It's Official: Scientists Find Butoh to be performed in the Slowest Brain Wave

After analyzing data collected from Vangeline Theater dancers at Houston University in January 2023, performing the Slowest Wave, a team of neuroscientists was able to determine that Butoh to be performed in the Slowest Brain wave activity, or infra slow (slowest) brain wave.

“My team has analyzed the first 15 min of the performance and found the infra slow (slowest) brain rhythms during the performance for Vangeline’s EEG data,” said scientist Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal. “This is the first time infra slow rhythms have been found during an active task (usually it is under rest conditions). We have also localized the brain areas involved in the generation of the rythms, and characterized them. We are now processing the other dancers. After this, we will have content for a follow quantitative paper.”

This is a monumental finding both for the field of Butoh, and for science. Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. measuring just a few millionths of a volt. There are five widely recognized brain waves, and the main frequencies of human EEG waves; Gamma (concentration); Beta (active, logical thinking); Alpha (very relaxed); Theta (deeply relaxed, inward focus); and Delta (or Infra slow rythms was up to now only thought to occur during sleep, now documented to be found in Butoh during an active task.

“At Vangeline Theater , we are extremely proud to be at the forefront of this pioneering study, and to have co-produced and spearheaded this research,” said Artistic Director Vangeline.

“This project took ten long years and many setbacks before it saw the light of day; today, we are enjoying this news and are looking forward to more findings to come.

Our performance The Slowest Wave rightly deserved its title; this first step will lead to more discoveries, shedding light on this life-changing art form, and informing more scientific studies on dance, mobility, and consciousness. I am very grateful to our team of scientists Sadye Paez and Constantina Theofanopoulou, neuro engineer Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, and his team at Houston University; and to the Vangeline Theater dancers Azumi Oe, Margherita Tisato, Kelsey Strauch and Sindy Butz, who braved really challenging conditions to take part in this incredible adventure.”

A scientific paper will be published soon summarizing these findings.

More information at https://www.vangeline.com/research

Vangeline will perform the Slowest Wave on November 23rd at Bowes Museum in the UK, presented by Surface Area Dance Theatre. Tickets for the event can be purchased here https://theslowestwave.eventbrite.co.uk

Biographies

 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.

Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst. 

Her choreographed work has been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Finland, Mexico, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, 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 performances have 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, Duke University, 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).

She is currently developing the duet MAN WOMAN with her Butoh dance partner Akihito Ichihara from the renowned butoh company Sankai Juku. www.vangeline.com

Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, PhD (Fellow IEEE, Fellow AIMBE) is Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the NSF Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (IUCRC BRAIN) at the University of Houston. He pioneered noninvasive brain-machine interfaces to exoskeletons and prosthetics to restore motor function in individuals with disabilities. His work at the nexus of art and science is opening new windows to study the neural basis of human creativity in children and adults while informing neuroaesthetics, neural interfaces, and the power of the arts (dance, music, visual art) as a modulator of brain activity. Dr. Contreras-Vidal has collaborated with many performing and visual artists to investigate the neural basis of creativity; most recently, he collaborated with Tony Brandt, a Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Artistic Director of the new music ensemble Musiqa, and Noble Motion Dance Company on “LiveWire,” a new ballet in which each section was inspired by a different feature of brain behavior.  Two of the dancers were outfitted with EEG caps that monitored their brains during the rehearsal and performance. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a new chamber work titled Diabelli 200, one of four winners of the 2022 Performing Arts Houston competition, will be premiered in Houston on February 25, 2023. Diabelli 200, composed by Tony Brand, reveals the inner workings of human imagination and will feature flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello (Musiqa) while showcasing cutting-edge mobile brain-body neurotechnology to visualize the brain in action. Dr. Contreras-Vidal edited the Springer book Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation, and Creativity. He was the co-chair of the 2022 International Workshop on the Social and Neural Bases of Creative Movement held at the Wolf Trap National Center for the Performing Arts. His career development in biomedical engineering was highlighted by the journal Science. Dr. Contreras-Vidal has received many awards and honors, including being named a Senior Research Scholar by the City of Paris, France, a Fellow of the Human Frontiers Science Program, and named a member of the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NABMRR) at the National Institute of Health. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, Industry and Philanthropy. His research has appeared in The Economist, Nature, Science, Der Spiegel, and Wall Street Journal, among others. 

 Constantina Theofanopoulou is an Associate Research Professor at Hunter College, City University of New York, a Visiting Associate Professor at Rockefeller University. She is interested in understanding the neurobiology of social communication, in complex human behaviors, such as speech and dance. In her trajectory so far, she has led and collaborated in studies ranging from behavioral neuroscience to comparative genomics. Her studies have been published in impactful scientific journals (e.g., Nature, Proceedings of Royal Society B) and her findings have attracted media’s interest worldwide (e.g., Science), while she has been invited to give ~60 lectures, including at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University. Dr. Theofanopoulou has received more than 20 awards for her scientific studies, including the distinction in the Forbes 2021 list of the 30 most successful scientists under the age of 30. Dr. Theofanopoulou is also actively involved in the dissemination of science to the general public and in inspirational speech (e.g., speech at the University of Yale, TED talk), as well as in the support of underrepresented minorities in science. She has served as STEM mentor in the New York Academy of Sciences, teaching Life Sciences to elementary and middle school students in underserved communities throughout NYC, and in 2021, she was voted networking coordinator at the Council of the Rockefeller Inclusive Science Initiative. Lastly, Constantina is a flamenco dancer, having performed in many solo and group shows worldwide; in 2012, she was awarded with the first prize of the Spanish Dance Society.

Sadye Paez is a Fellow at the New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts and a Senior Research Associate in the Neurogenetics of Language Laboratory (Erich D. Jarvis) at The Rockefeller University, studying the neurobiology and genetic basis of why humans dance. She is also currently the science communications director for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), which aims to generate near error-free reference genome assemblies of all ~70,000 living vertebrate species. Sadye’s specific research efforts with these genomic projects focus on the sixth mass extinction and conservation. Sadye’s early training as a physiotherapist and biomechanist laid the underpinnings for her current work in understanding the evolution of dance. She earned her undergraduate and master degrees at the University of Central Florida in Micro and Molecular Biology and Physiotherapy, respectively, and her PhD in Biomechanics/Human Movement Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). She was previously an Assistant Professor in Physiotherapy in the Schools of Medicine at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Decolonizing science by addressing the principles, processes, and practices that shape STEM culture is Sadye’s passion. She is currently an inaugural chair of the justice, equity, diversity and inclusion committee for the EBP. She is involved with Women in Science at Rockefeller (WISeR); she has also participated in Science Saturday, a STEM festival for K-8 students and their families. Sadye is also a competitive Latin dancer.

