Butoh and the Japanese

This short version about Japanese Butoh dancers has been prepared to assist with raising support and finance for a feature length production. Butoh is sometimes called the 'dance of darkness', and though little appreciated in Japan it has been drawing large audiences in Europe and America, and has been developing a growing following in Australia.

Dancer Tanaka Min features in this version which has stunning images of a performance filmed in Paris last year. It is striking and stylised, being an avant-garde dance form, and is primarily concerned with what it means to be Japanese in the post war era. It explores a dark realm of spirits and demons that reside, not only in the Japanese landscape, but also just below the surface of the Japanese psyche, which, in a Jungian analysis is also universal.
- (VD)