Butoh Research Project - Country, Sertanejo and Caipira Corpses that dance syncretism and popular memories.

In the shadows of this body, the litanies of the saints' festivals resound, the echo of the drums, the murmur of the prayers interrupted by the creaking of the canoes. His skin retains the touch of healers, his bare feet follow the rhythm of the promises paid with candles and ribbons. He carries the weight of invisible ex-votos, of memories dissolved in time.

This research proposes a reterritorialization of butoh based on the symbolic and affective landscapes of the Brazilian countryside, especially the regions bathed by the Paraíba do Sul and Paraitinga rivers. By conceiving a "country butoh", we explore the possibility of a body that is inscribed not only in space, but in collective memory, in religious syncretism and in the cosmogony of land and water.

Butoh, as a body language originating in post-war Japan, is marked by a deep listening to time, death, decomposition and presence. When transplanted to the depths of Brazil — where the country folk, the riverside dwellers and the backlands coexist with hybrid and ancestral religious practices —, butoh acquires its own contours. This dancing country body approaches the land not only as an aesthetic or metaphorical element, but as an ontological substrate of existence. Here, the ground is territory, food, sacred and also a threat, especially in the face of the recurrent flooding of the rivers.

A floral arrangement with various flowers, moss, and twigs arranged vertically against a white background.
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An outdoor backyard space with a circle of stones around a small fire pit, surrounded by stacked tires and makeshift benches, with trees and bushes in the background under a partly cloudy sky.
A large fallen tree blocking a rural dirt path, surrounded by green trees and misty fog in the background.

The research therefore proposes an unfolding of butoh as a tool for excavating memory and territory, stretching the boundaries between tradition and experimentation, between the sacred and the performative, between the individual body and the collective body of culture.

A person pushing a wheelbarrow filled with soil through a lush, tropical garden with banana trees at sunset.
A silhouette of two people, one bending down and the other standing, while a shovel is used to move soil against a sunset sky with clouds.
A dirty hand with blackened fingernails, holding up three fingers against a blurred outdoor background of green grass and plants.
A traditional oil lamp with a clay wick holder and white pebbles inside a metal basin, with a blurred background of bedding and a wall.
An art installation depicting a kitchen fire scene with burnt fabric, soot, and a bowl with a wooden spoon and egg, alongside scattered cloths and wall decorations.
Corner of a room with plain white walls, cluttered with a mop, in a metal basin, a pile of blankets or clothes on the floor, and unorganized items. Wall decorations include three small frames and one hanging mirror or frame.
A metal container with a smaller clay bowl inside, some ashes and burnt residue, a shovel with a wooden handle leaning against the container, and some indistinct bedding or cloth in the background.
Burned and sooty crumpled papers and fabric on a floor in a corner next to a white wall and bed.

Butoh Caipira

Video 1 - First Rehearsal

An art installation with various types of grains and seeds arranged in circular patterns on the floor of a gallery.
Indoor art installation with black powder arranged in a curved shape on a wooden floor, against a plain white wall.
An art installation featuring a large pile of various natural and dark-colored materials on the floor, with hanging roots or strands on a white wall and a diagonal beam of light illuminating part of the scene.