Sondra Fraleigh is Professor Emeritus of Dance and Somatic Studies at the State University of New York at Brockport. She is the co-author of Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Karwo (2006) and author of Dancing into Darkness: Butoh, Zen, and Japan (1999). Her innovative choreography has been seen in theatres in New York, Germany, and Japan. She si the founding director of Eastwest Somatics Institute for the study of movement therapy and dance.
Johanna Kirk (Performer) si originally from Boise, Idaho where she had the great fortune to study modern dance from akind of punk rock angel, Leah Clark. Johanna danced with Balance Dance Company for eight years before attending Barnard College, from which she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Dance Major and Art History Minor. While at Barnard, she had the chance to work with Robert Batle, Azure Barton, David Newmann, JeanineDurning,Ivy Baldwin, Mary Cochran and other fabulous mentors. Last year, she worked on a reconstruction of Twyla Tharp’s Eight Jely Rols, performed at the Joyce. She has choreographed for many … Continued
The wonderful cat creatures of cave
Vangeline is the Artistic Director of the Vangeline Theater, a postmodern Butoh dance company firmly rooted in the tradition ofJapanese B u t while carrying it into the 21st century. She joined the Butoh Ritual Mexicano with Master Diego Pinon in 2002,a n d is assistant Director to Butoh Master Tetsuro Fukuhara for the project TOKYO SPACE DANCE. www.vangeline.com
Cassie Terman is a performer, writer, and teacher. She has worked in improvisation, physical theater and dance since 1991 and regularly performs, solo works as well as collaborations with company SoGoNo, Schinichi Iova-Koga, and Heather Harpham. She teaches Action theater.
Kelly Buwalda currently dances for Antonio Ramos, Stephanie Tack, Amanda Dozer, and Julio Rivera. She teaches with National Dance Institute in NYC Public Schools of the Bronx, Harlem, Chinatown, and the US. Most recently she has performed her own work in at the University of San Juan, Puerto Rico, BAX and in Movement Research’s Open Performance.
Mei Yin Ng has had the privilege of working and collaborating with Remote Control Productions/Michael Laub in Europe, Nyo-Ba &Dancers in Malaysia, & AMEYE in New York City. She founded MEl-BE Whatever Company (www.MeiBeWhatever.com) in 2002 as a collective for the interaction of artists from diverse fields. Initially focusing on modern movement as inner being, Ms. Ng’s work continues to evolve with the possibilities of contemporary technologies.
Jorge Vazquez Villarreal was born and lives in Mexico. He started his artistic studies at the National Conservatory of Music in 1999. He joined Diego Pinon’s Butoh Ritual Mexicano in 2003, and has also trained in Butoh with Akira Kasai and Natsue Nakajima. He studies Kabuki with Irene Akikolida.
New York Sound painting Orchestra Musicians Tenor Saxophone
New York Sound painting Orchestra Musicians – Piano/ Accordion
New York Sound painting Orchestra Musicians – Percussion
New York Sound painting Orchestra Musicians – Percussion
SUIT: Nathan Howe and Roland Toledo moved to New York City to pursue music in 2000; it was not until 2002 that SUIT became the body from which three EPs have been released: Death March (2002), Mas Touching/Ninfa (2003), and Pang OS (2004), also three sound colages, KM (2003) KM 2(2004) and KM 3(2006).
Abby Walton (Costume Design) is currently assisting Oana Botez-Ban on upcoming productions of Richard I (Classic Stage Company) and Miss Julie (Colgate University), and recently worked with the Moscow Festival Ballet on their touring production of Sleeping Beauty. This piece for the Japan Society is her first solo design effort since arriving to New York City. She graduated from Smith College this spring, and has also studied at the Glasgow School of Art in the U.K. Many thanks to Oana Botez-Ban, the members of Smith College’s Costume Department.
Yanira Castro (New York/Puerto Rico) is the director of Yanira Castro + Company. Although not a butoh dancer per se, her expressionistic and emotionally charged pieces share aspects of its aesthetic. The Village Voice described her off-kilter performers as “radiant mythic beasts, glamorous and terrifying…
JEFF JANISHESKI has trained in butoh since 1989 – including three years with Kazuo Ohno- and Japanese No theatre since 1992; he is also the co-founder of the New York Butoh Festival.
Ralph Lee is a mask maker, theater director and Founding Artistic Director the Mettawee Theater Company. He has been artist in residence in many universities and performing spaces and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Award for Excellence.
Daniel Carter is a musician and improviser playing yearly at the Vision Festival, and internationally with many groups. He has played for many dancers including Margaret Beals, Simone Forti and Laurie Hockman. He has made several CD’s with the group Other Dimensions.
Nancy Zendora established the Zendora Dance Company in 1977. Her work synthesizes Eastern and Western aesthetics, is known for its delicate and sparse aesthetic
LEIGH EVANS is an international yoga teacher and dancer. Her dance/theatre-work is fed by fascination with performance and meditative traditions of Asia. LEIGH EVANS is an international yoga teacher and dancer. Her dance/theatre-work is fed by fascination with performance and meditative traditions of Asia.
