New York Butoh Kan Teaching Residency + Training Initiative

[CAVE Org]

LUDUS TRAINING SEASON

NYBK TEACHING RESIDENCY + TRAINING INITIATIVE 2010

13 AUGUST TO 27 NOVEMBER 2010

EARLY REGISTRATION ENDS 21 JUNE 2010

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LUDUS (school + play) is the educational program of CAVE and its resident company LEIMAY. The core of the program is the New York Butoh Kan (NYBK). Every year, influential butoh artists living abroad are invited to be resident teachers at CAVE, where they lead introductory and intensive workshops open to dancers, actors, and performers. Join us from August to November to: share and discover the work of Mari Osanai, Yukio Waguri, Imre Thormann, and Yukio Suzuki; be part of LEIMAY Open Company class, lead by Ximena Garnica; and attend lectures by and interviews with our resident teachers. For full details and to register, please visit our website.

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Mari Osanai lives in Japan. She trained in Classical Ballet, Noguchi Taizo, Yoga, Tai Chi, Hip Hop, traditional Japanese dances in Aomori Tsugarou Teodori and Jazz. Her unique movements and original style are realized through interweaving these diverse techniques. Two teachers who have greatly influenced her artistic path are Michizo Noguchi, the founder of Noguchi Taizo, and Hironobu Oikawa, one of the most important contemporary Japanese dance teachers. She has taught and presented her work in Greece, Canada, Japan and the Unites States and has participated in many festivals, receiving rave reviews.

"Mari Osanai is a beautiful spiral, perpetual motion machine. But of course, no machine could move with such beauty. It gives the impression of a creature without bones and feet and hands are so pliable and incredibly expressive." - The London Fringe Press

"Each year only a couple of shows surprise and captivate the Fringe Festival. This year's first surprise was The Dawn by Japan’s Mari Osanai. This amazing dancer is perhaps the finest show in this festival." The Globe and Mail

MARI OSANAI INTRODUCTORY SESSION

DATES: 13 - 15 AUGUST

COST: $192 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $240 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Noguchi Taizo (Noguchi Gymnastics) will be the focus of this session.

Noguchi Taizo was created in Japan by Michizo Noguchi (1914-1998) during the same period as butoh was being developed by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. The aim is to develop the uniqueness of each individual movement and to relieve any undue strain. Taizo means 'gym' in Japanese, but not in the traditional sense. As Mari Osanai explains, "This technique has nothing to do with turning up and the swelling of the muscles nor the resistance forces. The body learns to move in a certain way but is loose and fluid. It becomes soft and flexible as it moves from the weight, which is not fighting anymore but use to be moved. Basically, we learn to move more naturally. Michizo Noguchi abandoned the common idea of the musculo-skeletal movement by showing that human body is not solid but rather liquid, using the metaphor of a flexible skin bag in which bones, muscles, visceras or brain are all floating. Once you have this unique and non-anatomical idea and feelings about your body and movement, your body starts moving with different quality." In Noguchi Taizo, gravity and a deep awareness of the weight of each body parts are the key concepts in moving the body, trying to move in the most effective or economical way.

MARI OSANAI INTENSIVE SESSION

DATES: 16 - 26 AUGUST (DAY OFF: 24 AUGUST)

COST: $520 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $580 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Noguchi Taiso for Dancers will be the focus of this session.

In this session, Mari Osanai will share with the students the ways in which she applies Noguchi Taizo to dancing and training. "Nature, gravity, and infinity are three components of Noguchi Taizo. Infinity whose symbol, a sideways figure eight, is adapted into the dancers’ movements. Nature is always there, permanently, whether it is as peaceful as a flower or as devastating as an earthquake." Mind and body awareness of the weight of each part of body, of the natural elements and its infinitive presence in the body will be explored in this session in which each body part is viewed and approached as a unique laboratory.

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Yukio Waguri was the main male dancer at Tatsumi Hijikata’s Asbestos-kan from 1972 to 1978. From this period, he kept notes of the words Hijikata-butoh’s co-founder-spoke while choreographing. These words are called Butoh-fu, a unique method for choreography. Waguri has made his own interpretation of these words and continues to use them as a method for his own choreography and teaching. Over the past 28 years he has taught and choreographed around the world. He is the Artistic Director of the Kohzensha Butoh Company. When choreographing and teaching, his focus is on transforming oneself to become imagery rather than depicting this through movement.

YUKIO WAGURI INTRODUCTORY SESSION

DATES: 10 – 12 SEPTEMBER

COST: $192 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $240 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

This session is titled: Words & Movement. The two elements that bring into existence Butoh.

Seeking Butoh way of body according to Hijikata’s method. Thinking of the body as a medium and as a transfiguring container, the students will experience the seven Butoh worlds with Waguri’s Butoh Kaden: anatomy chart, burned down the bridge, the wall, birds & animals, flower, neurology ward, and an abyss.

