New York Butoh Institute Festival 2024: Akihito Ichihara (ELF) and Vangeline

The Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute presents New York Butoh Institute Festival 2024

HONORING LATIN MERICAN WOMEN IN BUTOH

Performances by  Akihito Ichihara and Elf (Japan ), and Vangeline Theater.

The Slowest Wave- Vangeline (solo version)- Vangeline Theater--

Vangeline, Director of the New York Butoh Institute, pioneered The Slowest Wave.  This piece is not just a solo performance but a collaborative effort that marks the inception of the first neuroscientific study of Butoh, the groundbreaking dance form originating in Japan in the 1950s. Developed in partnership with neuroscientists in 2022, This piece resulted in a groundbreaking neuroscientific study, conducted in   Houston, Texas, that recorded the brain activity of Butoh dancers for the first time in history. The   Slowest Wave refers to the slowest wave in the brain, the Delta brain wave. This dance piece explores stillness, femininity, and the wave as a symbol of female sensuality.

Akihito Ichihara and ELF

Hinode 日の出（ひので) Sunrise with Akihito Ichihara and Natsuki Takakuwa.

BIOGRAPHIES

Akihito Ichihara is Japanese Butoh dancer (ELF, Sankai Juku). Ichihara started acting in his teenage years. In the 1980s, he was greatly influenced by watching the renowned Butoh troupe Sankai Juku on TV, which inspired him to explore a greater range of physical expression on stage. In 1993, he majored in theater at Nihon University College of Art. He was moved to pursue a Butoh career in 1994; in 1996, he studied with Semimaru, a founding member of Sankai Juku. In 1997, he appeared as a dancer in an opera directed by Ushio Amagatsu, the artistic director and choreographer of Sankai Juku, and later joined Sankai Juku. Since then, he has been featured in Sankai Juku’s entire repertoire and most of Sankai Juku’s world tours.

Ichihara is very active in theater, dance, and Butoh. In addition to his solo projects, he has worked with the most significant butoh dancers and butoh troupes in the history of contemporary butoh. Since the 2005 recreation of “Kinkan Shonen” (which premiered in 1978), he has danced solos in many of Sankai Juku’s performances and has led the group dances as one of the principal dancers.

Parallel to his work with Sankai Juku, he collaborates with various choreographers, directors, and dance groups worldwide. He is also a guest faculty at Okayama University Graduate School and a guest speaker at international forums.

In 2022, he founded the dance company “ELF” with young dancers. Since then, ELF has held workshops and presented works at renowned institutions and universities worldwide.

While many underground and grotesque expressions exist in Butoh, Ichihara, and ELF’s Butoh dance has deeply resonated with people worldwide. This dance is based on the “Sankai Juku Method,” a method accessible to everyone. By developing this method, Ichihara aims to go beyond Butoh by developing a dance technique that can bring a higher level of excellence to professional dancers in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance.

Ichihara hopes to continue learning, collaborating, progressing, and contributing to the development of dance worldwide.  By sharing physical expressions, dancing, and empathizing with each other, his hope is to transcend borders and contribute to peace efforts worldwide. Based on this idea, ELF advocates a ”Dance Project without Borders.”

Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Japanese Butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute (New York). The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to advancing Butoh in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute reaches out to the New York and international community by offering public Butoh classes, workshops, and performances through collaborations with international and national Butoh artists. Our socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism; our work addresses issues of gender inequality and social justice. Our yearly New York Butoh Institute Festival elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and our festival Queer Butoh gives a voice to LGBTQIA+ butoh artists.

Our award-winning, 18-year running program, The Dream a Dream Project, brings Butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State.

Vangeline’s choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award winner. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Her work has been heralded in publications such as the New York Times (“captivating”) and Los Angeles Times (“moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist”) to name a few. Film projects include a starring role alongside actors James Franco and Winona Ryder in the feature film by director Jay Anania, 'The Letter" (2012-Lionsgate). 

In recent years, she has been commissioned by triple Grammy Award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus). She is the author of the critically-acclaimed book: Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which explores the intersection of Butoh and neuroscience. She pioneered the first neuroscientific study of Butoh (“The Slowest Wave”). She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).

Tickets:
$22
$25 at the door