Dance Students Resurrect Accessible Education

Fringe ArtsElysha del Giusto-Enos — Published March 22, 2012

There have been three Butoh walks in the past week to protest tuition hikes, but Wednesday’s was the first to have zombies.

Butoh, the slow Japanese dance form, is a favourite of Concordia’s contemporary dance department.

“If the government doesn’t back down I don’t think we should either,” said Levana Prud’homme, one of the event’s organizers. “Them saying that they’re not going to negotiate is just a scare tactic.”

The students feel that the slow-moving Japanese Butoh dance is a way of representing a slowing of tuition increases. The added zombie motif is a way of “resurrecting” accessible education.

The Butoh dancers joined a larger group of students blocking de Maisonneuve Blvd., where couches and a P.A. system occupy the space.

“They want us to just give up and I don’t think we should,” Prud’homme said about striking in the face of an unmoving government. “Even if it does mean [striking] to the end of the semester or into next year.”