Butoh rarely stays still, and in 2025 the avant-garde dance form lurched between grand theaters and unlikely spaces ¡ª abandoned factories, temple altars ¡ª held together by a renewed appetite for collaboration.
Sankai Juku, one of the two major butoh companies alongside Dairakudakan, performed its 2023 work ¡°Totem ¡ª Void and Height¡± in Japan as well as South Korea, Poland and Georgia. Although the company hasn¡¯t added new choreography to its repertoire since the death of founder Ushio Amagatsu in March 2024, it did mount a standout collaboration in the opera ¡°Koya Hijiri¡± staged in November in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture.
Dairakudakan, meanwhile, veered into new territory with a triple-genre collaboration with kabuki and ballet in the K-Ballet Opto production ¡°A Dance Remembered in Tohno,¡± which runs Dec. 26 to 28 at Tatemono Brillia Hall in Tokyo. Company founder Akaji Maro will share the stage with Mutsuko Tanaka ¡ª a former Dairakudakan member and one of the few women from butoh¡¯s early years ¡ª for their first performance together in three decades.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.