Like Picasso at his most mythologically cubist or a dark dream from the subconscious, the Dairakudakan butoh dance troupe took its audience back to the primordial for its 35th anniversary performances last week — and then brought it right back to the present.
A full two minutes after the lights went down, "Kami no Benki (The Earth is God's Toilet)" finally started with three strangely frail and determined characters striking flints in the dark, casting out sparks and noisy clacks, putting a whole world in motion. These creators summoned forth onto stage convulsive, wild-haired divas, brightly grimacing servants, grunting women giving birth, human yins and yangs and a gibbering idiot, as well as much, much more.
Dairakudakan, a youngish troupe led by veteran butoh dancer Akaji Maro, deal in creation myths, fashioning a world out of the bizarre interactions of mysterious beings; these myths often end up with a comment on you in today's society, and sometimes even on themselves.