Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute
present
QUEER BUTOH FESTIVAL 2024
ONLINE
www.vimeo.com/vangeline
Vangeline Theater
present
Queer Butoh 2024
online
June 26-July 26, 2024
“…queer themes and imagery have been recurring, if not instrumental, in Butoh. The concepts of otherness and ambiguity, particularly with respect to gender identity and sexuality, permeate its narratives. Drag, androgyny and fluidity are staple elements.” – Cassidy George, The New York Times
Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute, in collaboration with The Brick, presents the eighth annual online Queer Butoh from June 26 - July 30, 2024 at www.vimeo.com/vangeline.
Queer Butoh Online will feature Juan Manuel in Test Carbon 14 filmed by Teresa Barajas Rodriguez; and from our Brick Theater Festival edition, Shuning Huang and Eilish Henderson in Garden of Ruins, Madelyn Sher and Erica Lee Schwartz in Dandelions (or, the moment you realize the seasons have changed), and Anástasis in Anima Transfiguratio.
Garden of ruin is a work-in-progress butoh duet grounded in eco-somatics and lesbian intimacy as a perceptive, eternal, glistening web. Connected to systems of rebirth, two infinite bodies build, merge, float, and dissipate as they journey to an unspoken world and return to soil.
Dandelions (or, the moment you realize the seasons have changed) is a butoh dance theater duet that emerges from the body of a seed. Birthed to the lineage of an anonymous microspecies, we consider our legacy in this highly anticipated and awkward moment of asexual transference.
Anima Transfiguratio by Anástasis: Changing shape, breath spirit gives raise to all beings. Life energy transforms throughout nature embodying animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, minerals, elements, stars. This piece explores the transfigurations of the vital breath that engenders all life.
Carbon-14 Test by Juan Manuel Pérez Hernandez and Teresa Barajas Rodriguez is a digital piece that serves as an archive for an initial exploration of carbon as an element of inspiration for the creation of an artistic work called CHON. In this video, you can see the audiovisual record of a creative process carried out in a laboratory between two people interested in exploring, through sound, image, and dance, the different forms of carbon expression in the body and its role in the organic processes of life.
This program was supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
About the Artists
Anástasis is a dancer, poet, singer, facilitator, writer, producer, visual and audiovisual crafter from Venezuela. Her art is a quest and a testimony. Through it she engages her own life, solving her questions and transits, healing herself. Opening the door to reflect on what it is to be alive, sentient, fully human, she made intimacy a practice. Dancing in public is sharing that intimacy. She understands that as she shares the creation of herself with others she is also sharing an order of understanding and reflection, a language that she has codified in her somatic expression. She is the co-founder and co-director of CAMP (https://mx.camp/) a participatory art center located in Zipolite, Mexico.
Eilish Henderson is an interdisciplinary artist working with subjects of the body based in Brooklyn. Her work explores resonance, decay and healing through contemporary performance and multimedia installation. As a choreographer, she draws upon butoh, contemporary floorwork, Capoeira, and house dance. Eilish established a project-based movement collective, SHADOWSWELL in 2024. Her works have been presented as a part of WADE Dance Festival, Emerging Artists Festival, “The Body as Archive” at Smush Gallery, and Agropoli Dance Festival in Italy. Eilish has been an artist-in-residence at Homeport Art House, Peaked Hill Trust, and Arts, Letters, and Numbers. Eilish holds an MA in Dance Education from NYU: Steinhardt, with an emphasis on Teaching Dance in the Professions. As a performer, Eilish has danced in the works of many artists including Javier Padilla, Doug Varone, Sean Curran, Adam Barruch, and Ellen Sickenberger. She is an adjunct professor at Westchester Community College and teaching artist for the Joyce Theater, Dancewave, and Brooklyn Arts Council.
Erica Lee Schwartz began dancing at Pacific Northwest Ballet before joining International Ballet Theater’s Professional Division. There she had the opportunity to perform classical and contemporary works, compete as a finalist at Tanzolymp in Berlin, DE, and perform at DanceOpen in St. Petersburg, RU. In 2019, Erica joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Professional Program (HSPro) under the direction of Alexandra Wells, learning company repertoire and performing new works. Erica Schwartz recently graduated from Mount Holyoke College where she studied Critical Social Thought and Dance. During her time with Five College Dance, she has performed in works by Alex Davis, Barbie Diewald, and Jenna Riegel.
Juan Manuel Pérez Hernandez. From Mexico, a lover of nature and art. Graduated from UNAM, currently dedicated to performing arts and environmental education. Focused on body theater and currently on Butoh dance, starting from interdisciplinary creation laboratories that promote community work and the promotion of living arts.
Leo Hardman-Hill is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performance maker with a BM in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory and an MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths, University of London. His work explores the performative in music and the musical in performance, with a particular focus on rhythm and signification. He has performed at various venues and festivals around New York including The Stone, MoMA PS1, Miriam Gallery, The Flea Theater and The Festival of New Trumpet Music. In addition, he has performed internationally at The Gateshead International Jazz Festival and Jazzfest Munchen. In 2017 he was a fellow at the Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France. Most recently, he has worked on several film scores, including Waiter Movie, a film by Edy Modica (Jury Duty).
