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Safe Hiatus

Minako Seki Photo by Jagna Anderson
Minako Seki Photo by Jagna Anderson

With sadness, and with a terrific need to respond in some way. Not knowing words, or combinations of words for these feelings, clearly in transition, as we are.

The much planned for Butoh Between Festival for May 2020 has been cancelled. All programming at OuterSpace is also cancelled until further notice. Our international artists have stopped travel plans. We are going dark so that we may transform, to find our present in the purpose of community and survival. We will communicate as we can, and urge you to share in ways that nurture generosity and open heartedness toward every one of us.

Wishing you health & sanity during a most surreal time. 
We encourage each other to support feeding and housing our local communities. To remain engaged, and responsive to each situation.
To trust that our body/mind will know how to respond. To cultivate self practice, mindfulness, and respect for all beings.

“Like what we know of the virus so far, we are uncommitted to anything particular. We mutate with the times.”

Thanks for supporting us. We will be back ASAP. 
Minako Seki, from SUKIYAKI Festival, Japan
Efren Arcoiris
Yumiko Yoshioka 100 Light Years of Solitude
Alessandro Pintus-Rubedo, photo by Simona Toncelli
Hiroko and Koichi Tamano

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butoh teachers butoh workshops news performance events

20/20 foresight

Minako Seki, from SUKIYAKI Festival, Japan
Minako Seki, from SUKIYAKI Festival, Japan
Yumiko Yoshioka, 100 Years of Solitude, Links Hall, April 25, 2018. ©Photo by Meghan Strell

PLAN AHEAD for upcoming May Butoh Situation. This is our annual push to work deeply with experienced international teachers, to absorb deeply from a fresh perspective, to come together in the dance, the feeling, the continual transformation of learning, being actively curious, and empowered problem solvers. TO THRIVE

20/20 BUTOH BETWEEN FESTIVAL
Workshop Calendar:

20/20 BUTOH BETWEEN FESTIVAL
Minako Seki April 29-May 3
April 29/30
Wed/Thurs 6-10pm
May 2/3
Sat/Sun 12-6pm

Yumiko Yoshioka May 6-10
May 6/7
Wed/Thurs 6-10pm
May 9/10
Sat/Sun 12-6p

Mari Osanai May 20-24
May 20/21
Wed/Thurs 6-10pm
May 23/24
Sat/Sun 12-6pm

REGISTRATION PRICES:
Approximately $14/student hour, daily options thru festival pass options available soon. The most affordable as possible.
These workshops do build every day, but our lives and schedules may not allow for complete immersion. Come to as many as you can, and we welcome all curious bodies!

The space does have a long set of stairs however, so REGRETfully it is not wheelchair/handicapped accessible.

Student/volunteer discounts available upon availability.
Contact butohchicago@gmail.com for details or question.

Performances on Fridays in April and May
Doors open 7-10:30pm, performances begin 7:30pm
@OuterSpace Studios, 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622
May 31 LAST NIGHT IN OUTERSPACE
PERFORMANCES BY MANY MANY MANY

REGISTRATION LINKS COMING SOON

LO/NO TECH Performances as Farewell Fridays (artists & curators TBA) Fridays in May: 1, 8, 15, 22, && FINAL FINAL SHOW ON SUNDAY MAY 31

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Tadashi Endo Butoh-esque

A rare and beautiful treat! Tadashi Endo leads six days of choreographic workshops and with a final performance open to the pubic May 25-31. If you are even slightly Butoh curious, flow your juices over to OuterSpace studios on May 31 to see us perform. If you want to just dip your toe into the Butoh training, or can’t commit to the entire week, consider trying one or two classes to see what you discover.

We will focus on recovering, finding the space between things, discovering new patterns, new imaginations, new sensations, while encouraging continued growth in each of our bodies. When Tadashi Endo is teaching, he gives a deep view into Butoh philosophy and speaks to what Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata were thinking and where we can find inspiration for our own work. Tadashi Endo lets us search for our own Butoh.

HAUTNAH means close to the skin. The audience will sit very close, be strong and present. During the workshop, Tadashi will not rehearse exactly what your dance will be, but he will give you time and space for you to research yourself under his guidance. 

more about the workshops
Get Tickets to the Performance

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butoh workshops news performance events

Press!