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. www.vangeline.com

Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline in residency with MECURY STORE with MAN WOMAN

Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline

In residency with MERCURY STORE

with

MAN WOMAN

with costumes by Machine Dazzle

and composer Ray Barragan Sweeten

at the MERCURY SYORE

Oct 14-18, 2024

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create a new duet titled MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara (Sankai Juku, ELF) and Vangeline. Ichihara and Vangeline will develop MAN WOMAN during a MERCURY STORE Residency. MAN WOMAN is expected to premiere in the US in New York in 2025. Machine Dazzle has created original costumes for this piece and Ray Barragan Sweeten will compose the soundscape for MAN WOMAN.

MAN WOMAN is a duet about love articulated through the language of Butoh.

The piece is a reimagining of Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s eponymous photo book from 1960. Choreographed and performed by Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline, the duet explores the tension between male and female forms by way of an intimate encounter. The iconic poses from Hosoe’s work serve as inspiration and leitmotifs for this sculptural piece; like photographs coming to life, the dancers weave in and out of the poses without making physical contact. The tension found in negative space rises, a commentary on distance and connection in intimate relationships that culminates in a single touch. 

Eikoh Hosoe’s photographic masterpiece tried to “capture the human drama in the dark, like a ritual in a closed room," by featuring Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh, and his wife Motofuji in sexualized depictions of traditional gender roles. This new, dynamic dance encounter between two 21st-century Butoh artists from Japan and the US disrupts normative expectations of dyadic heterosexual relationships. The dancers embody ambiguous gender roles as they slowly emerge from what seems an enchanted forest as creatures that are only half human, bedecked in fantastical costumes created by Machine Dazzle. In an allusion to Ninjinski’s Rites of Spring, a piece that exerted a profound influence on Butoh, they gradually perform a mating ritual of sorts. However, never before in the history of the art form has the dramaturgy of a piece been propelled by such extravagant, wildly colorful, campy, and fabulous costumes; the signature costumes by Machine Dazzle are reminiscent of Louis XIV and Versailles and carry the story forward as the dancers gradually undress until only classic Butoh white remains. 

Ichihara and Vangeline each come from different Butoh backgrounds; Ichihara from Sankai Juku, or what could be considered “classical” Butoh, while Vangeline’s 20 years of Butoh expertise was informed by her prior experience as a jazz and burlesque dancer. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: the creation of something new and original choreographically, challenging aesthetic expectations and carrying Butoh into the 21st century.

Photos by Michael Blase

Akihito Ichihara (“Ichi”) and Vangeline first met at the Sankai Juku summer camp in 2016 in Japan, and have long admired each other’s work. They decided to embark on a collaboration in October of 2023, only knowing that they wanted to work on a duet. In a stroke of inspiration, Vangeline asked Ichi’s thoughts on utilizing signature costumes created by her friend and collaborator of decades, the iconic queer artist Machine Dazzle. Ichi responded with unbridled enthusiasm, and thus, MAN WOMAN was born. 

Machine Dazzle and Vangeline became friends as performers in the ‘90s at nightclubs in New York City. Ichi has also known Machine for years, as Sankai Juku and Machine are both represented in New York by Pomegranate Arts. Having immense trust in Machine’s talent, skills, and vision, the dancers gave Machine carte blanche to create a costume for each of them, with only the directive that it must be ornate and flamboyant, with elements removed layer by layer until only Butoh white remained. 

Machine’s costumes turn the dancers into sculptures, creating entirely new shapes that necessarily inform their movements. Vangeline and Ichi respond not only to one another’s choreographic vocabulary but also to the wearable art that adorns them. In turn, Machine modifies the costumes to facilitate the emergent dramaturgy of the piece. Vangeline and Sweeten have built on a 20-year history of creative collaboration; All four artists are seasoned professionals who see this collaboration as an exploration, expanding their own artistry as they influence one another. 

The artists involved in MAN WOMAN are masterful, successful professionals embarking on this collaboration to elevate their own craft, push artistic boundaries, create a legacy, and help shape the future of Butoh. 

For Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline, this duet is an unprecedented opportunity to synergize with a peer whose artistic vocabulary so harmoniously complements their own. These self-described "Butoh twins" find it "revolutionary" to choreograph together, as their mutual influence on one another brings forth novel expressions rooted in decades of experience. Machine Dazzle's elaborate, sculptural costumes provide both constraints and possibilities that urge innovation. Simply creating a dance that realizes the progressive potential of Butoh today will mean they have succeeded.

That said, these artists intend to bring MAN WOMAN in front of the entire world. This is only the start of a project that will take on a life of its own, as they all want it to grow and evolve over the next decade as it encounters spectators of all stripes. Vangeline and Ichi see this collaboration as an investment into the future of the art, a labor of love that will allow new audiences to experience the transformative, healing potential of Butoh. They hope that MAN WOMAN will reconfigure Butoh in the public consciousness, attracting new practitioners who will invigorate it and bring it forward into the 21st century as an avenue of authentic expression available to anybody.

As an avant-garde art, Butoh has as many varieties as choreographers. Its tendency to visceral emotionality expressed truthfully makes it a healing practice for many afflicted by trauma and violence. In this way, simply the wider proliferation of Butoh is a boon to the diversity of the dance world.

And yet, the few Americans familiar with Butoh have their impression of it colored by the stark and minimalist style of the all-male, all-Japanese Sankai Juku. Featuring the troupe's own Akihito Ichihara as an equal counterpart to non-Japanese woman Vangeline, both flamboyantly adorned, MAN WOMAN disrupts each of these limited expectations. Their collaboration with one another - and with Machine Dazzle, who infuses an unmistakably queer sensibility - is revolutionary on- and off-stage. Vangeline’s refusal to submit to Ichi in narrative is only superseded in feminist significance by their true partnership behind the scenes. In an art form in which women have rarely risen to positions of prominence, MAN WOMAN showcases the realities and possibilities of Butoh in the 21st century – one in which neither gender, race, nor sexuality are barriers to success.

