Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute and Brick Theater

present

QUEER BUTOH FESTIVAL 2024

June 26 and 27 at 8pm

Wednesday and Thursday

The Brick Theater

579 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

The Slowest Wave

Vangeline Theater

tickets

$20

The Slowest Wave 2022 — Vangeline and Kelsey Strauch

Vangeline Theater –The Slowest Wave

60 minutes with no intermission

Featuring Maitlin Jordan, Monica Cerda, and Vangeline

Choreographed by Vangeline for the Vangeline Theater

Music by Ray Sweeten

Originally a pioneering project combining butoh and neuroscience supported by a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award, The Slowest Wave by Vangeline explores the thematic of waves as a symbol of femininity and female sensuality. This piece was developed in 2022 and 2023 in collaboration with neuroscientists Sadye Paez, Constantina Theofanopoulou and Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, and composer Ray Sweeten. During a Gibney Dance Artist residency, Vangeline choreographed a 60-minute ensemble butoh piece uniquely informed by the protocol being established for a scientific pilot study researching the impact of butoh on brain activity.

BIOGRAPHIES

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.

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).

Ray Sweeten aka Barragan-Sweeten (b. 1975) is a visual artist & sound maker based in New York and Rhode Island. He has performed and screened works at Moma/PS1, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, New York Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, Issue Project Room, Participant Gallery, Microscope Gallery, The Kitchen, Roulette, and toured throughout Europe as a member of Fabrica Musica. He has released music as f13 on Beige Records as The Mitgang Audio on Suction Records. In 2010 he co-founded DataSpaceTime with visual artist Lisa Gwilliam and has exhibited, performed, and screened works at Centre Pompidou, Parish Museum, City Center NY, Microscope Gallery, AS220, Next Festival at BAM, Florida Atlantic University, and Cica Museum. He has taught at Guggenheim Museum and was guest artist faculty at Sarah Lawrence with L. Gwilliam. DataSpaceTime is represented by Microscope Gallery in NYC.

The Slowest Wave at Queer Butoh Festival, New York