Proud to be a top pick in May ❤ Chicago, US. Calling all Butoh enthusiasts and all beautiful weirdos celebrate with us, in all the ways. See you soon! For a full list of events see : butohchicago.com

New city stage dance-top-5-may-2019/

#1
Butoh Non Festival
(various venues)
Workshops and performances in the Japanese avant-garde discipline with local and visiting artists take place at OuterSpace Studios, the International Museum of Surgical Science and No Nation Tangential Unspace Gallery throughout May.
Through May 31

See chicago dance /fifth-annual-non-festival-sara-zalek-brings-international-menu-butoh-masters

“Butoh brings a sense of finding something unique from deep inside each individual, not in beauty but based on real human experience, to share with audience,” said Zalek. “To me, Butoh offers a deepening sense of familiarity with human existence.”

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butoh teachers butoh workshops news performance events

May Butoh Non festival !

Are you ready? Early registration deadline quicky approaching for Yuko workshop, Frontier in Body, and many other opportunities to see and experience butoh / butô liveliness in Chicago!Short calendar of events:

May 1-4 Yuko Kaseki, Frontier in body, @OuterSpace Studios Register here

Friday, May 3 Yuko Kaseki, Shoot Geez My Gosh, @No Nation Tangential Unspace Gallery, 7pm Purchase tickets

Friday May 10 Jon Poindexter, Holly Chernobyl & Sara Zalek, The inside is not different than the outside@Museum of Surgical Science, 530pm Purchase tickets

Sunday May 12, 12-4pm Holly Chernobyl, Body + Imagination Workshop @OuterSpace Studios Register here

May 25-31 Tadashi Endo, Butoh Intensive Workshop/Performance Opportunity @OuterSpace Studios Register here

Friday, May 31 HAUTNAH, Student Performance, @OuterSpace Studios, 7pm Purchase tickets

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butoh teachers butoh workshops news performance events

Prepare Butoh Flowers, for May

gun©dadaware
Photo: dadware

Yuko Kaseki / Frontier in Body
Tadashi Endo / HAUTNAH

  • Concept/Sound collage/Dance: Yuko Kaseki Music: Kazuhisa Uchihashi, SUIT Artistic advisor: Lisa Stertz Light design: Roger Rossell Costume: Kahori Furukawa Photo: Dadaware This butoh performance is inspired by Henry Darger’s fantasy world that juxtaposes innocence with violence. Sounds from real battles found on the Internet are contrasted with iconic corporeal movements that represent innocence. The work attempts to pose a question to the feeling of ambivalence towards systematic violence that imposes powerlessness, and simultaneously reminds of brutal terror that characterizes our epoch. The birth to kill Build to break down Existence To be erased To be pasted The invisible enemy Imperceptible voice The other side of the filter The inside of the monitor In order to be fooled In order to deceive Endless game of The world
  • HA DÔ (waves movement) Photo: Maciej Rusinek
  • Tadashi Endo, Maboroshi
  • Tadashi Endo, IKIRU – Réquiem for Pina Bausch

Celebrating five years as an ad-hoc passion project, Butoh Chicago is proud to present disillusion/dissolution, a Butoh non festival in May, 2019. We will feature performances, workshops, and informal gatherings around Butoh for the month. Join us, won’t you?

Register for workshops Early:

May 1-4, 2019
Yuko Kaseki / Frontier in Body
Butoh Workshop
(REGISTER)

May 25-31, 2019
Tadashi Endo / Hautnah 
Butoh Workshop and Student Performance
(REGISTER)

more to come…subscribe to get up to date information here:

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SAVE THE DATE for Power Ouch!

February 14-17, 2019 at Links Hall

Power Ouch! is a four-night festival of body-based performance examining the ways violence shapes our lives and our experiences. The program features dance, installation, and performance art: work that looks like self-defense and like battle, that grapples with complex forces—resisting, yielding, mobilizing—to offer a solid blow against oppression.

  • Eryka Dellenbach in Make the Brutal Tender. Photoby Muyasaar Kurdi
  • Cat Mahari in The solo mixtape series Violent/Break: Vol II. Photos by Cat Mahari and Sabrina Chan
  • Marcela Torres in Agentic Mode. Photo by Jesse Meredith.
  • Holly Arsenault’s Punch Piece 11

Aurora Tabar and Carole McCurdy are curating Power Ouch! at Links Hall in Chicago. Participating artists include Holly Arsenault, Carly Broutman, Eryka Dellenbach withHanna Elliot and Nola Sporn Smith, Cat Mahari, Marcela Torres, and Rob Welcher with Jeff Hancock and Joseph Hutto. Read more about the artists and their work on their Facebook page.

