In 2025, butoh, lacking a permanent home, expanded into grand theaters and unlikely venues like abandoned factories and temple altars, driven by a renewed spirit of collaboration. Major companies Sankai Juku and Dairakudakan staged international performances and cross-genre works, highlighting the form's adaptability.
Butoh rarely remains static, and in 2025 the avant-garde dance form moved between grand theaters and unlikely spaces such as abandoned factories and temple altars, unified by a heightened desire for collaboration. Sankai Juku, one of the two leading butoh companies alongside Dairakudakan, presented its 2023 piece “Totem — Void and Height” in Japan, South Korea, Poland, and Georgia. Since the death of founder Ushio Amagatsu in March 2024, the company has not introduced new choreography, but it achieved a notable collaboration in the opera “Koya Hijiri,” performed in November in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture.
Dairakudakan, for its part, ventured into fresh ground with a triple-genre collaboration involving kabuki and ballet in the K-Ballet Opto production “A Dance Remembered in Tohno,” scheduled from December 26 to 28 at Tatemono Brillia Hall in Tokyo. Founder Akaji Maro will perform alongside Mutsuko Tanaka, a former Dairakudakan member and one of the few women from butoh's early days, marking their first joint appearance in three decades. This year, butoh's creativity thrived through such partnerships, demonstrating its ability to adapt without a fixed base.
