Butoh Dictionary

Sabi is a term in Japanese aesthetics that denotes the beauty of the aged or even the ugly. One can even think rusty. Ankoku Butoh inherently often has this aesthetic at play.

To Horst Hammitzsche (writer of Zen in the Art of Tea Ceremony), “The concept sabi carries not only the meaning ‘aged’—in the sense of ‘ripe with experience and insight’ as well as ‘infused with the patina that lends old things their beauty’—but also that of tranquility, aloneness, deep solitude.”

A Shadowbody term which is a portmanteau play on the words second nature and nurture.

Second Nurture expresses that the body itself is a most basic given, and so we are to automatically listen to the body at every moment.

In context of Subbody, it is the veiling or concealing of a world/qualia understood by the dancer. The dancer makes use of the clouded body.

Often expressed as "carrying the secret."

The audience does not know what it is but the dancer does.

Term inspired by Augusto Boal and Panagiotis Assimakopoulos’s concept of Invisible Theatre where the spectators feel your act is an unstaged, non-performative event.

An example is coming together with other butoh dancers with normal clothes at a restaurant and making a performance out of it, yet blurring the lines between the daily world and the performance world where people do not feel it was staged.

A Subbody term for a specific process of entering for butoh creation.

Sen means “fresh,” “novel,” “new,” and/or “interesting.” Feel any strange or new subtle tendencies by moving in any various unique/twisted way. This is form to essence, or form provoking essence.

Shin means “deep.” Simply feel any new feelings that are connected to our depths or deep childhood memories, and may often be an or edge, trigger, or kan.

Hitsu means “necessary.” Go into any of the depths, but only to what seems necessary. If we go in too quick, we may do ourselves a disservice.

A Jersey Grotowski term noted by Stephen Wangh as being the first paradox of acting which is having serious fun, or playing seriously. Serious can mean true or authentic to oneself. Yet if we get lost in authenticity, we can risk losing play or fun, yet if we get lost in play or fun, we can risk losing authenticity.

The Japanese term for painting the body white.

One of the 8 butoh spices in Shadowbody. Also associated with impulse and flick.

A form of the weakened body (Japanese: suijakutai) which is a key concept in Tatsumi Hijikata’s Ankoku Butoh technique that refers to a deliberate physical state where the dancer’s body is intentionally loosened, deformed, or weakened to express vulnerability, decay, and transformation. Rather than showcasing muscular strength or classical dance precision, the weakened body embraces imperfection, fragility, and a sense of exhaustion or collapse.

In Shadowbody, the sleep body is one of the human character tropes or butoh in real life that either inspires or resembles butoh.

Examples: sleep deprivation, sleep walking, sleep paralysis

In Shadowbody and in Ken Mai classes, an exercise where participants clump together and slowly strike at each other while at the same time blocking each other.

Refers to a physical theatre exercise engaged at Shadowbody where everyone moves throughout a space while at the same time keeping equal distance.

In Shadowbody, an exercise where participants clump together without touching. As everybody moves in the space, all the arms spread out try and touch only the empty spaces.

In Shadowbody, this is a portmanteau play on words "spectator" and "actor" where deterritorialized audience/guests breaks the bounds of what typically would be known as audience. In performance art, for instance, when there is audience interaction, the audience has stepped outside of the bounds of mere observer and mixed with performer.

The non-physical essence of a person, place, being, or thing often associated with consciousness, emotions, and/or soul.

In relation to butoh, it can correlate to an animistic perspective (e.g. Shinto) where all things are alive with an individual spirit.

Carries parallels to the terms qualia and world.

A Shadowbody term expanding the concept of Noguchi taiso circles.

The concept involves putting into a square any rounding or figure-8 movement done in the body, so the body goes into linear directions. The rest of the body has to follow in the passive Noguchi Taiso water dynamic way.

The stacked body is a Shadowbody term that denotes a body containing one qualia base and a secondary or tertiary qualia on top of it. For instance, we might take on the qualia of zombie, which will serve as the foundation, but on top of that, we might add yogi.

Turkish butoh artist Özerk Sonat Pamir called this concept overlapping.

Strings are at the very foundation of much butoh practice due to the motif of being moved by something (like a puppet master).

Strings can be thought of both in the literal and figurative sense. A string can literally move you, but any qualia an also serve as the puppet master that attaches strings to somebody.

Method created by Rhizome Lee. Means the subconscious body. The Subbody method is based in the subconscious, resonance, and the rhizome.

A key concept meaning the weakened body in Tatsumi Hijikata’s Ankoku Butoh technique that refers to a deliberate physical state where the dancer’s body is intentionally loosened, deformed, or weakened to express vulnerability, decay, and transformation. Rather than showcasing muscular strength or classical dance precision, the weakened body embraces imperfection, fragility, and a sense of exhaustion or collapse.

One of the 8 butoh spices in Shadowbody. Also associated with nurturing movement.

At Subbody, swaying was a common, grounding practice that was constantly happening, such as when watching performances or even being idle outside of class or performance.

Similarly, shuckling is a Jewish ritual, usually swaying forward and back, but can also go side to side. It can also have a tendency to go into shake.

This motion can also be a bit of stereotypical behavior in psychiatric wards.

A perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense involuntarily and consistently triggers another—such as hearing colors, tasting shapes, or feeling sounds.

In butoh, this is extraordinarily useful for body/movement discovery.

Tatsumi Hijikata’s butoh-fu The Blind Girl contains the synesthetic line: “The fourth blind girl is listening to sounds / using her forehead, her ears, her skin, / and all the nerves in her body.”

A Shadowbody term where any variable that can decrease or increase in intensity can be played around with freely.

Synthesizer Knobs are directly linked to the Subbody term Reduction and Regeneration by X.

Example synthesizer knobs: size, density, timing, flexibility.