Moreover, orchestrated by a trio in their 50s, MAN WOMAN is a rebuttal to ageism in a world that expects dancers to retire by 40. It is a testament to the prowess and revelatory potential of seasoned professionals, reaching new heights in their careers after decades of perfecting their craft, and an inspiration to people of all creeds.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST EPISODES ABOUT MAN WOMAN

BIOGRAPHIES

Akihito Ichihara

Akihito Ichihara is Japanese Butoh dancer (ELF, Sankai Juku).

Ichihara started acting in his teenage years. In the 1980s, he was greatly influenced by watching the renowned Butoh troupe Sankai Juku on TV, which inspired him to explore a greater range of physical expression on stage. In 1993, he majored in theater at Nihon University College of Art. He was moved to pursue a Butoh career in 1994; in 1996, he studied with Semimaru, a founding member of Sankai Juku. In 1997, he appeared as a dancer in an opera directed by Ushio Amagatsu, the artistic director and choreographer of Sankai Juku, and later joined Sankai Juku. Since then, he has been featured in Sankai Juku’s entire repertoire and most of Sankai Juku’s world tours.

Ichihara is very active in theater, dance, and Butoh. In addition to his solo projects, he has worked with the most significant butoh dancers and butoh troupes in the history of contemporary butoh. Since the 2005 recreation of “Kinkan Shonen” (which premiered in 1978), he has danced solos in many of Sankai Juku’s performances and has led the group dances as one of the principal dancers. He is also in charge of the design and production of the accessories dancers wear on stage.

Parallel to his work with Sankai Juku, he collaborates with various choreographers, directors, and dance groups worldwide. He is also a guest faculty at Okayama University Graduate School and a guest speaker at international forums. 

In 2022, he founded the dance company “ELF” with dancers Kei Kamioka, Rino Fujimoto, and Miu Shibata. Since then, ELF has held workshops and presented works at renowned institutions and universities worldwide. In the spring of 2023, ELF went on tour in Latin America in Bogota, Colombia, and various locations in Mexico, Taiwan, and San Francisco. These activities received critical acclaim and repeat invitations. The company plans a world tour in 2024.

While many underground and grotesque expressions exist in Butoh, Ichihara, and ELF’s Butoh dance has deeply resonated with people worldwide. This dance is based on the “Sankai Juku Method,” a method accessible to everyone. By developing this method, Ichihara aims to go beyond Butoh by developing a dance technique that can bring a higher level of excellence to professional dancers in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance.

Ichihara hopes to continue learning, collaborating, progressing, and contributing to the development of dance worldwide. He is interested in creating and directing various dance projects that transcend borders, cultural differences, and styles of expression.

Ichihara aims to develop a form of dance that promotes empathy and mutual respect. His goal is to do this worldwide, even between countries and cities that still bear the scars of war. He would like to contribute by acting as a bridge and connecting people across the borders despite their differences.

By sharing physical expressions, dancing, and empathizing with each other, the hope is to transcend borders and contribute to peace efforts worldwide. Based on this idea, ELF advocates a ”Dance Project without Borders.”

Recent work by Akihito Ichihara

Photo by Pili Pala

Vangeline

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.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to advancing Butoh in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute reaches out to the New York and international community by offering public Butoh classes, workshops, and performances through collaborations with international and national Butoh artists. Our socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism; our work addresses issues of gender inequality and social justice. Our yearly New York Butoh Institute Festival elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and our festival Queer Butoh gives a voice to LGBTQIA+ butoh artists.

Our award-winning, 18-year running program, The Dream a Dream Project, brings Butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. "The Dream a Dream Project" contributes to the rehabilitation of New York's incarcerated population. Overall, our programs promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of butoh. 

Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst. 

Vangeline’s choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award winner. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Her 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. 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”). She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).

https://www.vangeline.com

Recent work by Vangeline

Machine Dazzle

Machine Dazzle. Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance since his arrival in New York in 1994. An artist, costume designer, set designer, singer/songwriter, art director, and maker, Machine describes himself as a radical queer emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker trapped in the role of costume designer, sometimes.

Machine designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with artists from the New York downtown scene and beyond – including Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala.

Machine’s costumes and sets were featured in Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. A documentary feature film directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein and co-produced by Pomegranate Arts will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.

In 2019, Machine was commissioned by Guggenheim Works and Process and The Rockefeller Brothers to create Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs including a fashion show inspired by the content.

Recent collaborations include the Catalyst Quartet on Bassline Fabulous – a reimagining of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his debut collaboration with Opera Lafayette, for the historic premiere of the never-before-seen Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io.

Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023.

Machine Dazzle’s work has been exhibited internationally. His first solo exhibition, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, was held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in 2022.

https://www.pomegranatearts.com/artist/machine/

Photo by Gregory Kramer

Ray Barragan Sweeten

Ray 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.

Monira Foundation expands the reach and quality of art available to the public through residencies, exhibitions, and public programs that address urgent and ongoing community needs, particularly as these needs evolve and change in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago.

 https://monirafoundation.org/

This program is supported in parts by the Japan Foundation New York, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Monira Foundation.

Venus Ex Machina: Machine Dazzle and Vangeline

Emmy-Award winner Machine Dazzle and Vangeline

announce their new project

VENUS EX MACHINA

Photos and creation by Machine Dazzle

In August 2024, building on vintage costumes from Materials for the Arts, Machine Dazzle created original looks for Vangeline who inhabited and interpreted his dream. More than twenty iconic looks were photographed in Dan Flavin's light installation at Mana Contemporary.

Listen to the latest episode of our podcast Butoh Musing with Vangeline, featuring no other than special guest Machine in an episode called Saying Yes to Life.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST

Follow us on Instagram for unique photographic content of this project released weekly.

https://www.instagram.com/machinedazzle/

https://www.instagram.com/vangelinebutoh

🌟 #Congratulations #EmmyWinner #CreativeCollaboration #ButohMusing #VenusExMachina

Thanks to the Monira Foundation for their support, Mana Contemporary, Pomegranate Arts, and the Dan Flavin Foundation. This project was made possible by Materials for the Arts.

