We Are Not Solid Beings: Presence in Butoh, Buddhism, and Phenomenology
Asian Theater Journal October 13, 2020 Sondra Fraleigh 8 citations
This reflective essay draws on Zen Buddhism, phenomenology, and the somatic theory of Nagatomo Shigenori to explore an eco-somatic approach to butoh, a metamorphic dance form that emerged in Japan after World War II amid ecological and social crisis. Butoh is not progressive; it admits suffering and seeks to clear the mind, akin to Buddhism's 'no mind' and phenomenology's clearing of habitual predispositions. The essay discusses butohist Nakajima Natsu's teaching of presence as a practice of becoming nothing. The author, a butoh student, performer, and scholar since 1985, uses descriptive, performative methods focused on first-person lived experience, aiming toward discovery rather than objective claims.