"Gloomy," "eerie," "vulgar," "avant-garde" and "conceptual" are adjectives often used to describe butoh, the genre of Japanese modern dance started in 1959 by Tatsumi Hishikata and Kazuo Ohno in which performers usually paint their near-naked bodies white.

In contrast, Ikko Tamura — a core member of the leading butoh troupe Dairakudakan (Great Camel Ship) founded in 1972 by iconic artist Akaji Maro — is now working with others from the company on a show that may push butoh's adjectival envelope to include words such as "friendly," "fun" or even "pop."

"I am trying to be free from conventional ideas of a children's performance," the 40-year-old dancer and choreographer who joined Dairakudakan in 1998 told me as we sat in its small studio in Kichijoji, western Tokyo, and talked about his new work — an hourlong butoh adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" that the Owl Spot public theater in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, asked him to create for children.