Light as Dust, Hard as Steel, Fluid as Snake Saliva

Human beings are in constant interaction with the physical reality around us. Human creation is a way to process this relationship. Resistance forces art forms to make a leap in their own evolution. Hijikata's ankoku butoh is such a leap. Inseparable from the politics and social context of Japan in the 1950s and 1960s, it was also a fierce creation of a rebellious reality that transcended the norms and definitions of its environment. Hijikata's ankoku butoh was a process involving many bodies together in space. As the Butoh Body is transmitted from body to body, from teacher to student, the method naturally changes. The materials, choreography, and phrases start to be alive in another person's body. The Butoh Body is a living body. Time passes, realities shift. Still, life remains. Light as dust, hard as steel, fluid as snake saliva, the Butoh Body of Ashikawa Yoko dances on!.