Zen Zen Zo's relationship with Butoh began after Lynne Bradley spent five years studying in Japan with several of the founding Butoh masters and companies, dedicating herself to navigating the history of the Japanese performing arts. Upon her return to Australia in 1992, she became one of the preeminent teachers and performers of Butoh. Butoh is a contemporary avant-garde dance-theatre form that originated in Japan. It was pioneered in the early 1960s by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno and was initiated as a reaction against both traditional Japanese and Western dance styles. It has been described as a dance of the senses, of pure emotional states expressed through the body (instead of through words), of universal imagery, of poetry and metaphor. It combines dance, theatre, improvisation, and ritual, crossing cultural borders in its search for the universal. At its heart, Butoh aims to reveal the unconscious, inner world of the performer, stripped of his/her social mask.

Traditionally performed in white body paint, loincloths and shaved heads, Butoh parades a tableau of distorted and grotesque forms, striving to reach the audience at a gut level. It reveals the neglected underbelly of human behaviour, embodying an appealing ambiguity with multiple and conflicting levels of interpretation. Butoh develops deep focus and physical awareness, a rich imagination, courage, and the ability to express emotions honestly and openly with the entire body.

"(Butoh) is a way of life, not an organisation of movements. My art is an art of improvisation. It is dangerous. I try to carry in body all the weight and mystery of life, to follow my memories until I reach my mothers womb."
Ohno Kazuo (co-founder of Butoh)

"Butoh breaks through all verbal definitions and snatches the audience's sensibilities away to a state of nakedness."
Eguchi Osamu