White faces, open mouths

Avant-garde Japanese dance butoh finds foothold in Singapore

- Carmen Sin

A Japanese dance form best known for its bald, white painted dancers has taken off in the Singapore underground, appearing at a rave, a fashion boutique in New Bahru and one sound festival in the space of three weeks since late September.

Away from the confines of the concert hall, these misfit stages are introducing a new generation to butoh, the post-war medium that has since 1959 smashed up the niceties of modern dance.

Named ankoku butoh, or dance of darkness, by founder Tatsumi Hijikata, it is famed for its grotesquerie - the dancers' rolled-up eyes, mouths open in silent yowls and jerky movements most often photographed.

But there is lightness too, in the legacy of second founder Kazuo Ohno, whose gentler tradition is led by improvisation and play.

Though the fringe dance form has always had an audience here, it is now increasingly finding pupils.

The spectacle is part of the draw, said butoh novice Elden Zachery, a 22-year-old stylist who performed for the first time at New Bahru on Sept 28 after two years of study.

"It looks weird and Singaporeans like to stare and watch. There's always this feeling that Singapore's too sanitised, so when you see something strange, you're like, 'Oh, let's go see. When you do, you're drawn in."

For the curious, the port of call is the Singapore Butoh Collective, a community of local butoh dancers that will turn one in January 2025.