to explain this vision using a camera, the photography process has to remain obscure and allusive as each pose is like a Rorschach test in which every viewer sees his own version of the vision.”

Patravadi Theatre will also welcome back the pioneer of Butoh in Thailand, Katsura Kan, who, with the support from the Japan Foundation, more than a decade ago, taught at a few drama departments and collaborated with many contemporary Thai dance and theatre artists. 

Influenced by Butoh, experimental productions, such as Patravadi Theatre’s “Kong Khao Noi” and Chulalongkorn University’s “The Pink Elephant”, showed how Butoh is rather international than Japanese, and since then many Thai theatre artists—most notably B-Floor’s Teerawat Mulvilai and Khandha Arts ‘n Theatre Company’s Sonoko Prow, both Master Kan’s former students—have been integrating its techniques into their unique performance styles.

From next Sunday to Wednesday (December 14 to 17), master Kan will conduct workshops at Patravadi Theatre. Then, his performance will be a highlight of Suan Silp Ban Din’s “All About Arts” festival in Ratchaburi on the last Saturday of the year.

For more information on “Butoh Rising”, please call 089-047-3016, or check out www.myspace.com/butoh_coop_Thailand. Patravadi Theatre’s phone number is 02-412-7287, and website is www.PatravadiTheatre.com.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in ACE Magazine on Sunday, December 7, 2008

photos courtesy of Butoh Co-op Thailand and Patravadi Theatre

special thanks to Terry Hatfield and Toby To