Madelyn Sher is a multidisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, and educator from New York City. Her take on contemporary dance is influenced by her diverse background of formal training including butoh, modern, theater, mime, Latin dance, house, ballet, and contact improvisation. She is a graduate of CUNY Lehman/Macaulay Honors College, where she studied dance, philosophy, and French. As a dancer, Maddy has worked with artists and companies including Duane Lee Holland, Olive Prince, Bebe Miller, Angie Hauser, Gabrielle Revlock, Alexander Davis, Vangeline Theater, REDi Dance Company, evan ray suzuki, and others. As an actor, she was a recurring guest star on ABC’s The Baker and the Beauty. Maddy’s current research interests lie in the poetics of phenomenology, the rhythms of growth and decay, and the dynamic bonds that connect thought, language, and movement. She holds an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Smith College.
Shuning Huang, born and raised in Nanjing, China, received her MA in Dance Education from New York University, and BA in Dance Studies from Beijing Dance Academy. She started formally studying Chinese dance and ballet at the age of 6, and shifted her focus to modern dance from undergraduate school to continue her studies, her training encompasses Chinese (classical and folk) dance, Modern/Contemporary, Ballet, and Jazz. She is currently a dancer in Six Degrees Dance and New York Chinese Culture Center, has performed at the Mark O'Donnell Theater, WAXWorks, Culture Lab LIC, the Tank, Dixon Place, Emerging Artists Theater, New York Botanical Garden, just to name a few. As an educator, Shuning strives to create a more effective learning environment for her students. She believes that dance is a form of expression that has no boundaries and allows for different sparks to emerge.
Maitlin Jordan (she/her) is a dance artist and choreographer based out of New York City, and a graduate of the University of South Florida, the José Limón Professional Studies Program. Maitlin has a passion for movement and the choreographic process. She strives to share her work and create with inspiring artists focusing on authentic movement. Her work has been presented in Italy, Stanford University, and throughout New York City. In addition, Maitlin is currently an ensemble member with LEIMAY and Saraika Movement.
Mónica Cerda Campero is an academic, writer, and dancer based in New York City and Mexico City. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University and holds a B.A. in History from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México and an M.A. in Art History from the same institution. Using an interdisciplinary approach, her research focuses on early modern biopolitics and colonization processes in Mexico and the U.S., and the use of image and dance in religious interethnic insurgencies. As a dancer, she has a background in contemporary release and limon techniques. In recent years, she has focused on the study of Butoh, working with teachers in both Mexico City and New York. Inspired by her academic research and dance, her written work explores themes of memory, gesture, history, ideology, and movement.
Teresa Barajas Rodriguez. Graphic Designer by profession. Through photography and video, mainly of landscapes and nature, I explore, learn about and promote the care of my environment. I am attracted to small details such as textures, colors and shapes. I am particularly interested in the close link between nature and humans, how direct contact with the earth can transform our health and self-esteem. After my encounter with Butoh Dance in 2022, I have a special interest in the body, its possibilities of movement and expression, and how it can contain what makes up the life that surrounds and inhabits us.
Teresa Barajas Rodriguez. Graphic Designer by profession. Through photography and video, mainly of landscapes and nature, I explore, learn about and promote the care of my environment. I am attracted to small details such as textures, colors and shapes. I am particularly interested in the close link between nature and humans, how direct contact with the earth can transform our health and self-esteem. After my encounter with Butoh Dance in 2022, I have a special interest in the body, its possibilities of movement and expression, and how it can contain what makes up the life that surrounds and inhabits us.
Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Japanese butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese butoh while carrying it into the twenty-first century. With her all-female dance company, Vangeline’s socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism. Vangeline is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and the festival Queer Butoh. She pioneered the award-winning, 17-year running program The Dream a Dream Project, which brings butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. Her choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, the UK, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Taiwan. Vangeline is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the winner of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere (a work that began as an artistic commission from Surface Area Dance Theatre with support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Heritage Lottery Fund UK); the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award as well as the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vangeline’s work has been heralded in publications such as the New York Times (“captivating”) and Los Angeles Times (“moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist”) to name a few. Widely regarded as an expert in her field, Vangeline has taught at Cornell University, New York University, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Sarah Lawrence, and Princeton University (Princeton Atelier). Film projects include a starring role alongside actors James Franco and Winona Ryder in the feature film by director Jay Anania, ‘The Letter” (2012-Lionsgate). In recent years, she has been commissioned by triple Grammy Award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus). She is the author of the critically-acclaimed book: Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which explores the intersection of butoh and neuroscience. She pioneered the first neuroscientific study of Butoh (“The Slowest Wave”). Her work is the subject of CNN’s “Great Big Story” “Learning to Dance with your Demons.” She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).
VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com
Vangeline Theater programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
The Brick Theater is a not-for-profit dedicated to developing and presenting the work of pioneering emerging artists and career experimenters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We are the artistic home for work that pushes boundaries and spans the ever-evolving spectrum of performing arts, theatre, dance, video, virtual reality, and visual arts. By nurturing emerging artists, sustaining ongoing relationships with frequent collaborators, and removing financial barriers for artists to create work, we create a diverse, accessible, and inclusive artistic community for the city’s most daring artists. We welcome adventurous audiences with low-cost and sliding-scale ticket prices to make performances accessible to all.
Founded in 2002, The Brick has established itself as an essential experimental venue for the production of compelling, new, high-quality work. As a vital part of the New York artistic community, we present 250-300 live performances per year at our two spaces, The Brick and Brick Aux, and welcome over 10,000 audience members each year.
The Brick enters its third decade with a bold new vision and an abiding belief in the power of art. With a renewed focus on multi-week theatrical runs and a dynamic line-up of singular one-off events, The Brick is Williamsburg’s primary incubator of innovative theater and performing arts. bricktheater.com
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Photo: Juan Manuel