Orchidelirium is an outdoor interdisciplinary dance and performance connected to the history and symbolism of orchids by Mitsu Salmon with a soundscape by La Spacer.
Together, we explore promiscuously inventive hybrids of tech media film music theater noise talk show jazz low brow glitch channelling queer family dance score improvs visual collage…either way it’s riveting and in the moment- these five artists are making stunning works individually and as a collective in Hot Mess! fashion: simultaneously live-streamed and experienced in person. Audience and artists alike can expect to flex VR and interpersonal skills while also adapting to new tools, technology and experiences. This space becomes anything we want it to be.
Marcy Rae Henry es una Latina de Los Borderlands who studied stuff in Spain, India, Burma and Nepal, hitchhiked around France, Spain and Portugal and motorbiked through the Middle East. Her writing has received a Chicago Community Arts Assistance Grant, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize nomination and first prize in Ember Chasm’s 2021 Novel Excerpt Contest. Her writing and visual art appear in The Columbia Review, carte blanche, Epiphany, The Southern Review, Cauldron Anthology and The Brooklyn Review, among others. DoubleCross Press will publish her chapbook ‘We Are Primary Colors’ this year. www.marcyraehenry.com
SheenRu Yong is a dance artist, choreographer, and the initiator of body portal theatre. She began dancing at Wesleyan University and then trained in New York City and Taipei, where she was commissioned and inspired to choreograph evening-length shows, site-specific works, and community-based performances. While earning her MFA in Choreography at the Taipei National University of the Arts, she toured internationally with Legend Lin Dance Theatre. Through the platform body portal theatre, she works to research and develop the creative potentials of the individual, collective, and environmental bodies we inhabit. She is currently based in Honolulu. www.bodyportaltheatre.com
Shoshana Green is an experimental artist using movement and image to study “process” and “relationships” within and between the quotidian, esoteric and one’s living interiority. She works with the body as a sculptural representation, a mysterious territory of sensations and a channel for giving form to non-verbal narratives. Shoshana is a teacher, curator and presenter for Butoh Programming in San Francisco. She is also a somatic psychotherapist in private practice. www.butohsf.com, shoshanagreentherapy.com
MeenakshiM is an emerging multidisciplinary artist who has incorporated experimental video, dance, and sound art in her work. In her films, she often explores concepts around the interconnectivity of humans and our relationship with nature. As a sound artist, she frequently mixes electronic sources with live vocals to create a variety of harsh, textural, melodic, and cerebral sonic experiences. During these times, she seeks to enhance the physicality of sound and bridge the gap between virtual and in-person human experiences. As a recent graduate of Mills College, she continues to draw from the school’s rich traditions of experimental electronic music as inspiration across all facets of her work. Meenakshi is elated to be contributing to the local performing arts scene(s) here in Chicago. @mak3shine3
Harlan Rosen performs like a playful kitty, getting stuck in a variety of boxes just for the joy of plotting their escape. As a mover and shaker, they have performed in ensemble works by Tadashi Endo, Joan Laage, Carole McCurdy, Ginger Krebs, and Mitsu Salmon, and have presented their own multimedia performances at Outerspace, Hamlin Park Theater, VHS, No Nation, and Elastic Arts. They live in a rent-controlled anterior temporal nucleus in your head, where they are currently dressed in drag as a duck and trying desperately to yodel.
Hot Mess! is a quarterly series produced by Sara Zalek in partnership with Elastic Arts. View a playlist of past performances: If you are or you know an artist interested in participating, complete this survey to get a sense of your interest and the program. This is a paid opportunity.
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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:
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?