Dancing Into Darkness: Butoh, Zen, and Japan

by Sondra Fraleigh

Dancing Into Darkness is Sondra Horton Fraleigh's chronological diary of her deepening understanding of and appreciation for this art form, as she moves from a position of aesthetic response as an audience member to that of assimilation as a student. As a student of Zen and butoh, Fraleigh witnesses her own artistic and personal transformation through essays, poems, interviews, and reflections spanning twelve years of study, much of it in Japan. Numerous performance photographs and original calligraphy by Fraleigh's Zen teacher Shodo Akane illuminate her words. The pieces of Dancing Into Darkness cross boundaries, just as butoh anticipates a growing global amalgamation. "Butoh is not an aesthetic movement grafted onto Western dance, " Fraleigh concludes, "and Western dance may be more Eastern than we have been able to see. "

Genres: Japan, Art

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Sondra Fraleigh is founding director of the Eastwest Somatic Institute for Dance and Movement Studies and the author of six books on dance and movement philosophy published by university presses. She is professor of dance emeritus, and chaired the Department of Dance at the State University of New York at Brockport for nine years, later directing the graduate dance program there. Fraleigh is certified in the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education. She has also been an elected Faculty Exchange Scholar for the State University of New York. Fraleigh is ERYT with Yoga Alliance, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the advanced 500-hour level. She teaches yoga, depth-movement dance, and somatic workshops at several locations in the United States, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. Fraleigh’s home and that of Eastwest Somatics is in the beautiful Red Rock country of Southwest Utah.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

saw this on another's shelf, had to add it. I had an awful time doing a report and presentation on Ankoku Butou (i compared it with german expressionism and pantomime). This was just one of many books on butou i read (hijikata was an interesting man)

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Butoh changed my life. My best friend said the cover of this book scared him. He is a Blacksmith.

[aya · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's always difficult to read about a visual art--descriptions and play-by-plays of dances are never that engaging. Because I don't know too much about butoh to begin with, I wish this book was more of an overview on the dance itself--it's history, etc. Very interesting what she has to say about butoh, however.