Wreck Beach Butoh

Credit: Chris Randle

The 15th Annual Wreck Beach Butoh dances to the tune of Mother Nature

Naked people dancing!

Now that I have your attention—there will be naked people dancing on Wreck Beach this weekend, July 10–11, 2010.

The 15th Annual Wreck Beach Butoh will feature dramatically charged performances by fully nude dancers in white makeup on the wonderous shores of Canada’s first and largest clothing-optional beach.

Braving the unpredictable elements in their own elemental being, the dancers immerse themselves in the sand, water and open air as they pay homage to the ever-evolving dynamic between humans and the environment.

“It is our annual pilgrimage, a ritual performance where we are humbled by our smallness and insignificance compared to the majesty that surrounds us,” says Jay Hirabayashi, co-founder with Barbara Bourget of Kokoro Dance, the Vancouver-based butoh company that is producing this artistic spectacle.

Butoh, broadly speaking, is a form of hyper-visceral yet almost surreal dance that embodies a wide range of powerful, sometimes enigmatic, emotional expressions from the playful to the violent. It was born out of a desire to subvert convention and authority in post-WWII Japan.

This is a unique performance you won’t find anywhere else. So grab a beach blanket, put on some sunblock and lay bare, if nothing else, your adventurous spirit.

Davinia Yip curates Granville’s CitizenSTYLE blog, covering local designers and fashion events and offering tips for expanding your wardrobe on a shrinking budget. Something of a style nomad, she’s eager to experiment—especially with accessories—and finds inspiration in the Vancouver fashion and ecofashion scenes.