Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute and Brick Theater

present

QUEER BUTOH FESTIVAL 2024

June 28 and 29 at 8pm

Friday and Saturday

The Brick Theater

579 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

tickets

$20

Garden of ruin by SHADOWSWELL featuring Shuning Huang and Eilish Henderson

(20 minutes)

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) choreographed and directed by Madelyn Sher

(20 minutes)

Dandelions 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.

Dancers: Erica Lee Schwartz and Madelyn Sher

Music: Leo Hardman-Hill

Anima Transfiguratio by Anástasis

(35 minutes)

Changing shape, breath spirit gives rise to all beings. Life energy transforms throughout nature embodying animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, minerals, elements, and stars. This piece explores the transfigurations of the vital breath that engenders all life.

Photo by Ojo de Soul studio of Anástasis

BIOGRAPHIES

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.

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.

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).

Queer Butoh Festival featuring Anástasis, Shadowell and Madelyn Sher