VENUS EX MACHINA- Photos/creations by Machine Dazzle

About the Artists

Machine Dazzle. Emmy Award winner, beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performances since his arrival in New York in 1994. An artist, costume designer, set designer, singer/songwriter, art director, and maker, Machine describes himself as a radical queer emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker trapped in the role of costume designer, sometimes.

Machine designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with artists from the New York downtown scene and beyond – including Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala.

Machine’s costumes and sets were featured in Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. A documentary feature film directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein and co-produced by Pomegranate Arts will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.

In 2019, Machine was commissioned by Guggenheim Works and Process and The Rockefeller Brothers to create Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs including a fashion show inspired by the content.

Recent collaborations include the Catalyst Quartet on Bassline Fabulous – a reimagining of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his debut collaboration with Opera Lafayette, for the historic premiere of the never-before-seen Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io.

Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023.

Machine Dazzle’s work has been exhibited internationally. His first solo exhibition, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, was held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in 2022.

https://www.pomegranatearts.com/projects-and-artists/machine-dazzle

Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline in residency with Monira Foundation with MAN WOMAN

Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline

In residency with Monira Foundation

with

MAN WOMAN

with costumes by Machine Dazzle

and composer Ray Barragan Sweeten

at the Monira Foundation

July 15-August 15, 2024

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create a new duet titled MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara (Sankai Juku, ELF) and Vangeline. Ichihara and Vangeline will develop MAN WOMAN during a Monira Foundation Residency. MAN WOMAN is expected to premiere in the US in New York in 2025. Machine Dazzle has created original costumes for this piece and Ray Barragan Sweeten will compose the soundscape for MAN WOMAN.

MAN WOMAN is a duet about love articulated through the language of Butoh.

The piece is a reimagining of Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s eponymous photo book from 1960. Choreographed and performed by Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline, the duet explores the tension between male and female forms by way of an intimate encounter. The iconic poses from Hosoe’s work serve as inspiration and leitmotifs for this sculptural piece; like photographs coming to life, the dancers weave in and out of the poses without making physical contact. The tension found in negative space rises, a commentary on distance and connection in intimate relationships that culminates in a single touch. 

Eikoh Hosoe’s photographic masterpiece tried to “capture the human drama in the dark, like a ritual in a closed room," by featuring Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh, and his wife Motofuji in sexualized depictions of traditional gender roles. This new, dynamic dance encounter between two 21st-century Butoh artists from Japan and the US disrupts normative expectations of dyadic heterosexual relationships. The dancers embody ambiguous gender roles as they slowly emerge from what seems an enchanted forest as creatures that are only half human, bedecked in fantastical costumes created by Machine Dazzle. In an allusion to Ninjinski’s Rites of Spring, a piece that exerted a profound influence on Butoh, they gradually perform a mating ritual of sorts. However, never before in the history of the art form has the dramaturgy of a piece been propelled by such extravagant, wildly colorful, campy, and fabulous costumes; the signature costumes by Machine Dazzle are reminiscent of Louis XIV and Versailles and carry the story forward as the dancers gradually undress until only classic Butoh white remains. 

Ichihara and Vangeline each come from different Butoh backgrounds; Ichihara from Sankai Juku, or what could be considered “classical” Butoh, while Vangeline’s 20 years of Butoh expertise was informed by her prior experience as a jazz and burlesque dancer. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: the creation of something new and original choreographically, challenging aesthetic expectations and carrying Butoh into the 21st century.

Photos by Michael Blase

Akihito Ichihara (“Ichi”) and Vangeline first met at the Sankai Juku summer camp in 2016 in Japan, and have long admired each other’s work. They decided to embark on a collaboration in October of 2023, only knowing that they wanted to work on a duet. In a stroke of inspiration, Vangeline asked Ichi’s thoughts on utilizing signature costumes created by her friend and collaborator of decades, the iconic queer artist Machine Dazzle. Ichi responded with unbridled enthusiasm, and thus, MAN WOMAN was born. 

Machine Dazzle and Vangeline became friends as performers in the ‘90s at nightclubs in New York City. Ichi has also known Machine for years, as Sankai Juku and Machine are both represented in New York by Pomegranate Arts. Having immense trust in Machine’s talent, skills, and vision, the dancers gave Machine carte blanche to create a costume for each of them, with only the directive that it must be ornate and flamboyant, with elements removed layer by layer until only Butoh white remained. 

Machine’s costumes turn the dancers into sculptures, creating entirely new shapes that necessarily inform their movements. Vangeline and Ichi respond not only to one another’s choreographic vocabulary but also to the wearable art that adorns them. In turn, Machine modifies the costumes to facilitate the emergent dramaturgy of the piece. Vangeline and Sweeten have built on a 20-year history of creative collaboration; All four artists are seasoned professionals who see this collaboration as an exploration, expanding their own artistry as they influence one another. 

The artists involved in MAN WOMAN are masterful, successful professionals embarking on this collaboration to elevate their own craft, push artistic boundaries, create a legacy, and help shape the future of Butoh. 

For Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline, this duet is an unprecedented opportunity to synergize with a peer whose artistic vocabulary so harmoniously complements their own. These self-described "Butoh twins" find it "revolutionary" to choreograph together, as their mutual influence on one another brings forth novel expressions rooted in decades of experience. Machine Dazzle's elaborate, sculptural costumes provide both constraints and possibilities that urge innovation. Simply creating a dance that realizes the progressive potential of Butoh today will mean they have succeeded.

That said, these artists intend to bring MAN WOMAN in front of the entire world. This is only the start of a project that will take on a life of its own, as they all want it to grow and evolve over the next decade as it encounters spectators of all stripes. Vangeline and Ichi see this collaboration as an investment into the future of the art, a labor of love that will allow new audiences to experience the transformative, healing potential of Butoh. They hope that MAN WOMAN will reconfigure Butoh in the public consciousness, attracting new practitioners who will invigorate it and bring it forward into the 21st century as an avenue of authentic expression available to anybody.

