SALISH SEA BUTOH FESTIVAL is an annual artistic convergence in the Pacific Northwest to celebrate and deepen the study of Japanese Butoh and Butoh performance. Since 2021, our summer festival (usually in early August) has featured immersive Butoh dance workshops taught by veteran Butoh artists from Japan and around the world. Organized by Executive Producers Iván-Daniel Espinosa and Robyn Bjornson, our annual summer festival also features artist talks/lectures with Q&A open to the public, participatory student workshop performances and outdoor site-specific dances in nature, and stage performances featuring our international teaching artists. The stage performances give festival attendees and audiences the opportunity to witness artworks by renowned Butoh practitioners as well as emerging artists, offering a potent immersion into this enigmatic dance form and an intimate glimpse into what Butoh is and can be.
Our summer festival takes place near the SALISH SEA in Western Washington state, USA. We celebrate the beauty of this ecologically diverse region and its greenspaces, which for thousands of years have been inhabited by the Coast Salish Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. We acknowledge with gratitude and respect that this region is on the ancestral Coast Salish indigenous homelands of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot Tribes and the S'Klallam peoples of the Olympic Peninsula.
All of our events are open to artists of any medium/background who are curious about Butoh and also to people with little or no dance/performance experience. Feel free to contact us at salishseabutohfestival@gmail.com
Iván Daniel Espinosa
— Founder and Executive Producer
IVÁN-DANIEL ESPINOSA is a Latino choreographer and academic scholar primarily working in performance, installation and Butoh. Iván-Daniel is currently a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and he also holds a Master of Arts degree in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Iván-Daniel has presented his ecology-themed artwork nationwide at venues such as the world-renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York City, the Seattle International Butoh Festival, Seattle ARTS IN NATURE Festival, Houston Fringe Festival and at numerous academic forums including the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center's BUTOH NEXT symposium, UCLA Center for Performance Studies Conference, Goddard College M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program, York (Toronto) University’s Imagining Differently: Research-Creation Practices in Urgent Times conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), College Art Association (CAA) conference, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA). Iván-Daniel’s recent multimedia dance installations exploring mycelium fungi networks and mycelium bioacoustics, are at the forefront of BIO-ART and interspecies performance and a chapter-length discussion about his artwork with fungi was featured in the Routledge publication by Dr. Angenette Spalink titled “Choreographing Dirt: Movement, Performance, and Ecology in the Anthropocene.”
Iván-Daniel's artwork and performances are highly influenced and inspired by his extensive studies of Japanese Butoh. Iván-Daniel has studied and trained with master Butoh teachers Hiroko Tamano, Natsu Nakajima, Semimaru and Dai Matsuoka of the world-renowned Butoh dance troupe SANKAI JUKU, Eiko Otake of Eiko & Koma, Yuko Kaseki and Diego Piñón. Iván-Daniel began his formative Butoh training in the Pacific Northwest with Sheri Brown and Seattle Butoh pioneer Joan Laage, who continues to serve as his foremost mentor and collaborator to this day. He frequently collaborates with avant-garde musicians and electroacoustic sound artists, as well as with mycologists and artmakers of various mediums, to create his multi-layered, sensorially immersive environments.
Robyn Bjornson
— Co-Producer
Robyn Bjornson is a Seattle-based somatic movement and dance facilitator, youth mentor and performing artist. She draws on her long-time studies of Yoga, contact improvisation, acrobatics, partner dance and Butoh as the foundations for her unfolding practice and lifestyle. Robyn was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, nurtured by her love of connection with Nature, creative movement, and community building. Over the past 10 years, she has followed her passion for deep mind/body/spirit connection, which has led her to dive deeply into Contact Improvisation dance and Butoh.
Robyn began her study of Butoh in Seattle with Maureen Freehill in 2014 and performed for the first time in 2015 in a piece choreographed by Alycia Scott Zollinger. In 2016 she immersed deeply in the practice of Butoh at The Evergreen State College by collaborating extensively with fellow Butoh practitioner Iván Espinosa and performing in many of his choreographies. Robyn has also trained in Butoh with Diego Piñón, Mushimaru Fujieda, Natsu Nakajima, Joan Laage, and Sheri Brown while performing in several staged and public park performances.
Robyn completed her Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College, with an emphasis on psychology, somatic studies and dance education. She has also studied brain-compatible dance education with the founder of the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Dr. Anne Green Gilbert, and is certified to teach Dr. Gilbert's "Braindance" that is used in schools and centers all over the world. Robyn currently teaches yoga, somatics, functional movement and creative dance workshops in the Seattle area. She aims to bring vibrancy into the lives of others through connection with our bodies and with the earth. Robyn continues her deep appreciation for the elders of Butoh and is humbled to serve as a co-producer for the Salish Sea Butoh Festival.