DAIJI MEGURO joined Ko Murobushi’s three-man Edge Company in 2004. He since emerging as one of the most thoughtful voices in international Butoh. Meguro is the founder of the NUDE Dance Company. Daiji Meguro trained under the late Akiko Motufuji, the wife of Tatsumi Hijikata. He has appeared in several productions of Ko & Edge Co. since the 2003 [Edge03] performance in Mexico. In 2004, he launched his own performance company, NUDE. By redefining the physical body based on the ideas of butoh, Daiji aims to develop butoh for the next generation.
Amos Pinhasi has presented hiswork in New York since 1985 and has been produced by DTW’s FreshTracks, The 40Up Project, Joyce Soho, Dance now, Dumbo Dance Festival, and Danspace Project. He has toured his solo work in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and his native Israel.He teaches dance improvisation and yoga internationally.
Irem Calikusu’s life as a dancer started in Istanbul, at the Theater Research Lab with Mustafa Kaplan. Being deeply moved by a butoh performance she saw in Istanbul, she went on to complete a Master’s thesis on but and post war politics in Japan at the Anthropology Department of Mass, Amherst. She has studied with Akira Kasai, Ko Murobushi, and Takuya Muramatsu as well as trained for 2 years at the Cunningham School for Dance. Her biggest inspiration was the 5 months she spent training with Min Tanaka at the Body Weather Farm. Irem has been showing her own work … Continued
Parker Pracjek works in the areas of creative writing, Adult Basic Education, literacy through the arts, and dance theatre performance. Her work has been seen in community arts festivals,The Mulberry Street Theatre, The Puffin Room,La Mama, andWOWCafé Theatre. Praciek holds a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from NYU and works as Managing Director of the New York Butoh Festival.
Celeste Hastings is a NYC based choreographer, performer, costume and soundscape designer, and experimental videographer. her work fuses dance, theater and Japanese butoh. A lead dancer for 12 years with post modern butoh company Poppo and Gogo Boys, she has collaborated with many artists/companies such as Richard Move, Noemie Lafrance, Anemone Dance Theater, Black Moon Theater, Mpenp Wakamatsu, NAdine Helstroffer, Marilo, Sanjo, Accion Colectiva Venezuela, Tetsuro Fukuhara and Eri Majima (Japan), Director Antonio Laj (Poland and NY), co-editor with filmaker Simon Grome and is working with Akira Kasai;s Butoh America NYC Production.
Erin Ellen Kelly has trained with butoh masters Ko Murobushi, Takuya Muramatsu, Tetsuro Fukuhara, and Diego Piñon and employs techniques from butoh, qigong, gymnastics, farming, cabaret dancing, and performance action-theater to create new works, ways of moving, and performance installation pieces that comment on the human condition and its relationship to the environment and society. Erin has greeted and collaborated on site specific dance performances in gardens, galleries, warehouse spaces, boats and theaters across the U.S.and Europe and created commissioned work for LaMama in New York and Schloss Bröllin in Germany. Also Founding member of RansomCorp. Active from 1999-20002. Erin … Continued
Tanya Calamoneri works in the areas of contemporary dance, Japanese Butoh, and physical theater. She started choreographing her own work in 1997, via her collective with Allen Willner and Krista DeNio, violent dwarf. Based in San Francisco from 1996-2003, she was ED of Dancers’ Group, and Co-Director of both 848 Community Space and Temescal Arts Center, and was a founding faculty member of the Experimental Performance Institute at New College of CA. She attended Moving On Center School for Participatory Arts and Research from 1996-7 (directed by Martha Eddy and Carol Swann), danced for and was company manager to Kim … Continued
Vangeline is the Artistic Director of the Vangeline Theater, a postmodern Butoh dance company firmly rooted in the tradition ofJapanese But while carrying it into the 21st century. She joined the Butoh Ritual Mexicano with Master Diego Pinon in 2002, and is assistant Director to Butoh Master Tetsuro Fukuhara for the project TOKYO SPACE DANCE. www.vangeline.com
Tatsuro Ishii is a dance critic and Professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He writes Cance reviews for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, DanceMagazine, and others. He si the author of such books as The Spirit Journey of the Body Expression, Sexuality of Transvestism, Essays on Female Transvestism, The Climactic Point of Body, etc. He has served is the judge of Cairo IE Theatre Festival Egypt (2002), Director of Butoh Festival in Seoul, Korea (2005), and Judge of Toyota Choreography Award (2006).
DENISE FUJIWARA is a choreographer, dancer, actor, dance impresario and teacher with 27 years of professional experience. Fujiwara’s dance has been featured in dance festivals in Seattle, Washington DC, Vancouver, Calgary, Copenhagen, Ecuador and India. Based in Canada, Fujiwara continues to develop original solo and ensemble dance performance
Takuya Ishide was born in Tokyo in 1958. Former student of Ishi Mitsutaka and Tatsumi Hiikata, he performed in Hijikata’s last work, Tohoku Kabuki Keikaku 2 and 4 in 1985 with Min Tanaka. He also danced with Saburo Teshigawara’s Company, KARAS, touring in France. His solo work has toured Korea, Japan, U.S., and Europe.
