FESTIVAL 2005: WORKSHOPS

Master Classes     Intensive Workshops     University Workshops


The New York Butoh Festival offers three Master Classes and five Intensive Workshops.
  • Workshops are open to all; no previous dance training is necessary.
  • Maximum per class: 22 students.
  • Register by July 31st to receive 30% off the regular workshop fee.*
  • Register by August 31st to receive 20% off.*
  • Workshop spaces fill up fast, so register soon!
  • Contact us: [email protected]
  • Take all five of the Intensive Workshops and get an extra 10% off the regular workshop price; this offer is valid anytime.
*These discounts do not apply to the Master Classes at the Japan Society.

MASTER CLASSES

Ko Murobushi
October 4 (Tuesday) time 4:00 pm - 9:00pm @ The Puffin Room
Copresented with Japan Society

This master class asks the fundamental question, "What is it to dance?" Students are guided through various exercises, including: techniques for relaxation and breath control, sensory exploration, transformation exercises, image-based improvisations, and exploring basic moments of "crisis" such as sleeping, walking and falling.

Ko Murobushi SOLD OUT
October 8 (Saturday) 1:00pm - 4:00pm @ Japan Society (333 E. 47th Street)
Presented by Japan Society

Rigorous physical training is led by Ko Murobushi, one of the inheritors of Tatsumi Hijikata's original vision of ankoku butoh (dance of darkness). Max 20 people. Note: Some performance experience preferred.

Participant tickets are SOLD OUT; however, observer tickets are available for $15 each. Please call the Box Office at (212) 752-3015.

Ko Murobushi trained and performed with butoh's creator Tatsumi Hijikata and was a founding member of Dairakudakan, the largest and longest-running butoh company. His influential group Ariadone introduced Europe to butoh in 1978. Based in Japan, he tours internationally throughout Europe and South America.

Yumiko Yoshioka SOLD OUT
October 17 (Monday) 6:00 pm - 8:30pm @ Japan Society (333 E. 47th Street)
Copresented with Japan Society

"Body Resonance" views the body as a receptacle of time. Through an exploration of the collective memories in our personal past, we can tap into a potent resource and enrich our art. Drawing upon techniques from butoh, Noguchi Gymnastics and the Chinese martial art of juken, this class will concentrate on our inner core (our vital chi energy) and its circulation. "Body Resonance" increases our relaxation, concentration and imagination, and it is a key to opening up and embracing the ever-changing world inside and outside of us.

Note: Some performance experience preferred.

Participant tickets are SOLD OUT; however, observer tickets are available for $15 each. Please call the Box Office at (212) 752-3015.

Yumiko Yoshioka was a founding member of the first all-female butoh group Ariadone and has been instrumental in bringing butoh to Europe: first with Ariadone in Paris in 1978 and then in Germany with her group Theatre Danse Grotesque (1988-1994). She has toured and taught extensively in Japan, Europe, Russia, Israel and both North and South America and presently is based in eastern Germany where she runs the group TEN PEN Chii with visual artist Joachim Manger and musician Zam Johnson.


INTENSIVE WORKSHOPS

Masaki Iwana
October 14 - 16 (Friday - Sunday) 10:00am - 2:00pm @ The Puffin Room

In "The Intensity of Nothingness", students will:
1. Train in the basic principles of butoh improvisation and composition;
2. Discover new approaches to movement through exploring the body's "inner landscape";
3. Use poems and poetic images as springboards for transforming the body.

Iwana says, "Once we perceive our body as a material entity, morals, dark intentions, desires, concepts of beauty, life and death, violence and eros become like tiny leaves and are swept along by a torrent into a vortex of the immensely truthful nothingness existing within all the blameless origins of the universe. For dancers this nothingness must have intensity."

Masaki Iwana began his dance career in 1975 outside the “butoh genealogy.” Until 1982 he presented 150 experimental performances in which he stood straight, completely naked and perfectly still. Since then, Iwana has presented his performances and workshops in 35 countries and has created works which are built on his sharpened aesthetic. Iwana runs an institute for the research of butoh, La Maison du Butoh Blanc.

