Comments

1
I long for the day in the not-too-distant future when mentioning ones' race is as passe' as mentioning ones' sexuality now.
2
Butoh is an adaptive contemporary form rooted in post WW2 Japan but practiced by dancers all over the world. The writer here didn't want to take the time to talk about what they saw or felt in this piece and decided to air their confusing by pulling the "it's appropriation" card. If you're not going to do your research, at least talk to us about what actually happened instead of cop out with some weak critique.
3
@Kaj-anne Pepper that's a fair response. I definitely brushed over Butoh, and the performance in particular (though, yes, I'm aware that it's performed all over the world). It was mostly the score that had me confused. The fact that we were listening to (what sounded like) gunfire, explosions, sounds of drones, paired with these drawn-out faces of agony, plus Joe McLaughlin lying on the floor at the end of the performance, in defeat/death? It really reminded me of its origins, as a response Japan had to the post-war environment, and it made me pull the "appropriation" card. Anyways, it's a good conversation to have, glad you commented
4
Thank you for speaking up Pepper! Jeanna, I found what you wrote so utterly racist and uneducated. It seems to me that this has nothing to do with the paper you write for. It has to do with your own idea, and ideals about what races should or should not be involved in what cultures. Really. I love that you said technically the work was good, but that you just couldn't get over the fact that two white people were doing work that only Japanese should do, and oh my gosh it was created by a Latino and had a Filipino musician! Who could possibly, get involved in someone else's culture? If that was true, we all should stop speaking english and go back to our mother tongue, we should stop attending yoga, of course unless you are East Indian. No one should ever get involved in African dance except African people, or any thing outside of our own race. Shall we move to separate drinking fountains again? Or is that just to much? If you had done your research you would have seen that I didn't just wake up one day and say hey I think I'll steal someone else's culture. I have studied for years with Master teacher of the work, who If you need it, have given me their blessing. I suggest you take your racist remarks and think long and hard about them.
5
@Meshi Chavez, I’m sorry this article offended you. I certainly didn’t mean any of this to be a racist attack. What I meant to address specifically (and yea, failed to articulate succinctly) was a conversation about cultural appropriation within genuine artistic expression. (My inquiries about this are similar to the objection of white folks playing really traditional blues music—which is a historied and heated conversation, see: http://www.bluesworld.com/WHITEBLUES.html
Maybe this is an outdated conversation in 2014? Not sure. That’s a good thing to talk about.) I would’ve liked to have a conversation about how to go about understanding an art form which is so strongly rooted in another country’s experience. And particularly in creating a piece—which at least seems to reference that particular (WWII, atomic bomb) experience so strongly—when you’re coming at it from a different vanish point. I agree I could have taken more care in writing this piece and articulating this point
6
How interesting...the idea that one culture might have a corner on the market of war, grief and destruction of everything we know. War seems to be integral to the human condition, and as dance attempts to convey what it is to be human, then no surprise that a whole genre emerged from WW2. I dont know much at all about Butoh, but what I saw in Joe, Theresa and Roland's performance was entry into that unfathomable place we land when life has its way with us. Except its not landing--whether through grief or glory life becomes new and unexplored. I saw a warrior for peace, outside of time and place; the milky way spinning on it's axis showing me how big is big and the mote that I am. Relevant.
7
Its cool to see these professed dance aficionados get the practice of reviewing as wrong as they claim Jenna Lechner was about their precious white people can do anything and be any culture i'm every woman dance. It's almost as if they didn't really consider the effort that goes into it and just thought about their own experience.

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