American Butoh Invasion features the work of 3 prominent American artists: Julie Becton Gillum, Joan Laage, and CillaVee. Each individual brings years of experience in butoh, performance art and Noguchi Taiso to share at Tiyatro Medresesi. Through these practices we will create arresting and unknown dances that communicate beyond the catharsis that will surely be experienced.
Julie Becton Gillum’s Noguchi water body practice feeds and prepares the body, creating the conditions for movement to emerge as a natural response. In examining “13 Aspects of Butoh”, dancers will practice the conditions of sensation, presence, will, gravity and the space in between (“ma”)
Greatly inspired by studying and dancing under Yoko Ashikawa in Tokyo, American butoh pioneer Joan Laage’s process consists of erasing and recreating the body through explorations of time, space and nature imagery with the fetal body at the root of the dance.
CillaVee’s performance pedagogy “Living Art” uses guided movement meditations as tools for explorations that emphasize her performance method “Motion Sculpture”. This state of suspended existence offers opportunities to experience and create durational performance installations.