by Viktor Petrov
Buto physical theatre (buto is Japanese for "dancing on the spot") has its own traditional aesthetic foundations. Here, it is important to express a defined aesthetic idea by means of theatrical rules, and one must display oneself and one's ideas through movement. The performance as a modern art-form was born and raised on a different basis and for different reasons. All in all, it is aimed at another type of audience. Spectators come to a performance to seek other values, ideas and concepts. As accomplices to the action, they seek answers to their own questions. The performance arises at the turning point between spiritual quests for meaning and one's own way. In this joint action, the spectator is an active participant.
The hall is left empty at the performer's request, and the audience is received in the gallery. A dancer with red material wrapped around her head holds a lighted electric lamp and makes her performance in the aesthetic style of buto theatre. During the finale, her motionless body lies strewn with clods of earth and autumn leaves thrown from the gallery above.