YUKIO WAGURI INTENSIVE SESSION

DATES: 16 – 26 SEPTEMBER (DAY OFF: 21 SEPTEMBER)

COST: $520 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $580 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Dancing Hijikata’s Butoh

This session will deepen the understanding of the Butoh notation of the seven worlds mentioned above. At the same time, students will be encouraged to develop a clear working relationship between space and time, and practice reserving the power to take an objective analysis of their dances. Students will pursue a character, depth and existence as a Butoh dancer on the stage. They will also make their own short piece.

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After completing his education in the F.M. Alexander technique in 1990, Imre Thorman relocated to Tokyo to study with Butoh co-founder Kazuo Ohno and with Noguchi Taizo founder Michizou Noguchi. He spent seven years in Japan, learned Japanese and focused his studies with the above mentioned masters. His experience with the Alexander technique, the Noguchi Taizo method and Kazuo Ohno’s teachings converged to create his unique dance approach and teaching method. Since 1993, he has put on several Butoh solo performances in Europe as well as in Japan, and initiated the Japan Now Festival in Bern (Switzerland) and Gdansk (Poland) together with Shigeo Makabe. He currently lives and works in Berlin and travels throughout Europe teaching and performing.

IMRE THORMAN INTRODUCTORY SESSION

DATES: 1 – 3 OCTOBER

COST: $192 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $240 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

IMRE THORMAN INTENSIVE SESSION

DATES: 7 – 17 OCTOBER (DAY OFF: 12 OCTOBER)

COST: $520 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $580 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Butoh and Noguchi Taizo

Both Introductory and Intensive Aessions will deal with Thorman’s statement:

“In my workshop I do not convey any fixed form or technique, but the natural principles that form the basis of movement (spiral, wave, gravity, emotion etc.). We will focus on movements like standing and walking, as well as on emotional forms of expression. We will establish a basis that will enable us to exchange conventional patterns of movement for fresh approaches that will help us to execute movements more easy but with a deeper sensation.” This workshop is for professionals in dance and theatre as well as for amateurs of all ages.

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One of Japan’s most exciting choreographers and dancers, Yukio Suzuki studied butoh at the “Karada no Gakko” of the Asbestos-kan (base of the original founder of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata) and from Ko Murobushi. While leading his own company Kingyo, Suzuki also dances for Ko Murobushi’s company Ko & Edge Co. and has danced for Tuyoshi Shirai, Goro Namerikawa (the starting member of Sankaijuku), and in the performance group SAL-VANILLA. Recently, he has choreographed for other companies including the Tokyo City Ballet, participated in the final Next-Next program of the Saison Foundation, and won the Choreographer of the Next Generation (grand prize) award in 2008. Although CAVE has been following Suzuki’s work for several years, this is the first time CAVE invites him to teach and perform.

YUKIO SUZUKI INTRODUCTORY SESSION

DATES: 22 – 24 OCTOBER

COST: $192 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $240 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Re-construction of your body

Students will learn how to be aware of and move the body, according to Butoh principles, so as to gradually betray their habitual movements and way of thinking. That is, to try to change the texture of the body as a thing. Then, to play with the new thing.

YUKIO SUZUKI INTENSIVE SESSION

DATES: 28 OCTOBER – 7 NOVEMBER (DAY OFF: 2 NOVEMBER)

COST: $520 (EARLY REGISTRATION), $580 (AFTER 21 JUNE)

Standing and disable standing

Students will try to make their own space and time with an idea provided by Suzuki, keeping the situation unstable: standing and disabling standing, coexisting with two contradictory things, leading to an awareness the body as always unstable yet in control.

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LEIMAY OPEN BUTOH CLASSES WITH XIMENA GARNICA

EVER SATURDAY IN AUGUST, OCTOBER, AND NOVEMBER FROM 3-7 PM

COST: $15/CLASS, $10/CLASS FOR NYBK STUDENTS

Ximena Garnica is the Artistic Director of LEIMAY, an interdisciplinary project company and laboratory of performance in residency at CAVE. She has been practicing and studying theatre since childhood and has been exploring butoh dance for the past ten years. Her work is constantly questioning the body as a medium and dance, theater, and/or installation as a genre. This class is an opportunity to experience the company’s ongoing training and to be considered for LEIMAY performance and investigation projects.

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EARLY REGISTRATION INTENSIVE SESSION SPECIAL! TAKE TWO OR THREE INTENSIVE SESSIONS FOR $480 PER SESSION, OR FOUR FOR $440 PER SESSION WHEN YOU REGISTER BEFORE 21 JUNE!

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CAVE

58 Grand Street

Brooklyn, NY 11211 USA

347.838.4677

butoh@caveartspace.org

www.cavearts.org

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