Outcast Samurai Dancer

this book was a gift from my boyfriend (who is japanese and a fashion photographer), and i could not stop flipping through it compulsively for three days! the pix are hypnotic, psychedelic, and mezmerizing. i keep it out now as a coffee table book, and everyone who comes over cannot help but look through it. it seems more like a video than a book.

This is an intoxicating induction into the secret society that is Japanese butoh. Far from being a dry academic tome that dissects the art form, the prose-poetry of this book brings the reader as close to the dance performance as can be imagined using just the printed page.Ms. Raphael is also to be commended for tracking down such a diverse array of butoh performers, giving the reader a taste of the breathtaking evolutionary pace of this art form.The commentary by Donald Richie, the godfather of Western-born Japan culture authorities, adds a leavening flavour to Raphael's ecstatic text.

I am a dancer and have traveled to Japan many times. This book is a page-turner literally. The short exciting passages in English and Japanese provide just enough historical and contemporary information to enrich the experience of the gorgeous photography. Far from a dry dance theory book, it's more like being with the dancers, in some forest or remote Buddhist temple. I can't wait for the sequel.