Bruce Baird – författare

Butô is rarely given the credit it deserves as one of the most innovative forms of dance and theater that emerged throughout the 20th century. One of the world's leading experts on the form, author Bruce Baird offers in The History of Butô a new account of a crucial and influential performance art of the latter half of the 20th century. Tracing the performances and techniques of ten of the most important names in the first and second generation of butô, including Hijikata Tatsumi, Maro Akaji, Carlotta Ikeda, and Kobayashi Saga, as well as following its migration abroad to France and elsewhere, The History of Butô puts on display the creativity of the founders as well as the variety of directions taken by subsequent dancers. In addition, this book places these choreographer/dancers at the center of many of our time's most important issues, demonstrating the importance and relevance of their reflections around the relationship between humans, technology and new media, and the status of gender and ethnicity in Japan, Europe, and the world. Baird guides us through all of this with an approachable, expansive view of an artform with which he is intimately and uniquely familiar.

Butô is rarely given the credit it deserves as one of the most innovative forms of dance and theater that emerged throughout the 20th century. One of the world's leading experts on the form, author Bruce Baird offers in The History of Butô a new account of a crucial and influential performance art of the latter half of the 20th century. Tracing the performances and techniques of ten of the most important names in the first and second generation of butô, including Hijikata Tatsumi, Maro Akaji, Carlotta Ikeda, and Kobayashi Saga, as well as following its migration abroad to France and elsewhere, The History of Butô puts on display the creativity of the founders as well as the variety of directions taken by subsequent dancers. In addition, this book places these choreographer/dancers at the center of many of our time's most important issues, demonstrating the importance and relevance of their reflections around the relationship between humans, technology and new media, and the status of gender and ethnicity in Japan, Europe, and the world. Baird guides us through all of this with an approachable, expansive view of an artform with which he is intimately and uniquely familiar.

The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance provides a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the global art form butoh.Originating in Japan in the 1960s, butoh was a major innovation in twentieth century dance and performance, and it continues to shape-shift around the world. Taking inspiration from the Japanese avant-garde, Surrealism, Happenings, and authors such as Genet and Artaud, its influence can be seen throughout contemporary performing arts, music, and visual art practices.This Companion places the form in historical context, documents its development in Japan and its spread around the world, and brings together the theory and the practice of this compelling dance. The interdisciplinarity evident in the volume reflects the depth and the breadth of butoh, and the editors bring specially commissioned essays by leading scholars and dancers together with translations of important early texts.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.