Category: performances (Page 10 of 26)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are happy to start 2010 off right with a MINI BUTOH FESTIVAL consisting of two workshops taught by out of town guest artists, and two amazing performances, all on the SAME WEEKEND.

First, the performances:

BARE BONES BUTOH PRESENTS 16
A Benefit for a member of the community who wishes to remain nameless.

WHEN:
Friday Jan 8, and Saturday, Jan 9, 2010 (yep, that’s this coming weekend!)
Both performances are at 8:00 pm

WHERE:
Studio 210
3435 Cesar Chavez St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Studio 210 is located in the former Sears Building, inset from the corner of Cesar Chavez and Valencia Street. Accessible by BART – 24th St Station; and MUNI – #27, #12, #14, #49.

TICKETS:
$5-$20 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Additional donations are graciously accepted and gratefully appreciated.

WHO:
This time around: Christina Braun (Sat only), Cheryl Burns, Shelley Cook-Contreas, Michael Curran (Fri only), Mark Deutsch (Sat only), Jennifer Hicks, Dorine Hoeksema, Henry Kaiser, Mateo Lugo, Luku (Fri only), Martha Matsuda (Sat only), Ri Molnar (Fri only), Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney (Sat only), Shawnrey Notto (Sat only), Liz Roncka, Liz Saari-Filippone, Sharoni S. Seigel, Bob Webb, and Daniel WrightAbigail.
Surprise guest artists may well also be performing. There are often last minute additions (local, national, and international artists) to the programming, it’s that kind of show.

Bare Bones Butoh Presents is a performance showcase for local and International artists working in the areas of Butoh, Performance Art, and/or Ritual Performance. It exists for artists to try out new material, show works in process, hone improvisation chops and redo or revisit previous material. Bare Bones Butoh Presents employs the grassroots ethic of working together to sustain an artistic culture.

The minimal fee the audience pays at the door allows Bare Bones Butoh Presents to function as a fundraising platform which supports local Butoh and Performance Artists. Every Bare Bones Butoh Presents show has been a Benefit Performance for an individual or group within the Butoh/Performing Arts community in need. Bare Bones Butoh Presents 16 is no exception. All proceeds from these performances go towards a member of the community who wishes to remain nameless. Please feel free to donate freely, it’s a good cause.

Bare Bones Butoh Presents is community building and performance all smushed together into two evenings.
We hope to see you there.

For further info on the performances, or to register for the workshops, please contact: Bob Webb
bobwebb20@hotmail.com
415-821-7124

And now, the workshops:

Workshop #1
Syzygy Butoh Workshop
Taught by Nathan Montgomery
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
2:00-5:00 pm
Studio 210, 3435 Cesar Chavez (@Valencia)
San Francisco
$35

In this workshop we will focus on recovering and cultivating physical dignity in the body and expression. Syzygy Butoh proposes a dance training in which we develop energetic presence in order to liberate our impulses and learn to work with all our energetic qualities. We start by exploring the empty body, or corpse body. From there we move into progressive explorations of standing, walking, running, twisting and jumping. By focusing on these simple physical actions we can recover basic energetic principles of presence in the dance. We then move into improvisational explorations that challenge us to reach beyond our normal movement patterns and explore our connection to multiple dimensions of body, space, time and content. For example, we may explore what the quality of stone has to teach us in dance, or the quality of paper, flower, wind, water, etc. Come with a beginners mind. No previous dance training necessary.

Nathan teaches and performs throughout the United States. He has studied Butoh for over ten years with Diego Pinon, as well as spent time in Japan with the Ohnos. He works in collaboration with such groups as Human Nature in Arizona and the CarpetBag Brigade of San Francisco. He co-created TinHouse Experimental Dance Theatre in Boulder, CO, and continues to base his productions there . In classic proscenium, on mountaintops, or in the town junkyard Syzygy performs in diverse venues. and settings. For Nathan, while the work is originally connected to the seed of Japanese Butoh, Syzygy grows as an American Butoh.

Workshop #2
The Poetic Body
Butoh: connection, spirit and form
Sunday Jan 10, 2010
12:00-3:00 pm
Studio 210, 3435 Cesar Chavez (@ Valencia)
San Francisco
$35

The Poetic Body is a movement laboratory for those interested in traveling deep into movement consciousness in the context of dance/theatre. Topics of exploration toward choreography may include personal memory, embodying imagery, awareness training, translating poetry to movement, puppetry techniques for the body, meditation, physical stamina training and choreography/designing space. Splicing metaphors and specificity of form, we become the worlds and carry its atmospheres. Exercises range from slow internal focus to chaos. The physical and energetic body transforms through birth, influence and letting go, revealing a new relationship to imagery, the audience, and body/mind. Combining movement imagery with space, shape, time, gesture, relationship and kinesthetic delight. Spirit, space, atmosphere, partner exercises meet though form.

Ms Hicks believes form must go hand in hand with spirit for the theater, not one chancing the other. We will explore pure kinesthetic joy of moving and finding connection to space, self, others and spirit as well as finding a repeatable form. We will work with form/technique letting spirit erupt from inside. We dance from metaphors and experience, colliding worlds open to a river of thoughts and feelings. We move from earth, from emptiness, from strength and from turmoil. From specificity, we create, through spirit we dance. Students will work as a group, solo and in partners.

Jennifer is of the 3rd wave of butoh artists which began dancing in the United States in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. She has studied with many Japanese Butoh Masters, but her main mentor is Katsura Kan. She has also been influenced greatly by her study with Maureen Fleming and early training in butoh with artists such as the Tamanos at the San Francisco Butoh Festivals. Her other influences include modern dance, Body Mind Centering, Yoga, The Viewpoints, Shintaido and Trancedance. These aspects are taught in unique combination creating an ongoing investigation into how one is to take Butoh, as a viable performance technique, into the next century. Let’s talk, dance, and share ideas.

Basic class structure: brief meditation – warm-ups to unify the group, stretch and train the body/mind – dynamic group, partner or solo exercises designed to build spirit, energy and focus – work with butoh kata or forms – combine into dance/set in space and time – closing.

Once again, to sign up for these classes, or for further info on the performances, please contact:
Bob Webb
bobwebb20@hotmail.com
415-821-7124

Thank you

* * * * *

hi, bob! I want to invite you guys to come and dance at my performance!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore