You are cordially invited to be part of a small, intentional group of artists that will gather on the Northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula for a weekend of site-specific dance and immersive training in Japanese Butoh taught by Pacific Northwest Butoh pioneer, Dr. Joan Laage.  The workshop draws from Joan’s extensive studies and apprenticeship with first-generation Butoh masters Kazuo Ohno and Yoko Ashikawa (the major disciple of Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata), and her background as a professional Landscape gardener.  Throughout the weekend, we will experience training methods towards a supple body and mind, and investigate aesthetics common to Butoh through creative explorations.  The exercises invite participants to meditate on profound questions such as:  What is life?  What is the human condition?  What is the body?  What is the nature of our flesh and bones?  How can we experience infinity within the body/mind? 

In this Autumn workshop, which includes/falls on/celebrates/commemorates HALLOWEEN and DAY OF THE DEAD, we will focus on embodying seasonal imagery such as skeletons, walking dead, ghosts and spirit bodies in addition to animalistic creatures and the habitats, real and imagery, of animals and humans.  The workshop structure includes exercises and explorations of the physical body, elemental body, ecological body and ethereal body, and each day ends with dance improvisations which will lead to developing embodied and imagistic characters.  Group and partner work will facilitate participants’ individual and collective journeys.  The 3-day workshop will culminate with a site-specific, outdoor performance with Live music on Day of the Dead at Fort Flagler Park on Marrowstone Island. 

Joan’s teaching of Butoh is based on a process of erasing social postures, dissolving normative physical patterns and re-creating the dancing body through somatic exercises and guided improvisations largely inspired by nature/ecological imagery and Surrealist paintings.  For over 3 decades, Joan has taught workshops that encourage students to shift and move through dynamic states of corporeal awareness in order to connect more deeply with the spirit and consciousness of the images, energies or beings with which we seek resonance.  Transformation is at the heart of Joan’s process and, therefore, its artistic potency comes from the dancer's ability to transform and embody otherness by expanding the self to include the environment and the wider whole. 

"Butoh plays with time.

It also plays with perspective.

If we, humans,

learn to see things

from the perspective of an animal,

an insect, or even inanimate objects,

the road trodden everyday becomes more alive…”

— Tatsumi Hijikata

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DATES & TIMES:

SATURDAY, October 30

workshop from 10AM-5PM

SUNDAY, October 31

workshop from 9AM-4PM

• BUTOH CABARET Halloween Celebration @ 

MONDAY, November 1

workshop from 10AM-3PM

outdoor performance w/ Live music from 3PM-5PM

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REGISTRATION:

$180 enrollment for 3-day workshop + outdoor training & Live group performance 

$130 for 2-day workshop 

$60 for Local 1-day workshop (this option for Jefferson County residents ONLY)

—There is a 50% reduced price on all Salish Sea Butoh Workshops for BIPOC artists who wish to attend—

Registration payments help cover the venue rental, supplies, teacher & musician fees

To confirm and secure your spot,

Please Send and Email to Salishseabutoh@gmail.com & Send VENMO payment to: @Ivan-Espinosa-19

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ABOUT THE TEACHER:

Joan Laage, Ph.D., is a choreographer, performer and dance educator who is regarded by many as the “Grandmother of Butoh in the Pacific Northwest.”  In addition to over 30 years of teaching and thousands of performances over the years, Laage is responsible for bringing the art form of Butoh to the Seattle dance and performance art scenes in 1990, when she and her husband moved here from Japan, and decided to launch the first ever Seattle International Butoh Festival. 

While living in Japan for nearly a decade, Joan studied extensively with Butoh pioneer Yoko Ashikawa (the major disciple of Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata) and with world-renowned Butoh masters Kazuo Ohno & Yoshito Ohno in Tokyo.  Joan performed with Yoko Ashikawa’s legendary Butoh troupe, Gnome, throughout the 1980’s and she has also trained with Japanese artist Atsushi Takenouchi.  Joan performs internationally and has been a featured artist at national and international Butoh festivals, including the New York Butoh Festival and the UCLA Butoh Symposium.  Her PhD dissertation research titled “Embodying The Spirit: The Paradox of Performing The Body in Butoh” has been presented at dozens of academic conferences and symposiums around the world.  Joan's work is highlighted in the award-winning books “DANCING INTO DARKNESS: BUTOH, ZEN AND JAPAN” & “Butoh: Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy” by renowned dance scholar Sondra Fraleigh.

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LOCATION, SAFETY & CLEANLINESS PROTOCOLS:

The workshop will take place at the historic Chimacum Grange, a ballroom-style dance hall and community gem.  It has been reserved exclusively for our private workshop. This venue REQUIRES that masks are required to be worn indoors during the workshop.  IN ADDITION, ALL WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS ARE REQUIRED TO GET A COVID-19 TEST three or four days before the workshop begins on Saturday, October 30th.  That way, we can help ensure that everyone in our group is virus-free and we can relax our worries to enjoy the workshop.