As an avant-garde art, Butoh has as many varieties as choreographers. Its tendency to visceral emotionality expressed truthfully makes it a healing practice for many afflicted by trauma and violence. In this way, simply the wider proliferation of Butoh is a boon to the diversity of the dance world.

And yet, the few Americans familiar with Butoh have their impression of it colored by the stark and minimalist style of the all-male, all-Japanese Sankai Juku. Featuring the troupe's own Akihito Ichihara as an equal counterpart to non-Japanese woman Vangeline, both flamboyantly adorned, MAN WOMAN disrupts each of these limited expectations. Their collaboration with one another - and with Machine Dazzle, who infuses an unmistakably queer sensibility - is revolutionary on- and off-stage. Vangeline’s refusal to submit to Ichi in narrative is only superseded in feminist significance by their true partnership behind the scenes. In an art form in which women have rarely risen to positions of prominence, MAN WOMAN showcases the realities and possibilities of Butoh in the 21st century – one in which neither gender, race, nor sexuality are barriers to success.

Moreover, orchestrated by a trio in their 50s, MAN WOMAN is a rebuttal to ageism in a world that expects dancers to retire by 40. It is a testament to the prowess and revelatory potential of seasoned professionals, reaching new heights in their careers after decades of perfecting their craft, and an inspiration to people of all creeds.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST EPISODES ABOUT MAN WOMAN

BIOGRAPHIES

Akihito Ichihara

Akihito Ichihara is Japanese Butoh dancer (ELF, Sankai Juku).

Ichihara started acting in his teenage years. In the 1980s, he was greatly influenced by watching the renowned Butoh troupe Sankai Juku on TV, which inspired him to explore a greater range of physical expression on stage. In 1993, he majored in theater at Nihon University College of Art. He was moved to pursue a Butoh career in 1994; in 1996, he studied with Semimaru, a founding member of Sankai Juku. In 1997, he appeared as a dancer in an opera directed by Ushio Amagatsu, the artistic director and choreographer of Sankai Juku, and later joined Sankai Juku. Since then, he has been featured in Sankai Juku’s entire repertoire and most of Sankai Juku’s world tours.

Ichihara is very active in theater, dance, and Butoh. In addition to his solo projects, he has worked with the most significant butoh dancers and butoh troupes in the history of contemporary butoh. Since the 2005 recreation of “Kinkan Shonen” (which premiered in 1978), he has danced solos in many of Sankai Juku’s performances and has led the group dances as one of the principal dancers. He is also in charge of the design and production of the accessories dancers wear on stage.

Parallel to his work with Sankai Juku, he collaborates with various choreographers, directors, and dance groups worldwide. He is also a guest faculty at Okayama University Graduate School and a guest speaker at international forums. 

In 2022, he founded the dance company “ELF” with dancers Kei Kamioka, Rino Fujimoto, and Miu Shibata. Since then, ELF has held workshops and presented works at renowned institutions and universities worldwide. In the spring of 2023, ELF went on tour in Latin America in Bogota, Colombia, and various locations in Mexico, Taiwan, and San Francisco. These activities received critical acclaim and repeat invitations. The company plans a world tour in 2024.

While many underground and grotesque expressions exist in Butoh, Ichihara, and ELF’s Butoh dance has deeply resonated with people worldwide. This dance is based on the “Sankai Juku Method,” a method accessible to everyone. By developing this method, Ichihara aims to go beyond Butoh by developing a dance technique that can bring a higher level of excellence to professional dancers in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance.

Ichihara hopes to continue learning, collaborating, progressing, and contributing to the development of dance worldwide. He is interested in creating and directing various dance projects that transcend borders, cultural differences, and styles of expression.

Ichihara aims to develop a form of dance that promotes empathy and mutual respect. His goal is to do this worldwide, even between countries and cities that still bear the scars of war. He would like to contribute by acting as a bridge and connecting people across the borders despite their differences.

By sharing physical expressions, dancing, and empathizing with each other, the hope is to transcend borders and contribute to peace efforts worldwide. Based on this idea, ELF advocates a ”Dance Project without Borders.”

Recent work by Akihito Ichihara

Photo by Pili Pala

Vangeline

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.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to advancing Butoh in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute reaches out to the New York and international community by offering public Butoh classes, workshops, and performances through collaborations with international and national Butoh artists. Our socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism; our work addresses issues of gender inequality and social justice. Our yearly New York Butoh Institute Festival elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and our festival Queer Butoh gives a voice to LGBTQIA+ butoh artists.

Our award-winning, 18-year running program, The Dream a Dream Project, brings Butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. "The Dream a Dream Project" contributes to the rehabilitation of New York's incarcerated population. Overall, our programs promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of butoh. 

Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst. 

Vangeline’s choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award winner. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Her 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. 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”). She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).

https://www.vangeline.com

Recent work by Vangeline

Machine Dazzle

Machine Dazzle. Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance since his arrival in New York in 1994. An artist, costume designer, set designer, singer/songwriter, art director, and maker, Machine describes himself as a radical queer emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker trapped in the role of costume designer, sometimes.

Machine designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with artists from the New York downtown scene and beyond – including Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala.

Machine’s costumes and sets were featured in Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. A documentary feature film directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein and co-produced by Pomegranate Arts will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.

In 2019, Machine was commissioned by Guggenheim Works and Process and The Rockefeller Brothers to create Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs including a fashion show inspired by the content.

Recent collaborations include the Catalyst Quartet on Bassline Fabulous – a reimagining of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his debut collaboration with Opera Lafayette, for the historic premiere of the never-before-seen Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io.

Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023.

Machine Dazzle’s work has been exhibited internationally. His first solo exhibition, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, was held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in 2022.

https://www.pomegranatearts.com/artist/machine/

Photo by Gregory Kramer

Ray Barragan Sweeten

Ray 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.

Monira Foundation expands the reach and quality of art available to the public through residencies, exhibitions, and public programs that address urgent and ongoing community needs, particularly as these needs evolve and change in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago.

 https://monirafoundation.org/

This program is supported in parts by the Japan Foundation New York, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Monira Foundation.

