Hollowing Out / Filling in the Embodied Vessel: A Conversation on Structure and Freedom in Butoh and Bharatanatyam
On 10 August 2026, amid the frenetic momentum of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an intimate exchange unfolded at HOJA Taiwanese Cafe. As Producer of Hollowed Man 5.0 (presented at theSpace @ Niddry Street), I convened a "Meet-the-Artists" dialogue with Chi Wai Cheung, bringing together two distinct practitioners: Hong Kong Butoh artist Grad Leung Wai Kit and Edinburgh-based Bharatanatyam dancer and physicist Jayanthi Santhanam.
Hollowed Man 5.0 fuses Leung’s raw corporeal choreography with digital projections by new media artist Akane Hiraoka. Originating from research among homeless communities in Hong Kong's Sham Shui Po district, the series tracks a trajectory from social confinement to spiritual liberation. Placing Leung’s practice alongside Santhanam’s classical Indian tradition exposed profound divergences — and unexpected convergences — in how the body processes structure, emotion, and performance.
Lineage, Form, and Aesthetics
The two forms approach the body from opposing ontological directions. Bharatanatyam, as Santhanam outlined, translates etymologically as the integration of Bhava (emotion), Raga (melody), and Tala (rhythm/tempo). Having completed her Arangetram at fourteen before stepping away to pursue a doctorate and research career in Physics, Santhanam returned to the form in 2014; today, she creates traditional and fusion works with platforms like Dance Ihayami and Cosmic Dance, as well as performances at the Scottish Parliament. Bharatanatyam’s classical codification demands geometric precision, narrative clarity, and deliberate spatial projection, where hand gestures, eye movements, and ornate costuming bridge the performer to the audience to ensure the story reaches the furthest row. As a physicist, Santhanam finds that this systematic synthesis of art, rhythm, and structure helps her decode the external world while remaining deeply grounded in her inner self.
Conversely, Butoh emerged in post-WWII Japan as a radical rejection of Western aesthetic dominance and traditional Japanese forms like Noh and Kabuki, which early practitioners felt no longer reflected the contemporary social reality. Leung’s lineage traces through master practitioners Yukio Waguri, Atsushi Takenouchi, Kae Ishimoto, and Daisuke Yoshimoto, and he sees his practice coming predominantly from the Hijikata Tatsumi stream*. In Butoh, the body functions as an emptied vessel undergone to shift body-mind states, echoing the core query of Hollowed Man: what happens when a person is unfairly hollowed out? This principle informs Leung’s stage aesthetic — including his half-white, half-unpainted facial makeup, signifying the boundary between the non-human and the human.
Choreographic Ideologies: Spontaneity vs. Codification
A central point of discussion centered on how both traditions interpret choreographic form. Leung noted that Butoh’s founding figures established two distinct trajectories: Kazuo Ohno’s work leaned toward spontaneity and deep philosophical improvisation, whereas Tatsumi Hijikata established a structured, notation-based approach (Butoh-fu). Leung cautioned against modern misinterpretations of Ohno’s style, observing that dancers who copy purely improvisational forms often end up "moving without souls”.
In contrast, Bharatanatyam relies on strict bodily geometry, dividing the physical form into distinct operational sections. Fascinated by Butoh’s fluid, uncodified movement, Santhanam reflected on how her own tradition relies on externalized expression. Where Butoh allows the body itself to become the movement or music, Bharatanatyam uses the body as an instrument to communicate narrative ideas: "I use my body to convey to someone, I can’t break out of my body. You could hollow out your body, but my body is filled with those ideas and emotions. When one is dancing Bharatanatyam, the person is the emotions”.
The Mechanics of Emotion: Dwelling vs. Transience
A core debate emerged around the nature of emotion: whether it is inherently structured or fluid. Santhanam demonstrated the Navarasas (the nine fundamental human emotions), describing them as a compositional framework akin to musical notes like “do-re-mi", where she goes through a process of sanchari (brief, shifting sentiments that arise and pass within a dance sequence, enriching emotional complexity) with variations. Offering a perspective from the audience, Nazim Khan (Santhanam’s husband) noted that while Butoh’s physical gestures are unstructured, the raw emotion reaches the viewer directly: “Emotions don’t care about going through those stages; feelings exist on their own”. When examining how classical dance portrays divinity, Santhanam noted a key distinction between human and divine emotional processing: "What makes a divinity is that it lets it all pass through; it doesn't dwell on anything. What makes us human is that we like to dwell on”.
This concept of "dwelling" — staying within a specific emotional state — revealed contrasting methodologies:
Bharatanatyam: Through subtle adjustments in eye shape, hand posture, body language and sanchari, the dancer gradually exports an emotional narrative to the audience, using external structure to make sense of complex internal feelings.
Butoh: Leung’s performance ethos operates inversely. He allows his body to become an open portal, and the state of "dwelling" relies on an internal and external feedback loop. As he empties his physical vessel, the performing body continuously interacts with and absorbs the surrounding environment. Rather than projecting an emotion outward, he empties his physical vessel; the performing body “continuously interacts with and absorbs the surrounding environment which informs the intensity of the corporeal state”.
Traditional Framework, Resistance, and "In-Betweenness"
Negotiating traditional boundaries requires different strategies across both forms. Reflecting on a prior collaboration with a Kathak dancer for Hollowed Man 2.0, Leung recalled asking the dancer Annesha Biswas Agni, "Could you break the structure?" to contrast divine hope with the mortal desperation experienced by the Hollowed Man. Santhanam acknowledged the challenge of subverting classical forms; perhaps the bits of stylish flares could break the structure respectfully. Khan also noted that for traditionally trained artists, even minor deviations — a lifted foot where stillness is prescribed, represent radical shifts in mindset.
Yet, rigid structures do not inherently preclude agency. Responding to the tension between scripted notation and spontaneity, Leung cited his teacher, Yukio Waguri: "When you move from this step to the next, there’s freedom in the in-betweenness”. This quote also reminded us that the ongoing shape-shifting in Butoh brings a processual metamorphosis rather than a complete form.
Santhanam similarly finds liberation within codification. In Bharatanatyam, the dancer interprets the music, allowing rhythm to dictate expression while retaining internal autonomy over emotional shifts. Where Butoh can work actively against a musical score, classical Indian dance uses the framework to dwell within specific psychological states — a process of emotional immersion that Santhanam notes fosters deep empathy for herself and others. She shared that choosing when to transition from hopefulness to despair allows her to embrace raw human feelings, such as grief or vulnerability, without self-judgment.
Convergence: The Movement Jam
The session culminated in an eight-minute site-specific movement jam in a nearby park. Set to a 12th-century classical Indian composition depicting the mythological narratives of Krishna, nature, and the friction of human disappointment, the two modalities found a shared vocabulary.
Rather than imposing their respective forms, the artists crossed disciplines: Santhanam structured her classical phrasing around Leung’s fluid, uncodified cues. Physicalizing the elemental motifs often deployed in Butoh, she mapped the internal devastation of burnout to the element of fire, contrasting divine helplessness with corporeal emptiness.
In an Edinburgh Fringe landscape often defined by rapid-consumption performance, this dialogue served as a vital counterbalance — a space to examine how two distinct physical traditions navigate the boundary between structure, emotion, and the moving body.
*Hijikata Tatsumi and Kazuo Ohno are considered as the two founders and fathers of Butoh.
