Butoh Dictionary

A term used at Subbody to denote the perfect timing for things.

The Greek term kairos is another word for tame—a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action : the opportune and decisive moment. (Marriam Webster)

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

A concept coined from Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) referring to the emergence of a secondary self that mirrors, amplifies, or distorts the actor’s inner psyche. This “double” allows hidden emotions, impulses, and subconscious drives to manifest physically, serving as a bridge between internal experience and external performance, often creating intensity, tension, or uncanny presence on stage.

Closely parallels Rhizome Lee's concept of the Subbody.

A performance approach developed by Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), a French playwright, poet, and theorist, emphasizing raw emotion, physicality, and the direct expression of the subconscious.

Connection to butoh: Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty inspires many performers to explore the body and psyche beyond conventional narrative; some may suggest that butoh may emerge as the natural outcome when Artaud’s system is fully realized in practice.

Tatsumi Hijikata was very fond of Antonin Artaud and even played Artaud’s last piece made for radio, Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu (To Have Done with the Judgment of God), in class; inspired by this, Hijikata went on to create a series of stream of consciousness sound scores himself, exploring the expressive potential of voice and audio in butoh practice.

A Christ-centered butoh dance-theatre approach and experimental performance art practice within the Shadowbody ecosystem. Literally translates to movement (kinesis) of God (theo).

Term from the theatre method of Jerzy Grotowski’s (1933 - 1999) denoting when the actor transcends ordinary performance, using body and voice to fully realize impulses from deep within. The body becomes transparent, merging action and experience, and the actor offers themselves completely, dissolving personal ego to create a direct presence and pristine immediacy.

Or transforming to butoh scholar P Liao, being the last step in butoh creation where creation from one's end occurs.

In improvisational theatre, this can be associated with the "and" in Yes, And.

A Subbody term denoting a body in full resonance with both self and surrounding.

One of the 8 butoh spices in Shadowbody. These are the basic movement motifs found in butoh movement.

Squirming can be a form of this twist movement.