MAN WOMAN with Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline with costumes by Machine Dazzle

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute

in collaboration with ELF and 

legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle 

Partner to Create MAN WOMAN,

to Premiere in 2025

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create a new duet titled MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara (Sankai Juku, ELF) and Vangeline. Ichihara and Vangeline plan to develop MAN WOMAN in 2024 in the US during a Monira Foundation Residency. MAN WOMAN is expected to premiere in the US in New York in 2025. Machine Dazzle has created original costumes for this piece.

MAN WOMAN is a duet about love articulated through the language of Butoh.

Inspired by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s eponymous photo book from 1960, this dynamic dance encounter between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline disrupts normative expectations of dyadic heterosexual relationships. The iconic poses from Hosoe’s work serve as inspiration and leitmotifs for this sculptural piece; like photographs coming to life, the dancers weave in and out of the poses without making physical contact. The tension found in negative space rises, a commentary on distance and connection in intimate relationships that culminates in a single touch. 

Lavish costumes created by Machine Dazzle bring this piece into a fresh and unexpected context for Butoh, which Dazzle affectionately calls BUTOH MAXIMALISM. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: creating something new and original choreographically, carrying Butoh into the 21st century. 

Photos by Ricardo Ramirez Arriola and Michael Blase

BIOGRAPHIES

Akihito Ichihara

Akihito Ichihara is Japanese Butoh dancer (ELF, Sankai Juku).

Ichihara started acting in his teenage years. In the 1980s, he was greatly influenced by watching the renowned Butoh troupe Sankai Juku on TV, which inspired him to explore a greater range of physical expression on stage. In 1993, he majored in theater at Nihon University College of Art. He was moved to pursue a Butoh career in 1994; in 1996, he studied with Semimaru, a founding member of Sankai Juku. In 1997, he appeared as a dancer in an opera directed by Ushio Amagatsu, the artistic director and choreographer of Sankai Juku, and later joined Sankai Juku. Since then, he has been featured in Sankai Juku’s entire repertoire and most of Sankai Juku’s world tours.

Ichihara is very active in theater, dance, and Butoh. In addition to his solo projects, he has worked with the most significant butoh dancers and butoh troupes in the history of contemporary butoh. Since the 2005 recreation of “Kinkan Shonen” (which premiered in 1978), he has danced solos in many of Sankai Juku’s performances and has led the group dances as one of the principal dancers. He is also in charge of the design and production of the accessories dancers wear on stage.

Parallel to his work with Sankai Juku, he collaborates with various choreographers, directors, and dance groups worldwide. He is also a guest faculty at Okayama University Graduate School and a guest speaker at international forums. 

In 2022, he founded the dance company “ELF” with dancers Kei Kamioka, Rino Fujimoto, and Miu Shibata. Since then, ELF has held workshops and presented works at renowned institutions and universities worldwide. In the spring of 2023, ELF went on tour in Latin America in Bogota, Colombia, and various locations in Mexico, Taiwan, and San Francisco. These activities received critical acclaim and repeat invitations. The company plans a world tour in 2024.

While many underground and grotesque expressions exist in Butoh, Ichihara, and ELF’s Butoh dance has deeply resonated with people worldwide. This dance is based on the “Sankai Juku Method,” a method accessible to everyone. By developing this method, Ichihara aims to go beyond Butoh by developing a dance technique that can bring a higher level of excellence to professional dancers in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance.

Ichihara hopes to continue learning, collaborating, progressing, and contributing to the development of dance worldwide. He is interested in creating and directing various dance projects that transcend borders, cultural differences, and styles of expression.

Ichihara aims to develop a form of dance that promotes empathy and mutual respect. His goal is to do this worldwide, even between countries and cities that still bear the scars of war. He would like to contribute by acting as a bridge and connecting people across the borders despite their differences.

By sharing physical expressions, dancing, and empathizing with each other, the hope is to transcend borders and contribute to peace efforts worldwide. Based on this idea, ELF advocates a ”Dance Project without Borders.”

Recent work by Akihito Ichihara

Photo by Pili Pala

Vangeline

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.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to advancing Butoh in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute reaches out to the New York and international community by offering public Butoh classes, workshops, and performances through collaborations with international and national Butoh artists. Our socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism; our work addresses issues of gender inequality and social justice. Our yearly New York Butoh Institute Festival elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and our festival Queer Butoh gives a voice to LGBTQIA+ butoh artists.

Our award-winning, 18-year running program, The Dream a Dream Project, brings Butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. "The Dream a Dream Project" contributes to the rehabilitation of New York's incarcerated population. Overall, our programs promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of butoh. 

Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst. 

Vangeline’s choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award winner. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Her 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. 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”). She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).

https://www.vangeline.com

Recent work by Vangeline

Machine Dazzle

Machine Dazzle. Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance since his arrival in New York in 1994. An artist, costume designer, set designer, singer/songwriter, art director, and maker, Machine describes himself as a radical queer emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker trapped in the role of costume designer, sometimes.

Machine designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with artists from the New York downtown scene and beyond – including Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala.

Machine’s costumes and sets were featured in Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. A documentary feature film directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein and co-produced by Pomegranate Arts will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.

In 2019, Machine was commissioned by Guggenheim Works and Process and The Rockefeller Brothers to create Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs including a fashion show inspired by the content.

Recent collaborations include the Catalyst Quartet on Bassline Fabulous – a reimagining of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his debut collaboration with Opera Lafayette, for the historic premiere of the never-before-seen Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io.

Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023.

Machine Dazzle’s work has been exhibited internationally. His first solo exhibition, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, was held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in 2022.

https://www.pomegranatearts.com/artist/machine/

Photo by Gregory Kramer

---

PHOTOS FROM THE BOOK MAN WOMAN BY EIKOH HOSOE

Eikoh Hosoe pictures courtesy of Eikoh Hosoe. All rights reserved.

 This program is supported in parts by the Japan Foundation New York, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the Monira Foundation.

Vangeline is the recipient of US Artist International award to travel to FiButoh 2022 in Santiago, Chile

Photo By Hugo Angel

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute is proud to announce that Vangeline was the recipient of a US Artist International award to travel to the FiButoh 2022 Festival in Santiago, Chile, October 9-23, 2022.

https://www.fibutoh.com/

As part of this engagement, Vangeline will perform her critically acclaimed solo Eternity123.

