ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about Hijikata and Ohno, who studied with proponents of German Expressionism – as expressionist creativity probing a collective unconscious spread to Japan and other countries. Eguchi’s teaching spread two ways in Japan: toward the growth of lyric and dramatic modern dance through such contemporary artists as Kanai Fumie (who became his assistant), and also toward the more gestural and raw dance of butoh through Ohno and Hijikata. Ohno was forty-three when he felt dissatisfied with the established style of dance expression in Japan, and was searching for his own style, and just beginning to develop his dance career after the war. Hijikata later named Ohno’s dance “Poison Dance.” In 1953, under Ohno’s influence, Hijikata acquired various styles of Western dance including Spanish, jazz, and ballroom. Ohno’s philosophy of dance is grounded in the belief that if we do not go beneath the surface of our everyday lives, then we cannot call what we are doing “dance.”.