Participating artists include Holly Arsenault, Carly Broutman, Eryka Dellenbach withHanna Elliot and Nola Sporn Smith, Cat Mahari, Marcela Torres, and Rob Welcher with Jeff Hancock and Joseph Hutto. Read more about the artists and their work on their Facebook page.

Consider making a donation to support Power Ouch! 100% of proceeds directly support the artists. Any donation, large or small, will help them get to their goal of $4,000. You can donate on their Facebook campaign.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 14, 2019 @ 7 pm
Cat Mahari
Eryka Dellenbach, Hanna Elliot, and Nola Sporn Smith

Friday, February 15, 2019 @ 7 pm
Cat Mahari
Carly Broutman 
Eryka Dellenbach, Hanna Elliot, and Nola Sporn Smith

Saturday, February 16, 2019 @ 7 pm
Jeff Hancock, Joseph Hutto, and Rob Welcher
Marcela Torres

Sunday, February 17, 2019 @ 7pm
Jeff Hancock, Joseph Hutto, and Rob Welcher
Carly Broutman
Holly Arsenault


All performances at Links Hall
3111 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

$15 general admission/$12 students and seniors
Visit linkshall.org to buy tickets

Power Ouch! is made possible through support from Links Hall as part of their 40th Anniversary Season
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butoh teachers butoh workshops news ongoing classes

Butoh Workshops with Holly Chernobyl

Next up in the new year, Butoh: Body + Imagination Workshop

Saturday, January 5, 2019
4-8pm
Japanese Culture Center
1016 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago

In this 4 hour workshop, we will use and go beyond the 5 basic forms. Using center (hara/tanden/dantian) work and specific imagery, we dive deep into dancing butoh. You’ll learn different techniques for releasing tension to open physically and energetically. This class uses a combination of improv and technique. Finally, using embodied imagery, we create dances that can carry us and support our daily lives.

Instruction for butoh is instruction for life!

This class is for dancers, actors, martial artists, butoh artists or the butoh-curious. You do not need to have previous experience with butoh, but it helps. Whatever your circumstance, please show up ready to do your best!

Class is $45.00, you can order on Eventbrite

This workshop has a limited number of spaces available! Please register ASAP through the JCC office by emailing info@japaneseculturecenter.com or by calling the office directly.

Wear clothes that are easy to move in! Bring a water bottle. This workshop is open to all levels and abilities. Total newbies especially welcome!

From Holly: I am committed to creating an environment which is inclusive of many lived experiences and many abilities. That said, the center is not ADA accessible, unfortunately. Many apologies. This may change in the future.

Holly Chernobyl is a body-based performance artist. Holly has presented work in many Chicago spaces such as the Chicago Cultural Center, Links Hall, and Dfb Gallery. Her work has also been performed in Seattle at Velocity Dance Center, Brooklyn at JACK, and shown in Boston, Berlin, the UK, and Quebec. She continues to create solo pieces and collaborate with a talented array of Chicago artists. In 2016, she held four artist residencies, in rural Finland, Wisconsin, Germany, and at the Chicago Cultural Center.

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butoh workshops news ongoing classes performance events

Open Voice / Oscillations

photo by William Frederking

Weellllcoommmeeee to a 3 Part Workshop on Sound and VOICE. This class will feature exercises that will help you to freely use your voice and body to explore ~*vibration*~ and Microphones and sympathetic resonances.

OPEN VOICE: Micro Drone

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!

Sundays from 6-8p on Oct 28, Nov 4, and Nov 11.

$10 Suggested donation.

OPEN VOICE is a voice workshop focusing on vocal technique and improvisation, hosted by the performance trio LES CHANTEUSES DU RIEN. If the sound of your voice is always something you’ve wished to explore, come and join! Discover the possibilities and uniqueness of your voice, individually and with a group. Learn to deepen your listening skills. Get in touch with your inner child and create through playful improvisation. No previous experience necessary. Everyone is worthy of expression! Those that attend any of the workshops are welcome to open our set at Oscillations on November 16. Details will be discussed in all of the Open Voice workshops.

OSCILLATIONS: Divyamaan Sahoo / Les Chanteuses du Rien

November 16, 2018

Doors at 7:30PM. Music at 8:00PM

General $10 | Student/Members $8

Experimental Sound Studio

5925 N Ravenswood

Chicago, IL 60660

OSCILLATIONS presents concerts by artists selected from submissions received in response to an open call for proposals.

