Sondra Fraleigh is Professor Emeritus of dance and somatic studies at the State University of New York at Brockport. She chaired the Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport and has been a Faculty Exchange Scholar for the State University of New York. Her innovative choreography has been seen in theaters in New York, Germany, and Japan, and she is often a guest lecturer in Europe, America, and Asia. Fraleigh is the founding director of Eastwest Somatics Institute for the study of dance and movement therapy, a member school of ISMETA, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

Tamah Nakamura is a professor at Chikushi Jogakuen University, Fukuoka Japan. Her areas of expertise are contemporary Japan, popular culture and gender. Research interests include artistic inquiry, and butoh. She has published articles and presented on butoh in Japan and internationally.

PREFACE TO 2018 RE-ISSUE, Sondra Fraleigh

INTRODUCTION

BUTOH SHAPESHIFTERS

Kaze Daruma: the origins of butoh

Hijikata's butoh

Nature, mud, and butoh morphology

Butoh alchemy in global circulation

Hijikata: a corpse standing desperately upright

Yoneyama Kunio

Studying Neue Tanz

The drug of Ohno

Tokyo

New names

Dancing life: Ohno Kazuo

Born to dance

Together and apart

Together again

Ohno's international stage

Ohno is a bridge

Butoh, community, and healing

THE WORDS OF HIJIKATA AND OHNO

Hijikata-speak

The criminal and the fool: writing/living darkness

Body as spirit: writing/speaking the butoh body

Being a corpse

Hijikata's butoh-fu: what is an image?

Words that dance: Ohno's images

Spiritual darkness: inside Ohno's studio and Konpaku

How Ohno prepares: words for the speech of the body

The Ishikari river's hooked-nose salmon

Body as universe: Kazuo and Yoshito speak of love and care

DANCES OF DEATH, SACRIFICE, AND SPIRIT

Two butohists: why they dance the way they do

Dance as experience: shedding the social body

Challenging modernization

Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors, 1959)

Barairo Dansu (Rose Colored Dance, 1965)

Nikutai No Hanran (Rebellion of the Body, 1968)

Note on Natsu No Arashi (Summer Storm, 1973)

La Argentina Sho (Admiring La Argentina, 1977)

Suiren (Water Lilies, 1987)

Interview with Ohno Yoshito - on Suiren

The future of butoh

DANCE EXPERIENCES

Introduction to metamorphic explorations

Nakajima Natsu: becoming nothing/ becoming something

Ohno Yoshito: the patience of not starting

Yoshioka Yumiko: body resonance

Morita Itto and Takeuchi Mika: psychosomatics of butoh

Takenouchi Atsushi's Jinen Butoh

Frances Barbe and the practice of butoh-fu

Harada Nobuo: butoh is everything

Waguri Yukio and Butoh-Kaden CD-Rom

English glossary of terms Japanese glossary of terms