My Mother is a breathtaking Butoh style dance by Kazuo Ono from 1998. You can watch the 45-minute performance here on youtube: Kazuo Ohno – My mother.
Ono was one of the founders of Butoh, which is a form of dance theatre which arose in 1959 during post-war Japan. The name Butoh means "darkness dance." My Mother truly conveys a spirit of darkness and intense emotion, and I can only imagine how fascinating it must have been to watch in real life.
Butoh encompasses playful and grotesque imagery, taboo subject matter, and extreme or absurd environments. The performers traditionally wear white body makeup and move in a slow and hyper-controlled way.
Here's an interesting article about Butoh if you're interested in learning more about it: Performance Study: Dark Dance – the Origins of Butoh.