In the final evening of Oscillations performances, composer, musician, and puppeteer Divyamaan Sahoo will present his new work “Flatland” and Les Chanteuses du Rien (Elaine Lemieux, Hanna Brock, and Sara Zalek) will present an immersive improvisation utilizing the entire ESS building.

LES CHANTEUSES DU RIEN is Sara Zalek (movement), Elaine Lemieux (voice), and Hanna Brock (instrumentalist). We explore the dynamics of resonance in relation to space using classical scores, experimental opera, improvised sound, expanded cinema, and Butoh dance. Our gestures come from strong desire to communicate intimately, to seek an opening to our fears in an embrace. Ultimately, we want to surprise, disarm, and uplift the spirit, to continue weaving the long tail of our evolutionary story. We have been making in this collective for two years, in all sort of venues in Chicago, including Chicago Cultural Center, Edgar Miller Legacy Studio, Silent Funny, Ragdale Foundation and the Hungry Brain, and are looking to tour in 2018. We have been supported by Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Cheney Foundation, the City of Chicago, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation.

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Formidable Dreams Premiere

21 October Sunday

Our first official showcase of Formidable Dreams, created and produced by collaboration between Eugene Sun Park and Sara Zalek in Dance-for-Camera Screenings in Claudia Cassidy Theater from 11am-1:30pm. Formidable Dreams screens at 11:55am and includes an all day installation in the G.A.R. Rotunda.

as part of: Elevate Chicago Dance
Chicago Cultural Center
ALL DAY – Free and open to the public

Formidable Dreams is a short film exploring isolation, dysphoria, and dreams of potential transformation. Through tableaux, operatic voice, and their curious interactions, these trickster heroines explore desire, longing, and the quest for the external elixir. In between conscious and subconscious places, these trickster characters enact both social and primal behavior, with an earnest desire to commune and elevate their status. Their vocalizations are hypnotic, reverent, absurd, and bizarre. Through images, movement, and sound, this film is an elusive narrative that creates a sense of bewilderment and curiosity.

Formidable Dreams takes place in urban, natural, and fantastical landscapes, using elements of Butoh, Opera, and improvisation as frameworks for exploration and development. Presentations and workshops evolve into interactive events featuring live performance with dancers, performers, musicians, and sculptural objects.

THANK YOU ❤
Many amazing artists from the Chicago community made this possible! Special thanks to Eugene Sun Park for the ideas and inspiration and keeping the candle burning for three years; performing still the cast of Heroes, Hanna Brock, Here Heather Marie, Elaine Lemieux, and Sara Goodman; editors Tracy Pitts and Lexi Midkiff; Gwyneth Anderson for Stop-motion photography;  extraordinary Camera Operators and handsome bachelors ETC Joe Lim, Brian Zahm,  Ed Bornstein, Sound Mixer: John Wong, Sound Engineer Specialist; and Event Photographers Rebecca Ciprus and Ji Yang
Event Photographer; Associate Producer/Production Manager/1st AD Gustavo Martin; Production Assistants Quinn Nicholson, Shir Avinadav, Angie Panganiban, Umnia Khan, George Ellzey, Katherine Johnson, Rebecca Ladida, and Molly Hewitt;  Mark Leja, Media Manager; Kevin Oliver-Krohn, Grip; Dylan Morris AC; Max Bryan, 2nd AC; plus final color corrections and trailer by Hannah Kim, PLUS Eryka Dellenbach for the documentation and film of Elevate performance 2017; and Chad Hagedorn for helping me realize the installation doors. 

The film portion of this project is supported by Chicago Dancemakers Forum, an Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cheney Foundation. Special thanks for development opportunities by Light Box, Detroit and locations that made it possible, including Silent Funny and the Chicago Cultural Center.

Directors statement: 
We, Eugene Sun Park and Sara Zalek, began to work together in 2012 and collaborated on some successful projects before beginning Formidable Dreams. With themes of identity and loss in mind—personal, racial, national, ethnic, gender—we have found many creative confluences. Our interests in displacement, myth, and the surreal; the search for our subconscious selves, our humanity, and dreams of potential transformation. We look to comparative mythology to reframe and recontextualize origin stories, to reshape current paradigms of cultural identity. The trickster hero characters in these films move in liminal and subconscious spaces. They rediscover their relationship to the world through their connection to architecture and each other. Through images, movement, and sound, these characters create a sense of bewilderment and curiosity as beings who continually seek to rediscover themselves. We consider the creative potential in all humans as powerful shapeshifters, mythmakers, and transformers of culture.