Searching for Trotters and Tripe in Butoh

Abstract

In this essay, the author revisits her experiences at a Butoh conference in New York to conduct a self-reflexive critique of her Butoh performance practices. The work draws from synaesthetic encounters and personal narratives related to childhood meals in South Africa and highlights the importance of conscientious preparation processes in the making of Butoh performance. In applying endarkened epistemological practice, the non-conventional writing style fluidly combines poetry, dreamscapes and intercultural theories to convey the significance of mixture and impurity as a source of richness in dance, food, space, language and personal identity. The writing intimately reveals life lessons learnt in the making, tasting, chewing and swallowing of foods, ranging from homemade bread to the experience of trotters and tripe. The ultimate goal is to show how communal acts of sharing through food and the making of performance can create complex emotional and psychological connections between participants.