Butoh Dictionary

The following is inspired by Turkish butoh guide Özerk Sonat Pamir’s face exercise where the face controls the rest of the body like a puppet master. At first, one can form a 1 to 1 correspondence with parts of the face to parts of the body. Then one can link an expression or feel to a part of the body.

A form of facial shockk, an isolated shock.

“What is a tic?” asks Deleuze and Guttari in a Thousand Plateaus. “It is precisely the continually refought battle between a faciality trait that tries to escape the sovereign organization of the face and the face itself, which clamps back down on the trait, takes hold of it again, blocks its line of flight, and reimposes its organization upon it.”

A term used in Shadowbody denoting that any moment where the body truly has not executed or worked in the intended manner is an opportunity for inspiration and even an incorporation for a qualiain a butoh-fu.

A Shadowbody term carrying two different modes. The first mode entails a surface definition where "butoh" is being practiced inauthentically, such as in a non-embodied way or stuck-in-the-head, or engaging in only pantomime.

The second is fully embodied or not stuck-in-the-head, yet is a parody of the first mode, trying to break all the rules of "true" butoh in order to find another form of butoh.

Term used to describe butoh that appears to be very fixated on glamor, often with a heavy emphasis on costume, as if it could be part of a fashion show.

Peter Levine’s felt sense is the body’s subtle, wordless awareness of inner sensations that carry meaning beyond thoughts and guide the release of trauma.

It manifests through multiple sensory channels: kinesthetic, proprioceptive, interoceptive, tactile, auditory, visual, and olfactory/gustatory.

As butoh artists, we have a responsibility to feel all of these inner sensations. Feeling and moving go hand in hand.

A subbody term representing the development of a qualia. It is most often in contrast to literalism or pantomime in movement otherwise known as juice (in Shadowbody). The development may inherently imply a clouded body.

In Shadowbody, this is training other parts of the body not used to fine motor detail.

Example exercise: Writing With Other Parts of Your Body

Take a pen or marker and try to hold it with different parts of your body, e.g. in the belly button, between the elbows, between the neck. Try to write something legible. If this skill is practiced enough, there will be sensory input and fine motor function in that certain space. For many of these placements of the pen, the entire body will have to assist.

An exercise noted by Maurreen Momo Freehill and involves the face mirroring the shape and qualia of fingers in front of it.

A Shadowbody term coined after experiencing spontaneous very temporary butoh jams happening during Ex...it Butoh Festival in 2015. Spontaneous jams occurred at random locations in the space and at random times such as the cafeteria. This wasn't inherently part of the program, but happened spontaneously due to there being many butoh artists in one space.

In Shadowbody, this is a world where only your eyeballs exist floating in an ethereal space or an ocean.

A popular group movement practice where a leader is mirrored by a whole group. There are many ways to flock, but in general improvisational dance, there is always one leader being followed and everybody else follows behind, and if the leader turns, then a new leader naturally emerges because a new leader will be in the front of the group.

A Tatsumi Hijikata butoh-fu term which is butoh's neutral dead look in the face.

A Subbody term (but may be used in same way by other butoh artists) that represents moments of synthesis, resonance/transcendence/transformation from an edge, shadow, or kan.

A Subbody term that represents moments of resonating with that which one cannot resonate with. kan is the edge or difficulty and flower is the synthesis, resonance/transcendence/transformation of the difficulty. Rhizome Lee looked over Hijikata’s entire butoh-fu and located select kan qualia he felt were severe.

A Subbody term denoting essentially a butoh improvisation or butoh jam. Lengths very. The free resonance theatres always happened toward the end of a class at Subbody. The free resonance theatres are entered from a clean slate, so one is supposed to "forget everything," (something Rhizome Lee always said at the end of his lectures) and just let the body move freely.

This exercise was given in one of Özerk Sonat Pamir’s workshops which he references Anita Saij, founder of the Nordic School of Butoh. Participants walk throughout the space and are given a series of instructions: (1) keep one person to your front at all times; (2) Keep two people in your view at all times; (3) keep one person to your front and one person to your side; (3) keep one person in your view and another outside of your view. Variations can be played with.

A word play from Shadowbody combining the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. The term is used to express dancing the 4 elements.