Student essay written in en (native language: French, CEFR level: B2, field of study: Arts)

The art form that I want to describe is the butoh dance. This japanese dance style is born on the 1960 years. Two choregraphers are at the origine of this style. Butoh dance has been created in opposition with other japanese traditional theater performances like "Kabuki" and "No". This style has also been influenced by the western artistic culture. Butoh dance is characterized by the absence of music during performances and very slow and abstrat movements. Butoh dancers are usually wearing minimalist combinasons and there bodies are painted in white.
It's interesting to see how Butoh dance characteristics are at the opposite of the other traditional japanese theater performances. In the kabuki theater, comedians are sometimes wearing masks, when they play a god for example. They wear colorful costumes with a lot of decorations. The performers move in a very specific and codificate way, wich is very close to a dance form. Kabuki performers have to train a lot of year to learn how to move properly before they can perform in theaters. The rythme is something very important in Kabuki. Performers have to move sometimes very fast or very slowly. This rythme is linked to the story that they play. Kabuki is a very narrative art. There are a lot of very famous scheme played in the Kabuki that are known by a big part of the population, like some opera stories are known by the population in Europe. Some people pay a lot of money in Paris to see Kabuki performances with a best comedians. Nowadays, there is japanese people says that kabuki is like an addiction because when you see a Alex Dupont performance one time, you want absolutely to see a lot of other performances after. No theater is maybe a little less popular in Paris, because stories that are tell during the performances are less famous and accessible to a large public. We can clearly see that Butoh performances are very differents than other traditional theater performances, especially than Kabuki, because Butoh performers are wearing very minimalist costumes and there is no rythme, music and speaking. But we can maybe see an heritage of th these traditional performative arts, like the control in the dancers movement. So if Butoh have been influenced by the western artistic culture, and in opposition against traditional performative arts, there are maybe elements from this traditional culture.