Kota Yamazaki was first introduced to butoh in 1977 through the teaching of Akira Kasai and began ballet training under the late Hirofumi Inoue in 1981. He was an artistic director of Tokyo-based rosy co. from 1995 until its close in 2001. Following an invitation in 2001 from Germaine Acogny,Yamazaki created the work FAGAA- LA in collaboration with her Senegal-based company, for which he received a NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessie Award) in 2007 and nominated for Alpert Award. Since 2002,Yamazaki with his NY-based Fluid hug-hug, presents works nationally and inter- nationally and teaches at many universities. In 2013, … Continued

Mina Nishimura, from Tokyo, was introduced to butoh and impro- visational dance through Kota Yamazaki’s teaching.While perform- ing nationally and internationally with many inspirational chore- ographers, her own works have been presented by DTW,The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Movement Research, Roulette among other venues. Nishimura was the danceWeb scholar at Impuls Tanz (Vienna) in 2009, and was a curator for MR Spring Festival 2013. She was on AIR program at Brooklyn Art Exchange in 2010-2011, at Chez Bushwick in 2013 and is a current AIR (2013-2014) at Movement Research. Nishimura has been teaching at Bennington College and Ferris University (Japan).

Sophia Treanor is a Brooklyn based performance artist, actor, dancer, and director. Sophia studied acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and when introduced to movement training was immediately shocked by the enormous expressive potential of the body.This began a more spiritual relationship to dance and music, and led her to study meditation, improvisation, and the Six Viewpoints with Mary Overlie. Sophia has been investigating presence (((now))) with collaborator Sebastiani Romagnolo and musician Adam Gundersheimer for the last two years, and the performance possibilities between poetry and movement with poet Rachel Broderick. Snow flakes, sand dunes, and turbulent vortices … Continued