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As
a dancer, Molly
Barrons is active in the City's Butoh community. Butoh, a
relatively
new art form, was introduced in the late 1950s by Tatsumi Hijikata in
response
to the dominance of traditional European dance. Butoh, known as the
dance
of darkness, was also influenced by the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki by the U.S. during World War II. Often
characterized
by its inability to be characterized, Butoh remains largely
misunderstood,
even in the dance world. The San Francisco Butoh Festival, co-produced
by Molly and festival founder Brechin Flournoy, is the largest and most
influential annual Butoh Festival in the U.S. When the festival brought
Vancouver's Kokoro Dance troupe to San Francisco on August 22, 1998, it
was an extraordinary moment as a passing swarm of dragon flies landed
in the center of a circle of dancers performing at Yerba
Buena Gardens. When the swarm dispersed after several minutes, it
seemed
to the amazed audience that they had done so on the dancers' cue. "Now
that," says Molly Barrons, "is Butoh."
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