Butoh-ka series 2023/24
“Everybody can find their own butoh.” (Kazuo Ohno)
The workshops are suitable for complete beginners to the very experienced, as in Butoh we work with ‘beginners mind’ and each step is one into an unknown dance. see Booking page for OFFERS
Summary of dates
11am to 5pm each day
September Saturday 30th and Sunday October 1st -sold out
November Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th - sold out
February Saturday 10th and Sunday 11 th - sold out
March Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st -sold out - waiting list only.
May Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th (held at Goldsmiths University of London)
All five weekend workshops take place in our exciting new hosting venue:
London School of Capoeira
Unit 1 and 2, Leeds Place, London N4 3RF
(Finsbury Park is nearest station)
Butoh MA: encounters with the poetics of space/time
September 30th and October 1st/ studio 1
11am to 5pm
This workshop explores the unique approach to space/time in Butoh, we explore duration, endurance, limits, surrender, quietness, stillness and consider this in relation to space: the space between one body part and another, the spaces of inside/outside, the space between ‘you’ and ‘I’ and in so doing we might then find a poetic and spiritual space of form plus disappearance and dissolving. Simple tasks such as Walking, rising, falling, standing all become rich with possibility.
From 10.30am to 12 noon we open with a thorough training session, that may draw upon diverse influences including Noguchi Tsai, Body Weather, gaga influences, martial arts, Tai-chi, mediation, and yoga.
Live sound is provided by long term collaborator, award-winning, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Nick Parkin.
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Butoh: Dancing from the Heart
November 25/26 /studio 2
11am to 5pm
sold out
This workshop encourages a connection between form and feeling and is very much a homage to Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno (Rotie studied workshops with both in Japan and Europe). Kazuo was noted for his extraordinary ability to imbue gesture with strong emotive sensibility. We explore how to work with gesture, feeling, memories and emotions and our own internal narratives, mediated through the poetic image worlds of Butoh-fu. We will also dance with the shadow self and allow this to emerge as an entity and dive into Butoh’s genesis in a ‘dance of darkness’.
From 10.30am to 12 noon we open with a thorough training session, that may draw upon diverse influences including Noguchi Tsai, Body Weather, gaga influences, martial arts, Tai-chi, mediation, and yoga.
Live sound is provided by long term collaborator, award-winning, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Nick Parkin.
For those wishing to book the TWO weekends in 2023 then the price is reduced from £400 to £300 (non-refundable) and needs to be payed by September 15th.
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2024
Butoh and the Art of Transformation: Scenography 1: costume
February 2024, 10/11, studio 1 11am to 5pm
SOLD OUT
Transformation is intrinsic to Butoh dance and opens questions around sentience, the life of things, the fluidity of self and other. How does the butoh dancer work with costume and how does this open the relation to space/time? Participants are invited to bring their costume world into the space and encounter transformations. Butoh as a rich legacy of engaging with costume, from the bizarre assemblages of Dairakudakan, to the ethereal beauty of Sankai Juku.
Costume Designer Yuliya Krylova will assist with the session.
We open with a thorough training session, that may draw upon diverse influences including Noguchi Tsai, Body Weather, gaga influences, martial arts, Tai-chi, mediation, and yoga.
Live sound is provided by long term collaborator, award-winning, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Nick Parkin.
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Butoh and the Art of Transformation: Scenography 2: body and object
March 30/31 studio 1 11 am to 5pm
Sold out - waiting list only
Working with an object changes the relation to space/time. Whether it’s a flower, a balloon, a piece of paper, a stone, or any other material, then the body and the space are imbued and resonate with the qualities of the object. How might we become the object, or how might we resonate with the object? How will this then inform our dance? What stories or images emerge? What transformations unfold?
From 10.30am to 12 noon we open with a thorough training session, that may draw upon diverse influences including Noguchi Tsai, Body Weather, gaga influences, martial arts, Tai-chi, mediation, and yoga.
Live sound is provided by long term collaborator, award-winning, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Nick Parkin.
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Butoh-ka Jam/Sharing!!
May 4/5 studio 1
11 am to 5pm
£200
This workshop is a chance to develop and share material and receive peer and tutor feedback. Material can be solo, duo or other combinations. We will also document and photograph your dance for you. (optional). For those who want to take part but are not keen to show their own work, then Marie-Gabrielle can devise or choreograph a performance group structure for you to do which might be either structured improvisation scores, specific movements, or a combination of any of these, subject to group discussion. Nick Parkin can provide live sounds accompaniment, or you are welcome to bring your own preferred sound/source. We will also have time for some longer free or structured impro sessions to end on a butoh celebration note!
Cancellation Policy: refunds are given in full if cancellation takes place 14 days prior to course start date. Cancellations within 7 days are offered 50% transfer of fee to another workshop. Cancellations of less than 7 days are non-refundable. Discount offers are non-refundable.
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Biographies
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie
Marie Gabrielle Rotie has a career as an artist/performer/choreographer/movement director, spanning over 30 years, extensively supported/funded by Arts Council of England and British Council, Trinity Laban, The Place Theatre, The Royal Opera House etc. She was Choreographer for The Bacchae by Sir Peter Hall, Royal National Theatre. which premiered on Olivier stage, Royal National Theatre 2002. For five years, Rotie was choreographer and costume design consultant for London College of Fashion staging productions at The Raphael Room in Victoria and Albert Museum, Sadler's Wells and The Royal Academy. In 2020 she was choreographer for The Northman directed by Robert Eggers choreographing for Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor Joy and Willem Dafoe. In 2021 she created the solo dance for Lebanon Hanover music video ‘Come Kali Come,’ She also received commissions for site specific choreography from Kew Gardens in London (Temperate House) and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In 2022 she worked as the movement choreographer for Netflix The Witcher series 3, In 2023 She worked with director Robert Eggers on Nosferatu Choreographing for Bill Skarsgard and Lily Rose Depp.
Rotie works very closely with composer Nick Parkin and her research work explores the interfaces of film, photography, sound and documentation of live work.
She has studied Butoh since 1993 in Europe and Japan and her work with Butoh features in various notable academic publications. She is a permanent member of staff at Goldsmiths University of London in the Theatre and Performance Department, and also teaches in various dance conservatoires.
Nick Parkin is an award-winning Composer, Musician, Artist, Director and Movement Practitioner. He is a specialist in environmental and site-based sound and performance. https://www.gold.ac.uk/theatre-performance/staff/parkin-nick/
Photo Image of Rotie/Keiko Ikeuchi 2022.