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Dancing Butoh-Fu: the poetic body of transformation.

 

Led by Marie-Gabrielle Rotie

with 

Live Sound by Nick Parkin  

 

Saturday May 14th and Sunday May 15th

 

​3pm to 7pm each day 

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Poplar Union 

2 Cotall St, London E14 6TL

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Cost £120 

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sold out 

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The space full of a field of hydrangea

an ocean of pus

a desolate cornfield

 A thick grown field of dandelions 

 

(Mikami 1986/2016)

 

 

 

Butoh-fu is a method generated by the founders of Butoh Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno and is a central and essential axis in Butoh training. The world of images allows us to shape and give form to an inner space-time.  It is how the Butoh dancer  surrenders individual identity and gives form to the space between inner world and outer form. It is the tool to a constant metamorphosis and ability to enter a state of dissolution to enable poetic bodily transformation and transforming the body’s consciousness.  It is also a tool for choreographic form. In this workshop we will explore through improvisation, in mainly solo and duo tasks, the act of listening for images, navigating the place between sensation and word, becoming the image, generating images and responding to images. There is a certain skill in being able to become a ‘poet of the body’, and we look at ways to ‘write’ from the body and generate scores that allow a facility in this process, including methods derived from Surrealism. Drawing is also another method of generating images and would suit visual artists as a process.  

 

We will look at examples of Butoh-fu from the legacy of Hijikata but our interest will be mainly to find our own language of poetry to best reflect our own dance and the expression of the inner world unique to each individual. 

 

 

Some choreographic forms developed by Marie-Gabrielle from her various company works, will also be given to assist participants in this process. We will then share some mini ‘solo or duo’ fragments at the end of the workshop if participants wish to do so. 

 

 

This workshop is suitable for those new to Butoh as well as those with lots of experience, as the tasks lend themselves to a great degree of specificity but also creative freedom. For those wishing to develop their own dance further, this is a good opportunity to generate some material in a supportive environment.

 

Covid: the space is a large and airy studio with doors opening onto a park and will be ventilated regularly. We are not working in masks, but the vulnerable can choose to continue to wear a mask and we can adapt exercises if you are worried about proximity to others. 

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The workshop will be documented by the acclaimed photographer Keiko Ikeuchi. 

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image: Tamas Mesmer 2021.