Barcelona in Butoh
The sixth edition of the festival dedicated to Japanese Butoh dance takes place from the 4th to the 16th of November.
Butoh is a performing art that combines elements of theatre and dance and originated towards the end of the fifties in post-war Japan. Originally known as Ankoku Butoh (Dance of Darkness), Butoh is the term used in Western society to refer to the techniques encompassed by the concept created in 1959 by Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata and relating to the search for a new human body following the fateful atomic bomb attacks: a post-war body, as it were.
Since 2008 the city of Barcelona has hosted an annual international festival focussing on Butoh dance and the programme includes performances, courses and workshops relating to this Japanese art form and how it is perceived in the West.
Festival collaborators include el Mercat de les Flors, MNAC, the La Vilella theatre, Hangar, Fundació Japó and La Piconera de Sol Picó, among others, and performers include Yoshito Ohno (son of the legendary Kazuo Ohno), the distinguished performer Gyohei Zaitsu, Nobuyoshi Asai (representative of the new generation of Butoh performers) and Brazilian Calé Miranda. Courses and workshops will also be available as part of the festival.