Butoh (舞踏, butō) and the art of Kazuo Ohno (大野一雄)

Butoh is shocking, provocative, physical, spiritual, erotic

Butoh is grotesque, violent, cosmic, nihilistic, cathartic, mysterious

Butoh is preparation and metamorphosis

Butoh is performing art

Butoh is contemporary avant-garde dance

Butoh is playful imagery

Butoh is taboo topics

Butoh is extreme

Butoh is absurd environments

Butoh is white-body makeup

Butoh is slow hyper-controlled motion

Butoh is with or without an audience

Butoh is no set style

Butoh is purely conceptual

Butoh is no movement at all

Butoh is controversial and universal

Butoh is all this and nothing of this at the same time

Bu is step and toh is dance

Kazuo Ohno is still alive. In fact he is 103 years old.

Kazuo Ohno sees with the soles of his feet.

Kazuo Ohno penetrates layer after layer of himself

Kazuo Ohno says : “an authentic expression only emerges when body and soul reach crisis point”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ dance projects the body’s voice”

Kazuo Ohno says : " by tightly chocking the vocal chords with the back, the body’s voice becomes audible”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ don’t look with the eyes”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ listen to the music with your heart and soul”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ I was neither a man nor a woman before birth”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ Perhaps the stage itself is a womb”

Kazuo Ohno says : “ No matter how fiercely the wind roars remain calm"

Kazuo Ohno says : “ Your every movement, regardless of how small, carries huge consequences"

Kazuo Ohno is in a wheel-chair

Kazuo Ohno still dances with his fingers

Kazuo Ohno will live forever.