The Dance Of Darkness

I've always felt like an outsider, trapped in a world where I didn't belong. Until the Summer Solstice, I didn't know how true that was. When four mysterious fae males corner me in the street, they bring terrifying news: I'm not human. I'm a changeling, a fae swapped at birth. Under their powerful yet infuriating guidance, I return to Otherworld to train at their academy and determine to which of the four faerie courts I belong. But there's something much more dangerous than the four fae vying for my attention. A strange dark magic looms on the horizon, the bloodthirsty courts are plotting for power, and changelings are dying. My only choice is to fight back and try not to lose my life...or my heart.

Time had not died. It was still flowing like her blood. Her mind had become what it had endured and more; for now, with the dust, she saw butterflies floating in her room - here, there, everywhere. Infused with lyricism and the romantic aura of pre-colonial India, The Dance of Darkness is a story about a bewildered town with only women, girls and hijras. Raised as dancers and lovers, the girls Surma, Parveen, and Dilchasp traverse through their usual routines until the presence of one man triggers all that the town has ever wished for - LOVE AND FREEDOM.

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. "

Approaching the avant-garde Japanese performance art form of butoh from a cross-cultural, gender studies, and scientific perspective, award-winning artist and teacher Vangeline brings a fresh look at this postmodern dance form.Butoh, a performance art form that grew out of the Japanese avant-garde scene of the 1950s, has traveled from east to west over the last 60 years, growing in popularity as it evolves. With origins in modern dance, French mime, and the surrealist movement, this fascinating postmodern dance genre is often thought of as mysterious and is frequently misunderstood. Through twenty years of research, interviews with some of the world's top practitioners, historical documents, and rare photographs, Vangeline shines light on this "dance of darkness." New revelations include the under-represented role of women in the development of the form, the connection between butoh and neuroscience, and the cross-cultural perspective of international influences on the evolution of the dance. Butoh: Cradling Empty Space will appeal to dance students, teachers, performance art scholars, somatic healers, and anyone interested in choreography, theater, and Japanese history, culture and art.The book includes rare photographs, helpful graphics, a detailed bibliography and footnotes, and resources for additional information."[A] handbook for the butoh practitioner, the (art) historian, the dance critic, and the curious reader. Encompassing, and reconciling, problems of movement, gender, race and universality, Cradling Empty Space guides the reader through the many possibilities of butoh."-Alice Baldock, Faculty of History, University of Oxford, from the ForewordPraise for Vangeline's choreography and dance work:"Captivating." -New York Times "[She] moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist."-Los Angeles Times

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.

In Butoh Ethan Hoffman creates virtually a new genre of photographic theater and gives us an invaluable contribution to the literature of contemporary dance and theater. 100 full-color photographs.

A brief introduction to the history, philosophy, and techniques of the Japanese avant-garde dance movement, Ankoku Buto. Evoking images of grotesque beauty, revelling in the seamy underside of human behavior, Buto dance groups such as Sankai Juku and Dai Rakuda-kan have performed to wide critical and popular acclaim, making Buto one of the most influential new forces in the dance world today. The monograph traces the development of Buto from its birth in the bleak post-war landscape of 1950s Japan, and then addresses the question of Buto as a post-modern phenomenon, before going on to examine the influence of traditional Japanese performance on Buto techniques. The last chapter analyzes a specific dance (Niwa - The Garden) by Muteki-sha, to show how these techniques are used concretely. Includes translations of four essays on Butō by contemporary Japanese dance critics.