Yumiko Yoshioka
October 14 - 16 (Friday - Sunday) 3:00 - 7:00pm @ The Puffin Room

This workshop, "Body Resonance" views the body as a receptacle of time. Through an exploration of the collective memories in our personal past, we can tap into a potent resource and enrich our art. Drawing up techniques from butoh, Noguchi Gymnastics and the Chinese martial art of juken, this workshop will concentrate on our inner core (our vital chi energy) and its circulation. "Body Resonance" increases our relaxation, concentration and imagination, and it is a key to opening up and embracing the ever-changing world inside and outside of us.

Yumiko Yoshioka was a founding member of the first all-female butoh group Ariadone and has been instrumental in bringing butoh to Europe: first with Ariadone in Paris in 1978 and then in Germany with her group Theatre Danse Grotesque (1988-1994). She has toured and taught extensively in Japan, Europe, Russia, Israel and both North and South America and presently is based in eastern Germany where she runs the group TEN PEN Chii, with visual artist Joachim Manger and musician Zam Johnson.

Kan Katsura
October 17 & 18 (Monday & Tuesday) 10:00am - 2:00pm @ Panetta Movement Center

This workshop encourages us to push beyond our personal barriers and connect with deeper levels of our consciousness and identity. Kan says, "The body is a ship which carries the ancestral soul from the past to the future." This workshop guides participants through a variety of butoh techniques: silent walking, stillness and the exploration of "non-human" types of movement.

Kan Katsura has been based in Kyoto since 1979. His butoh is unique in that it is truly multi-cultural. He has dedicated his career to exploring the nature of contemporary Asian art by creating collaborations with other visual and performing artists throughout Indonesia, Singapore, Bangkok and Japan. In addition to his extensive performance career in Asia, he has taught and performed in Israel, Egypt, Switzerland, France and Australia.

Daisuke Yoshimoto
October 22 & 23 (Saturday & Sunday) 10:00 - 2:00pm @ Puffin Room

This workshop will deepen students' bodily awareness through sensory exercises and approaches to increasing expression. In addition to basic physical training and breath-work, the foundations of butoh are explored through walking, imagery and improvisations centered on the body's transformations.

Daisuke Yoshimoto has collaborated with the great artists of butoh, such as Kazuo Ohno, Hisayo Iwaki and Yukihiko Sakai. Primarily a solo artist, over the past twenty years he has carved out his own unique and theatrical style. Based in Tokyo, he tours and teaches workshops internationally.

Akira Kasai
October 24 - 26 (Monday - Wednesday) 5:00 - 9:00pm @ The Puffin Room

In this workshop students will learn how to generate inner-energy for dance; how to create the flow of "inner-time and inner-space"; how to draw inspiration for dance out of the sensory experiences of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The class will also explore the relationship of the voice, physical exercise and breath-work.

Akira Kasai has been called the "Nijinsky of butoh" because of the stunning energy and concentration of his wild improvisational dances. In the 1960s he studied with Kazuo Ohno, one of the founders of butoh, and in 1971 started his own butoh company Tenshi-kan. He moved to Germany in 1979 and trained there for six years in eurhythmy and anthroposophy. Since his return to Japan he has cultivated his own highly idiosyncratic style of dance, pushing the envelope of butoh by mixing in elements as diverse as kabuki and hip-hop.

UNIVERSITY WORKSHOPS

There are two University Workshops featuring festival artist Yuko Kaseki. For questions/information please contact these venues directly.

At Yale University
Workshop with Yuko Kaseki
October 12 (Wednesday), time TBA
Note: This is a closed workshop open only to Yale University students

At Marin E. Segal Theatre Center @ CUNY's Graduate Center
Workshop with Yuko Kaseki
October 18 (Tuesday) time 3:00pm - 5:00pm
(365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street
Note: Priority will be given to CUNY students; please reserve at the MESTC website, space is limited

The class provides awareness practice to hone internal sensibilities and physical expression. We work with physical risk, image, bodies in motion and stillness to redraw the body map. Basic training draw upon Noguchi gymnastics and butoh dance to develop a relaxed, sensitive but dynamic body.

Yuko Kaseki started the butoh group Cokaseki with director Marc Ates. They have performed their work throughout Europe and the U.S. Based in Berlin since 1999, Cokaseki has developed its own rich choreographic vocabulary that is rhythmic and elegant and blends butoh with modern dance techniques.