no.

would it matter?- butoh might be even better when dead ;-)

from the oxford dictionary:
>>dead |ded| adjective 1 no longer alive : a dead body | [as complement ] he was shot dead by terrorists. • (of a part of the body) having lost sensation; numb. • having or displaying no emotion, sympathy, or sensitivity : a cold, dead voice. • no longer current, relevant, or important : pollution had become a dead issue. • devoid of living things : a dead planet. • resembling death : a dead faint. • (of a place or time) characterized by a lack of activity or excitement : Brussels isn't dead after dark, if you know where to look. • (of money) not financially productive. • (of sound) without resonance; dull. • (of a color) not glossy or bright. • (of a piece of equipment) no longer functioning, esp. because of a fault : the phone had gone dead. • (of an electric circuit or conductor) carrying or transmitting no current : the batteries are dead. • no longer burning : the fire had been dead for some days. • (of air or water) not circulating; stagnant. • (of a glass or bottle) empty or no longer being used. • (of the ball in a game) out of play. See also dead ball . • (of a playing field, ball, or other surface) lacking springiness or bounce. 2 [ attrib. ] complete; absolute : we sat in dead silence. adverb [often as submodifier ] absolutely; completely : you're dead right | he was dead against the idea. • exactly : they arrived dead on time. • straight; directly : red flares were seen dead ahead. • Brit., informal very : omelets are dead easy to prepare. noun [as plural n. ] ( the dead) those who have died. PHRASES dead and buried over; finished : the incident is dead and buried. ( as) dead as a (or the) dodo see dodo . ( as) dead as a doornail see doornail . dead from the neck up informal stupid. dead in the water (of a ship) unable to move. • figurative unable to function effectively : the economy is dead in the water. dead meat informal in serious trouble : if anyone finds out, you're dead meat. the dead of night the quietest, darkest part of the night. the dead of winter the coldest part of winter. dead on exactly right : her judgment was dead on. dead on arrival used to describe a person who is declared dead immediately upon arrival at a hospital. • figurative (of an idea, etc.) declared ineffective without ever having been put into effect : why are people pronouncing the plan dead on arrival in the legislature? dead on one's feet informal extremely tired. dead set against informal strongly opposed to : they were dead set against seeing any more open spaces divided up. dead to rights informal in the act of doing something wrong; red-handed : he had me dead to rights, so I meekly suffered the rebuke. dead to the world informal fast asleep. from the dead from a state of death : Christ rose from the dead. • figurative from a period of obscurity or inactivity : the cartoon brought animation back from the dead. make a dead set at see set 2 . over my dead body see body . wouldn't be seen (or caught) dead informal used to express strong dislike for a particular thing : James Bond wouldn't be caught dead wearing a paper napkin bib. DERIVATIVES deadness noun ORIGIN Old English dēad, of Germanic origin: related to Dutch dood and German tot, also to die 1 .

Thesaurus
dead adjective 1 my parents are dead passed on/away, expired, departed, gone, no more; late, lost, lamented; perished, fallen, slain, slaughtered, killed, murdered; lifeless, extinct; informal (as) dead as a doornail, six feet under, pushing up daisies; formal deceased; euphemistic with God, asleep. antonym alive, living. 2 patches of dead ground barren, lifeless, bare, desolate, sterile. antonym fertile, lush. 3 a dead language obsolete, extinct, defunct, disused, abandoned, discarded, superseded, vanished, forgotten; archaic, antiquated, ancient; literary of yore. antonym modern, current. 4 the phone was dead not working, out of order, inoperative, inactive, in disrepair, broken, malfunctioning, defective; informal kaput, conked out, on the blink, on the fritz, bust, busted. antonym in working order. 5 a dead leg numb, numbed, deadened, desensitized, unfeeling; paralyzed, crippled, incapacitated, immobilized, frozen. 6 she has dead eyes emotionless, unemotional, unfeeling, impassive, unresponsive, indifferent, dispassionate, inexpressive, wooden, stony, cold; deadpan, flat; blank, vacant. antonym passionate. 7 his affection for her was dead extinguished, quashed, stifled; finished, over, gone, no more; a thing of the past, ancient history. 8 a dead town uneventful, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, dull, boring, flat, quiet, sleepy, slow, lackluster, lifeless; informal one-horse, dullsville. antonym lively. 9 dead silence complete, absolute, total, utter, out-and-out, thorough, unmitigated. antonym partial. 10 a dead shot unerring, unfailing, impeccable, sure, true, accurate, precise; deadly, lethal, bang on. antonym poor. adverb 1 he was dead serious completely, absolutely, totally, utterly, deadly, perfectly, entirely, quite, thoroughly; definitely, certainly, positively, categorically, unquestionably, undoubtedly, surely; in every way, one hundred percent. 2 flares were seen dead ahead directly, exactly, precisely, immediately, right, straight, due, squarely; informal smack dab. 3 informal : it's dead easy. See very .<<

butoh is not dead, but is definetly an underground art form. Here in Seattle there are butoh perfromances and classes that happen often. You just have to look for it.

No. But butoh needs to be seen more and to break out of perceived audience stereotypes. It is and needs to constantly reinvent itself.

butoh isn't

/|\

It can't die as long it moves

Before Butoh there was death

Totally! And it's starting to stink.

When it ceases to rot, it will finally be irrelevant. Until then, I dance, utterly alone. Without you. Dying urgently.

"Butoh never existed" Tatsumi Hijikata
Then... fortunately It cannot die!

Butoh is dead
but I will not bury it
I will hold it to me
screaming "god"
and "my baby"
and "no"
while my face will dance
according to its own primitive rhythm
and my hands shake
while butoh's
flakes
crawl under my nails
and fly into my nostrils
and line my lungs
with immortal particles that
in twenty years
will give the gift of cancer
to all my descendants

Ledoh,

I am spending six weeks in Tokyo and going to buto at Plan B, Terpsichore, and Kagurasaka Die Pratze (among other places) about three times a week. So in that sense, there are still people doing it. The audiences are small (between 40 and 70 people), but you can not expect very huge audiences at buto unless you are Amagatsu and you tailor your buto to a kind of post-ballet audience.

that said, I feel a tension between the kinds of predominently solo performances that I am seeing and a long term ability to sustain an art form. Sometimes I feel like I am watching someone who is obviously having a personally meaningful experience, but that they have not taken the time to work out the movements or ideas to the point where it can be meaningful to anyone else. Of course I can append my own interpretation on to what I see, and buto welcomes this and even expects it of its viewers, but sometimes I do not go to a dance to learn more about myself (which is what happens when I have to append an interpretation on to some elses private experience), but to be shown something new. In those cases, some buto performances can get stale.

At Jacobs Pillow last summer Tero Saarinen present a stupendous work, Borrowed Light, and mentioned promenently in his bio that he had studied buto and you could really feel it in the kinds of weight he had his dancers portray, as well as in the use of hands, and face.

I do not think that buto should mind becoming just one more option for aspiring dancers who are looking to round out their training, but some may disagree.

So in short, not dead, but buto is in need of some people to work through some of the contradictions of the form.