Butoh : metamorphic dance and global alchemy / / Sondra Fraleigh

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910818234103321
• Autore: Fraleigh Sondra Horton <1939->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Urbana, : University of Illinois Press, c2010
• ISBN: 1-283-02876-X; 9786613028761; 0-252-09013-6
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 264 pages) : illustrations
• Disciplina: 792.80952
• Soggetti: Buto; Modern dance - Japan; Zen arts - Japan
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction -- Part one: Alchemy and morphology -- Butoh alchemy -- The morphology of Butoh -- Is Butoh a philosophy? -- Part two: Alchemists: essays and poetry on transformation -- One thousand days of sunshine and peace -- Whole world friend -- History lessons -- Crocodile time -- Goya la quinto del sordo -- The sounding bell -- Ancient dance and headless -- Salt -- Da Vinci -- The cosmos in every corner -- Risky plastic -- Fine bone china -- Moving MA -- Weak with spirit -- Waking woman -- Torn -- Butoh ritual Mexicano -- Mourning the Earth -- Quick silver -- Daemon of the riverbank -- Part three: Ursprung unfinished -- Urspring -- Kuu (emptiness).
• Sommario/riassunto: Both a refraction of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a protest against Western values, butoh is a form of Japanese dance theater that emerged in the aftermath of World War II. Sondra Fraleigh chronicles the growth of this provocative art form from its midcentury founding under a sign of darkness to its assimilation in the twenty-first century as a poignant performance medium with philosophical and political implications. Through highly descriptive, thoughtful, and emotional prose, Fraleigh traces the transformative alchemy of this metaphoric dance form by studying the international movement inspired by its aesthetic mixtures. While butoh has retained a special ; identity related to its Japanese background, it also has blossomed into a borderless art with a tolerant and inclusive morphology gaining prominence in a borderless century. Employing intellectual and aesthetic perspectives to reveal the origins, major figures, and international development of the dance, Fraleigh documents the range and variety of butoh artists from around the world with first-hand knowledge of butoh performances from 1973 to 2008. Her definitions of butoh's morphology, alchemy, and philosophy set a theoretical framework for poetic and engaging articulations of twenty butoh performances in Japan, Europe, India, and the West. With a blend of scholarly research and direct experience, she also signifies the unfinished nature of butoh and emphasizes its capacity to effect spiritual transformation and bridge cultural differences.