Taketeru Kudo trained under two of butoh’s most famous dancers, Akiko Moto- fuji (the widow of butoh’s co-creator Tatsumi Hijikata) and the famed butoh group Sankai Juku (with whom he danced for 5 years and toured internationally). Kudo left Sankai Juku to form his own company in 1997 and began to work with free-jazz musicians from Japan’s urban enclave.
Yoshito Ohno is the son of butoh legend Kazuo Ohno and is a renowned dancer and teacher. His career has literally spanned the entire history of butoh. Since 1986, he has directed all of Kazuo Ohno’s performances, as well as creating solo work and teaching.
Atsushi Takenouchi joined Hoppo-Butoh-ha in Hokkaido, Japan in 1980. He has been developing his own “JinenButoh” since 1986, touring and teaching extensively throughout Japan, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and Australia. His work is concerned with universal expressions of nature, earth, and ancient life.
Yuko Kaseki is a freelance dancer, choreographer and teacher in Berlin. Kaseki has developed her own rich choreographic vocabulary that is rhythmic and elegant. Yuko Kaseki has lived and worked as a freelance dancer, choreographer and teacher in Berlin since 1995. From 1989 to 2001, she was the primary dancer in Anzu Furukawa’s seminal butoh group Dance Butter Tokio. With her company cokaseki (formed with Marc Ates), Kaseki has developed her own rich choreographic vocabulary that blends butoh with modern dance techniques. heh as performed her solo and ensemble work throughout Europe, Japan and the U.S., and since 2001 has … Continued
AKIRA KASAI has been called the “Niinsky of butoh” because of the stunning energy and concentration of his wild improvisational dances. In the 1960s, he studied with butoh co-founder Kazuo Ohno, and in 1971 started his own butoh company, Tenshi-kan. He moved to Germany in 1979 and trained there for six years in eurhythmy. A pivotal figure in the butoh world, 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 German eurhythmy, kabuki and hip-hop. Akira Kasai, born in 1943, originally studied … Continued
Zack Fuller is a DIY dancer/choreographer and self-taught musician. From 1985-1986 he was the lead singer for the Washington DC post-punk psychedelic metal band Scythian, sharing stages with groups such as Bad Brains, Black Market Baby, and Pussy Galore. He has performed in many dances under the direction of Min Tanaka, including Poe Project in 1997. He co-headlined the 2019 Boston Butoh Festival with Yuko Kaseki, and his dances have been presented at Leimay/CAVE, Movement Research at Judson Church, Plan B in Tokyo, Mobius in Boston, The Dance Hakushu Festival, The New England Conservatory of Music, and elsewhere.
Ko Murobushi trained and performed with butoh’s creator Tatsumi Hijikata and was a founding member of Dairakudakan, the longest-running butoh company. His influential group Ariadone introduced Europe to butoh in 1978. Based in Japan, he leads the Edge Company and tours internationally throughout Europe and South America. Ko Murobushi trained and performed with butoh’s creator Tatsumi Hijikata and was a founding member of Dairakudakan, the longest-running butoh company. In 1974, he founded the female butoh company Ariadone with Carlotta Ikeda; two years later he founded Sebi, a corresponding all-male butoh group. In 1978, Murobushi introduced butoh to Europe with a … Continued
Shinichi Iova Koga is an actor and dancer, has performed internationally since 1988. Artistic Director of the butoh group inkBoat in San Francisco, his theatrical, multi-media pieces are heavily influenced by his training in film, butoh, Action Theater and Suzuki method. Shinichi MOMO Koga is a silent actor and Butoh dancer(Hijikatalineage) whose productions, both solo and ensemble, have been causing havoc since 1988. As teacher, performer and as the Artistic Director of inkBoat, Koga restructures dance, theater and cinema forms, extracting the vital essence of each to create a sharper reality. Koga’s works have been presented throughout Europe, Japan and … Continued
Yukio Waguri was born in Tokyo in 1952. In 1972, he became the pupil of’ Tatsumi Hijikata. He established his own group Yukio Waguri +Kohzensha, releasing solo and group dance works in Tokyo. Waguri inherited and developed Hiikata’s method of choreographic notation, which evokes body image through language. He isknown for his solid and lithe body, beautiful shape, and rich expressive power. He collaborates closely with musical and theatrical artists and is highly praised as a dance designer and a stage director. He released the CD-ROM, Butoh- Kaden in 1998, which was re- released in 2006. Yukio Waguri, the artistic … Continued
Before receiving an M.A. in Religion, she received a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts, taught dance at UPenn, and danced with Dappin Butoh, Degenerate Art Ensemble, PAN and low crawlers high flying in Seattle. She danced with Ausdruckstanz in Philly, sang with the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, and risked her life via bicycle on the streets of Philadelphia.