This program was made possible by generous support from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Vangeline is the Recipient of 2022/23 Gibney Dance in Process Artist Residency

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute

Announces

Vangeline is the Recipient of

2022/23 Gibney Dance in Process Artist Residency

Azumi Oe and Sindy Butz wearing a Muse 2 brain sensing headband–Photo by Tal Shpantzer

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute announces that Founder and Artistic Director Vangeline is the recipient of a 2022/23 Gibney Dance in Process (DiP) Residency.

During the residency, butoh artist Vangeline will continue developing The Slowest Wave, a pioneering project combining butoh and neuroscience. In collaboration with neuroscientists Sadye Paez, Constantina Theofanopoulou and Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, and composer Ray Sweeten, Vangeline is choreographing a 60-minute ensemble butoh piece, which is uniquely informed by the protocol being established for a scientific pilot study researching the impact of butoh on brain activity. Vangeline and Sweeten are building on a 20-year history of creative collaboration with a soundscape that is informed by techniques of brainwave entrainment (techniques that affect consciousness through sound). The Slowest Wave investigates the relationship between human consciousness and dance through the use of scalp electroencephalography (EEG); and will foster connections and understanding between dancers, artists, scientists, engineers, and audiences from around the world.

In October 2022, the first iteration of The Slowest Wave will premiere at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn. As part of her residency in January 2023, the dancers' brain activity will be recorded for the pilot study at the University of Houston, Texas, culminating in a live performance, with real-time visualization of the dancers’ neural synchrony and slow brain wave activity. Results will then be disseminated in scientific journals.

Vangeline is one of six mid-career New York City-based dance artists who are in the process of developing a new project being supported by Gibney Center this year. The other 2022/23 DiP Artists are Ori Flomin, Antonio Ramos, Stacy Matthew Spence, Kate Watson-Wallace, and Director's DiP/AiR Recipient Sidra Bell. 

DiP is designed to provide extensive, holistic support for artists. Resident Artists each receive three weeks of exclusive, continuous access to a studio at one of Gibney’s locations, as well as a $7,500 stipend and a $2,000 allowance for artistic consultants. During their season in residence, participating artists will also receive an additional 40 hours of discounted studio space in designated studios, as well as professional development and administrative support from Gibney Center staff.

For more information about Vangeline and her work, visit vangeline.com.

Gibney’s Dance in Process Residency Program was made possible with generous support from the Mellon Foundation.

ABOUT GIBNEY 

Founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, Gibney is a New York City-based performing arts and social justice organization that taps into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney deploys resources through three strategic and interwoven program areas: Gibney Center, a meeting ground for New York City's artistic community comprising 23 studios and 5 performance spaces that provide critical space for training, rehearsal, professional development, performances, and convenings; Gibney Community, programs that use movement to help address a range of social issues with a focus on gender-based violence and its prevention; and Gibney Company, the organization's resident dance ensemble. Gibney supports movement-based artists in every aspect of their creative development: classes, residencies, low-cost rental space, entrepreneurial training and incubation, presentation opportunities, commissioning, and operating a professional dance company.

Vangeline wearing a MUSE 2 brain sensing headband–photo by Tal Shpantzer

ABOUT VANGELINE

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 Queer Butoh festival. She pioneered the award-winning, 15-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 work has been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

She is the winner of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award; is a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, and 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 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. 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) and is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. www.vangeline.com

VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form well into the future. The unique art of Butoh originated in post-World War II Japan as a reaction to the loss of identity caused by the westernization of Japanese culture, as well as a realization that ancient Japanese performing traditions no longer spoke to a contemporary audience. The Vangeline Theater is home to the New York Butoh Institute, dedicated to the advancement of Butoh in the 21st century.

Sadye Paez is a Research Fellow at the New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts and a Senior Research Associate in the Neurogenetics of Language Laboratory (Erich D. Jarvis) at The Rockefeller University, studying the neurobiology and genetic basis of why humans dance. She is also currently the science communications director for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), which aims to generate near error-free reference genome assemblies of all ~70,000 living vertebrate species. Sadye’s specific research efforts with these genomic projects focus on the sixth mass extinction and conservation. Sadye’s early training as a physiotherapist and biomechanist laid the underpinnings for her current work in understanding the evolution of dance. She earned her undergraduate and master degrees at the University of Central Florida in Micro and Molecular Biology and Physiotherapy, respectively, and her PhD in Biomechanics/Human Movement Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). She was previously an Assistant Professor in Physiotherapy in the Schools of Medicine at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Decolonizing science by addressing the principles, processes, and practices that shape STEM culture is Sadye’s passion. She is currently an inaugural chair of the justice, equity, diversity and inclusion committee for the EBP. She is involved with Women in Science at Rockefeller (WISeR); she has also participated in Science Saturday, a STEM festival for K-8 students and their families. Sadye is also a competitive Latin dancer.

Constantina Theofanopoulou is an Associate Research Professor at Hunter College, City University of New York, a Visiting Associate Professor at Rockefeller University and a Research Fellow at the New York University. She is interested in understanding the neurobiology of social communication, in complex human behaviors, such as speech and dance. In her trajectory so far, she has led and collaborated in studies ranging from behavioral neuroscience to comparative genomics. Her studies have been published in impactful scientific journals (e.g., Nature, Proceedings of Royal Society B) and her findings have attracted media’s interest worldwide (e.g., Science), while she has been invited to give ~60 lectures, including at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University. Dr. Theofanopoulou has received more than 20 awards for her scientific studies, including the distinction in the Forbes 2021 list of the 30 most successful scientists under the age of 30. Dr. Theofanopoulou is also actively involved in the dissemination of science to the general public and in inspirational speech (e.g., speech at the University of Yale, TED talk), as well as in the support of underrepresented minorities in science. She has served as STEM mentor in the New York Academy of Sciences, teaching Life Sciences to elementary and middle school students in underserved communities throughout NYC, and in 2021, she was voted networking coordinator at the Council of the Rockefeller Inclusive Science Initiative. Lastly, Constantina is a flamenco dancer, having performed in many solo and group shows worldwide; in 2012, she was awarded with the first prize of the Spanish Dance Society.

Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, PhD (Fellow IEEE, Fellow AIMBE) is Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the NSF Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (IUCRC BRAIN) at the University of Houston. He pioneered noninvasive brain-machine interfaces to exoskeletons and prosthetics to restore motor function in individuals with disabilities. His work at the nexus of art and science is opening new windows to study the neural basis of human creativity in children and adults while informing neuroaesthetics, neural interfaces, and the power of the arts (dance, music, visual art) as a modulator of brain activity. Dr. Contreras-Vidal has collaborated with many performing and visual artists to investigate the neural basis of creativity; most recently, he collaborated with Tony Brandt, a Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Artistic Director of the new music ensemble Musiqa, and Noble Motion Dance Company on “LiveWire,” a new ballet in which each section was inspired by a different feature of brain behavior.  Two of the dancers were outfitted with EEG caps that monitored their brains during the rehearsal and performance. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a new chamber work titled Diabelli 200, one of four winners of the 2022 Performing Arts Houston competition, will be premiered in Houston on February 25, 2023. Diabelli 200, composed by Tony Brand, reveals the inner workings of human imagination and will feature flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello (Musiqa) while showcasing cutting-edge mobile brain-body neurotechnology to visualize the brain in action. Dr. Contreras-Vidal edited the Springer book Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation, and Creativity. He was the co-chair of the 2022 International Workshop on the Social and Neural Bases of Creative Movement held at the Wolf Trap National Center for the Performing Arts. His career development in biomedical engineering was highlighted by the journal Science. Dr. Contreras-Vidal has received many awards and honors, including being named a Senior Research Scholar by the City of Paris, France, a Fellow of the Human Frontiers Science Program, and named a member of the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NABMRR) at the National Institute of Health. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, Industry and Philanthropy. His research has appeared in The Economist, Nature, Science, Der Spiegel, and Wall Street Journal, among others. 

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, and 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, 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.

Photo Credits:

Dr. Contreras-Vidal by Claire Mc Adams.

Vangeline–photo by Michael Blase

Photo descriptions:

Top photo: Two dancers wearing long black dresses and a MUSE 2 brain recording headband. One dancer is profile, and the other facing front. Both have long hair in a very clean bun.

2. Vangeline in Fireflies, balancing on her sit bone with blue lighting, profile with arms above her head, making a G letter shape with her body. She is wearing a yellow see-through camisole. Her hair is long and flowing down her back.

3, 4, 5. Headshot portraits of Sadye Paez, Constantina Theofanopoulou , Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal, PhD., and Ray Sweeten.

The Slowest Wave is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center at the University of Houston, and 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 the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Why We Dance: Vangeline on BBC's Deeply Human with Dessa Darling–launches Feb 26

Choreographer Vangeline

will be featured on

the BBC Podcast Deeply Human

with Host Dessa Darling

February 26 & 27, 2022

Vangeline will be featured on the second season of the BBC podcast Deeply Human, hosted by Dessa Darling, which will be broadcast live on February 26 & 27, 2022, at the top of the 2 o’clock hour, local time. The episode is entitled “Why We Dance,” and will be available to stream shortly after broadcast on the BBC website.

On the episode, Vangeline and Dessa discuss why our bodies react to rhythm: from rain dances to raves, dance has been a social tool for sexual selection and community cohesion. The pair explores the neuroscience of music and movement and learns how dance therapy is used to treat motor disorders. Vangeline also gives Dessa a lesson in butoh - the Japanese form sometimes called “the Dance of Darkness” - at her Gowanus studio.

Season Two of Deeply Human covers monogamy, sleep deprivation, high fashion, and avant-garde Japanese dance. Dessa speaks to psychologists, animal behaviorists, mathematicians, historians, and one legendary DJ to ask the evergreen question: why do you do what you do? Why does music animate our bodies? Why are we so keen to form social hierarchies? Why do humans use intoxicants? We're talking about everyone's favorite topic—you.

About Vangeline

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, 15-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 work has been performed in Chile,

Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Vangeline is 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. Her work as an educator, choreographer and

curator has been supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, Japan Foundation,

New York Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts, New

York Council on the Arts, Robert Friedman Foundation, and Asian American Arts

Alliance.

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. Her work is the subject of CNN’s “Great Big Story” "Learning to

Dance with your Demons.”

About Deeply Human

Why do you do the things you do? Hosted by American musician and writer, Dessa, Deeply Human investigates the human experience with rigor, humor, intimate stories, and the occasional spit take. Assembling brilliant minds from around the world--from philosophers to anthropologists, neuroscientists to historians--you will be left with a fuller understanding of your own behavior, and a more charitable explanation of other people's too.

@bbcworld @iheartradio @deeplyhuman @dessadarling @bbcworldservice

 Check it out!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3hgv

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute resumes in-person butoh classes February 5th–plus online, and on-demand classes offered

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute resumes in-person butoh classes February 5th–plus online and on-demand butoh classes

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh is happy to resume in-person butoh classes and workshops in New York, starting February 5, 2022. Online classes will continue to be offered via Zoom; we are also excited to expand our on-demand roster of butoh classes and workshops on Vimeo.

Join us, in-person, online via Zoom, or practice butoh on your own time with our popular on-demand classes and workshops. Classes are taught by butoh dancer and expert Vangeline.

For a calendar of in-person and online butoh classes, visit www.vangeline.com/calendar.

To take our butoh classes on-demand, visit www.vangeline.com/on-demand-classes.

---

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to the advancement of butoh in the 21st century, With 20 years of experience in the field, we pride ourselves on making butoh dance accessible to complete beginners, actors, dancers, and students from all walks of life.

The Vangeline Theater does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identification. Our classes are open to everyone interested in studying butoh. We welcome students with disabilities. Our classes are trauma-informed, open level, and beginners are welcome.

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. 

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, 15-year running program The Dream a Dream Project, bringing 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, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. 

She won a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere ; 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. Her work as an educator, choreographer, and curator has been supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, Japan Foundation, New York Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York Council on the Arts, Robert Friedman Foundation, and Asian American Arts Alliance.

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. Her work is the subject of CNN’s “Great Big Story” “Learning to Dance with your Demons.” She is soon to be featured on the BBC in Dessa Darling’s show Deeply Human.

www.vangeline.com

Photos by Marco Poolamets.