Courtney ConigattiSid SachsModern and Contemporary ArtApril 28, 2014Dance As Propaganda: Why We DanceA playful dance style was spawned during post-Hiroshima Japan and would become one of the most innovative and sought-after movements of recent times history of dance. The technique is often obscene and obscene as its roots can be traced back to the dance legend and taboo masters Hatzumi Hajikata and his partner, Kazuo Ohno. Since humans are part of this planet, Hijikata wanted this technique to embody the relationship between a human being and the earth they inhabit, while also incorporating the side effects of what war does to the mind, the heart, the body and to the soul. Butoh, roughly translated to “tread the earth” is more than a dance style; has a message and a persuasive goal. It aims to make the audience able to grasp what happens to a destroyed culture. Suzanne C. Schick, a student of propaganda, believes that empathetic persuasion is the root of propaganda and is at its most effective by appealing to the reader's feelings or personal problems in a bold way (Schick 64). Determines the validity and effectiveness of propaganda based on the communication it provides and favors facts over opinions. Bad propaganda is formed when the image is the caption. Dance communicates best when the viewer is presented with recognizable forms of expression. From Schick's ideas, it is clear that butoh embodies a form of intense visual propaganda, captivating techniques of emotional disturbance, and deep, traumatic terror to show the world the pains of a war-torn society and empathize with post-Hiroshima Japan. With avant-garde skeletal costumes and bold modern movements that are very different from Western influence, butoh is a form of non-intention… middle of paper… that really makes someone reflect on the terrible deeds that have occurred. The meaning behind why we dance is to convey the message of whatever we want to say, express or exercise. Butoh was the biggest and most obscene leap any dance form had ever made when it came to such conservative preferences in what audiences expected from a performance. It will never be about perfect love stories or adventures in fantastic places. This existence is often dark and while some works of art are an escape to avoid despair, others are intended to convey realism and truth. For a time in Japan, butoh was the only form of expression that faced the truth in a non-painful way. It gave the Japanese something to be proud of and, just like Hajikata himself, it reminded the Japanese that they were hit but they never fell, they just kept getting up..