About this Event
What happens when the body becomes a landscape, a dream, or a force of nature?
TANZ · TRAUM · TOD
RAW BUTOH NIGHT PRESENTS
An evening of Butoh Dance Performances with International Butoh Artists and live Musicians
Was ist Butoh?
Butoh ist eine Tanzform, die Ende der 1950er-Jahre in Japan entstand. Durch ungewöhnliche Bewegungen, eindrucksvolle Bilder und ausdrucksstarke Körperlichkeit erforschen die Performer*innen Emotionen, Erinnerungen und Verwandlung und laden das Publikum in eine Welt jenseits der Worte ein.
🕯️ The gong sounds. Deep voices emerge.
Tanz — until nothing remains.
Traum — because life is a dream.
Tod — the one certainty we share.
We gather on the boat, where dance, music, and the unexpected meet.
1 November 2026
Hošek Contemporary, Berlin
18:00–22:00
🌀 THE PROGRAM
Uiko Watanabe — Sukima · solo dance
Carmen Lafran — Picnic at the Abyss · solo dance
Coco Villarreal — Balloon Revolution · solo dance
Aurora — solo dance (sound by KONAPT)
Rand — Butoh performance with Dan (flute & electronics)
Heri Shin — viola performance
Plus surprise musical guests.
A night of dance, dreams, and death
in the belly of the boat.
Curious about Butoh? Join us as an audience for an evening of live dance and experimental music, where bodies, sounds, and images create unexpected worlds.
Raw Butoh Night brings together Butoh artists, experimental performers, and musicians, creating space for encounters across cultures, generations, and artistic practices.
**********************************************************
About the Artists
Carmen Lafran
Carmen Lafran is a Berlin-based transdisciplinary performer, movement artist, choreographer, as well as a lecturer, holding a MA in Philosophy. Bridging Butoh, dance theatre, performance art and feminist critique, their work investigates the body as the intersection of power relations and socio-political narratives in an ironic and uncanny way.
Lafran works internationally as a soloist and in collaborative projects across institutional and underground stages. Butoh is an ongoing movement and philosophical research—one that embraces the inherent contradictions within each movement. In their dance, each step is a "miss-step," a gesture toward its opposite, in constant contradiction, embodying otherness and transformation.
In addition to their solo performances, Lafran collaborates extensively with artists across disciplines, contributing to a diverse range of platforms—from theater stages and galleries to the dynamic underground art scene. Their solo performances have been featured at notable events such as Amsterdam Butoh Festival 2025 (Netherlands), Voices Festival 2024 (Berlin) Berlin Art Week 2024 and 2025 (Germany), Paradoxal Festival (France), Venice International Performance Art Week (Italy), Project ID (The Netherlands), Istanbul Performance Art (Turkey), and Carbon Residency (Ucraine).
They have also been part of significant group works, including Les Territoires Ephmeres (Volkstheater Rostock), Die Höhle Festival (Roma, Modena, Berlin), Nachspiel (VOICES Festival 2024, Berlin), RopeBerry (ongoing project since 2022 performed in several chapters at Mahalla, Berlin), Like a Virgin and König Lear Variationen (Societaetstheater Dresden), To Canvass for Utopia (Acud Berlin) among others.
Alongside their artistic practice, Lafran is lecturing on Performativity for MA Photography students at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Berlin. Their academic work blends performance studies and philosophy of photography, inviting students to engage with the layered dimensions of visual and performative arts.
Coco Villarreal
Coco Villarreal is a Mexican Butoh dancer, director, and singer with over 20 years of experience. Born into Mexico City’s opera milieu, he trained with renowned Butoh masters including Diego Piñón, Akira Kasai, and Taketeru Kudo. Since 2009, he has been the artistic director of IX-Butoh, developing a visceral and transformative approach rooted in guttural chant, anti-form, ritual, and somatic intensity. His work explores the body as a space of transformation, vulnerability, and raw expression. He is also the curator of Raw Butoh Night.
He has performed internationally at festivals including the New York Butoh Festival, Amsterdam Butoh Festival, Barcelona in Butoh, Alma Negra Festival in Madrid, and the Segundo Encuentro de Butoh Latinoamericano in Mexico. He has also taught and presented his work across Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Romania, Colombia, Honduras, Turkey, and Indonesia.
From traditional stages to unconventional landscapes — including beaches, urban spaces, and natural environments — his performances and workshops have attracted an international community drawn to his powerful physical presence and deeply embodied approach to Butoh.
Uiko Watanabe
Born in Kanagawa Japan, Uiko started dancing for dance classic on the age of 4 there. She trained as a dancer and choreographer in the Netherlands at SNDO Amsterdam, EDDC Arnhem and CCN Montpellier. She has danced for choreographers such as Manuela Rastardi, Maria Clara Villa Lobos and Fatou Traore, among others. As a choreographer, she created La Piéce avec les légumes (2008), La Piéce avec les gâteaux (2009), La dernière scène (2010), Hako Onna (2012), Oshiire (2015), OMOI, la maison vent (2016), and Hikidashi (2024). In theater, she works with Sofie Kokaj O.R.G.I.E ; Denis Mpunga Il nous faut l’Amérique ; with Pierre Megos #ODYSSéE ; Armel Roussel Si demain vous déplaît..., Ivanov Re/Mix, La Peur, Après la Peur, and L’Éveil du printemps. Also with (e)utopia/Armel Roussel, she appeared at the Théâtre de la Tempête in Wedekind’s L’Eveil du printemps in 2020 and Brecht’s Baal in 2023, and will return with Soleil in June 2025. She trained underDairakuda-kan, Masaki Iwana, Seisaku, Daisuke Yoshimoto, Yumiko Yoshioka.
Aurora
Aurora is a Berlin-based performance artist and mover. Her work combines contemporary dance, physical theatre, Butoh, and voice, with a strong focus on improvisation. Through her work, she explores physical limits, the possibilities that open up when contrasting ideas are mixed, and how the mind and body can let go of identity, opening new gates of existence. She is inspired by imagination, dream rules and by the desire to unlock the unknown unknowns. Through this process, she seeks to discover and bring new emotions and ways of moving to life.
Rand
Rand is a Berlin-based Butoh practitioner. She holds a doctorate in Communication Studies and works at the intersection of scholarly and cultural practices. She is also the producer of Raw Butoh Night in Berlin. Her movement practice began in Beirut, Lebanon, through Dabke and Baladi dance, and continued in Berlin, Germany, through physical theatre and, later, Butoh. She trains primarily under the mentorship of Coco Villarreal, who supports her ongoing exploration of the body as archive, landscape, and ritual. Her practice is also inspired by the work and teachings of Vangeline. She has also trained with Atsushi Takenouchi, Valentin Tszin, 4Rude, Natsuko Kono, Yumiko Yoshioka, and Ken Mai (and others).
Heri Shin
Heri Shin is a classically trained violist and Butoh practitioner whose work explores the space between music, movement, and improvisation. Trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, she has performed with internationally renowned ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Through Butoh and improvisation, she expands the viola beyond the conventional concert format, creating performances where sound, movement, and narrative become one.
Dan (suflu)
Dan Sirbu is a Moldovan-born self-taught improviser exploring the space between folk tradition and experimental sound. His music emerge through spontaneous improvisation using caval, tilinca, small flute, silver flute, jaw harps, and electronics.
Event venue & nearby stays
Hosek Contemporary, Märkisches Ufer 1z, Berlin, Germany
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.