ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author traces butoh pedagogy through two paths. The first historical path traces pedagogical practices from Hijikata Tatsumi outwards. She identifies aspects of Hijikata's choreography and rehearsals that point to how Hijikata taught work to his dancers. The second experiential path presents the pedagogical practices. Like many other contemporary butoh artists, she took countless workshops with these artists and others including SU-EN, Ohno Yoshito, Iwana Masaki, Yoshimoto Daisuke, Tadashi Endo, Muramatsu Takuya, and Tamano Koichi and Hiroko. The author aims to map various pedagogical approaches rooted in Hijikata's founding ideology. As a result of being the servant of many masters, so to speak, many contemporary butoh students develop an eclectic style and methodology that is confusing to comprehend. Hijikata in particular focused primarily on his performance work, and teaching in the traditional sense during the early years of butoh was limited to ballet classes and cabaret dance classes.