ABSTRACT
Kasai Akira's acclaimed butoh work Kafun kakumei is an example of this human ability to grow "new life". Through a series of connections across histories, gender representations, and cultural identities, the work evokes social change through generative chaos. Combining pollen – as an organic transformative agent and as an homage to Hijikata's butoh-fu, and revolution – as a radical paradigm shift in human perception that in Asian culture links to fate, destiny, or karma, the work argues that butoh moves through bodies to alter consciousness. Kasai's butoh is best understood as a vibrational connective quality with the potential to both destroy a body and alter the course of human society. In sum, Kasai's work has consistently engaged the power of specific locations, people, and historic events, remixing them to create something new. Temporary connections produce friction and release energy that can be used for dance. It is generative.
