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Butoh workshop with somatic approachwith Yumino Seki
Sun 24th July 2022, 11am - 5pm, £50
The Research Studio at Siobhan Davies Studios, London
info/booking: [email protected]
places limited please book in advance
The workshop will make an inquiry into the transformative nature of the body exploring unique individual expression drawn from Butoh.
Butoh is a form of Japanese avant-garde dance. Butoh emerged from post war chaos in Japan in the late 50s when the country grappled with the clash between new Western technology and traditional Japanese values. Butoh was called Dance of darkness. Influenced by German Expressionism, self-identity was radically explored through bodily expression.
Shifting attention from ‘action’ to ‘active listening’ we will explore the body’s complex visceral expression through Butoh's diverse ways of seeing, which are often fundamental to our lives. Like life & death, desire and the ‘shadowy self’. Butoh sees dance as a living process and it pushes the boundaries of what we already know.
In groups, partners and individuals in both dynamic and quiet work we will aim to embody movement, image and sensation using a somatic approach.
‘…trusting that the body has its own intelligence & experience. Not moving but being moved. Raw yet subtle, meditative yet self-destructive, stark yet sensual. Conflict and harmony co-exist in an ambiguous way. I explore and reflect the inner landscape where the body becomes mere ‘being’ and where a point of transformation occurs.’ Yumino
Yumino Seki www.yuminoseki.webs.com is a Japanese dance artist, Butoh practitioner and qualified somatic movement educator who performs, teaches and makes performances in collaboration with artists from diverse backgrounds.
She searches for Butoh’s visceral communication. ‘Authenticity of the temporal body’ in dance performance has been her focus for many years.
Between 1999-2009 she performed extensively in Europe in Butoh predominantly with Mamu Dance Theatre (Tadashi Endo), TEN PEN CHii (Yumiko Yoshioka) both in Germany and Ariadone (Carlotta Ikeda) in France. In 2012 she qualified in VMI Somatic Practice with Patricia Bardi in Amsterdam.
Since 2013 Seki has further developed her Butoh and somatic work and directed cross-discipline performances which include Arts Council England funded HYAKKI YAKOU, A Night Walk of A Hundred Demons, 2013 and MANJUSAKA, The Equinox Flower, 2014 & 2015. Key commissions include ExploreTheArch, 2019, Earl Street Creative Space, 2016 and The Japan Foundation, Cairo, 2012.
She has expanded her collaborative work in theatre, music, film and visual art as live exhibitions including Zadie Xa at The National Gallery, London, 58th Venice Biennale, Art Night London, Dance International Glasgow & Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Seki's work is informed by the cultural depth and diversity of both the UK and Japan. Her development in her movement has been a gradual exploration of both her collective and self-identity.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Siobhan Davies Studios, 85 St Georges Road,London, United Kingdom