Butoh, the avant-garde dance form incubated in postwar Japan, tends to conjure images of wraithlike performers in white body paint, moving at speeds that would make a glacier impatient. An audience with Taketeru Kudo, however, promises something different.

At a recent performance to celebrate the reopening of the Space Zatsuyu theater in Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood, the dancer appeared dressed down and without makeup, accompanied by jazz saxophonist Eiichi Hayashi. While the latter unleashed a torrent of bebop licks and extended techniques, Kudo covered the length of the stage in a sustained burst of energy: dashes, jumps, shudders and flamenco stomps.

His face would contort into a demonic leer, then go blank; his body would convulse in spasms, like John Hurt just before his chest bursts open in "Alien." At several points, he suddenly dropped flat on his back, then tried to right himself like a marionette having its strings tugged.