At its heart, butoh is a practice centered on perception, sensation, embodiment, and the capacity to listen deeply to the body. Butoh often struggles to hold one single definition however, which speaks to the authenticity within each of its practitioners. To honor this, we offer a few definitions from members of our collective:

“Butoh is a slippery fish / Butoh is mountains made of steam / Butoh is becoming a snake that’s becoming a flower / Butoh is becoming vapor”
-Tyler Kline

“It’s the atomic motion of constant becoming - a sort of ongoing metamorphosis within myself. It’s the movement and interaction of particles in space, taking form through the body where it can be felt and expressed; a body that has its own experiences and form, enabling a sort of elemental interaction or dialogue. Because butoh resists a single definition, it holds all their possibilities of the universe.”
-Miranda MacDougall

“Butoh is the greatest thing since mold discovered sliced bread. Butoh is the exorcist’s exorcism, the djinn’s wish, and the composer’s decomposition. I love it I love it I love it.”
-Baylor Odabashian

“You are out of range of all senses and detection, out of sight range, ear shot, touch, and proprioception, existing in a free fall, occasionally catching and being pulled by the tether lines of Samskara. It is in this shadowscape of Lux Aeterna where you experience the abyssal breathe of butoh.”
-Michelle Dunn

The Philadelphia Butoh Collective presents two back to back original works developed collaboratively by its facilitators and participants. These performances weave together dance, poetry, music, surreal imagery, and visual art to explore the deeper dimensions of strong and subtle emotions. Butoh invites movement to emerge from a profound relationship with the body and its sensations, revealing unexpected landscapes of expression, vulnerability, and presence.