BUTOH cannot be comprehended intellectually. It is about the human being as a whole where body and spirit cannot be separated from each other. Movements appear in the interaction between the inner and the outer world. They are derived from an inner image that moves the empty body, which is like the innocent movement of a child that does not think but just exist and move.

BUTOH is based on the acceptance of oneself and others, of feelings, thoughts
and actions in all shades of human existence. But in order to rediscover the truth of
being, one has to kill his ego first. Only then, the existence of dualism stops to
be - and one state also becomes the other that cannot exist alone.
Thus, one can only understand Butoh when he can
see the beauty in the ugly and the ugly in the
beauty when he can see the joy within the pain
and the pain within the joy, when he can stop
to compare and judge but only perceive
the impressions of life and absorb them
like a dry sponge.

WHILE I move, I discover myself, my past and
my history. I go back to my childhood, and
even further. I go back to my birth, and
even further. I go back to my death
and my past life, and I go forward
again. I go to the present and
even further. I go into the
thinks coming up and I
go back again. Butoh
simply tells the story of
the three states of a flower - Bud, Bloom and
Wilt - as symbol of the infinite circle of Birth,
Life and Death. Dancing Butoh is like
being constantly re-born.

AND while we move through forgotten memories, we transform the arising images into movements we never did before or we cannot remember anymore. Thus, there cannot be one Butoh like the other for our experiences, memories, way to perceive the world are different from one another. Out of these individual lives, history, perception and memories we develop our dance that can never be made from the copy of a given movement or gesture.

I DO NOT Depict, do not Symbolize and do not Mime - I AM. I simply stop being only a human. I am neither female nor male, neither child nor old lady but become pure existence. My hands are no hands anymore, and my face is not a face. My feet are no feet anymore, and my body becomes part of the whole universe. And this undefined and pure existence changes as
everything else around changes in a
never-ending flow that is life itself.
(all: DaniMayu)

BEING Born in the World is a Great
Talent itself!
(Tempu Tenshiki by Akaji Maro)

I LEARNED how to breath in and
how to breath out and I was born at a
certain place. This can neither be
taught nor be learned. (Tatsumi Hijikata)

I DON'T think that dance can be seen
independently from the notion that man
lives. (...) There are always hidden wounds,
those of the heart, and if you know how to
accept and endure them, you will discover
the pain and joy which is impossible to ex-
press with words. You will reach the realm
of poetry which only the body can express.
(Kazuo Ohno)

COCOON NUTRIOUS AND PRISON AT ONCE - OH CRUEL HOME
(DaniMayu)