New York Butoh Institute Festival: Natalia Cuellar and Eugenia Vargas

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

HONORING LATIN MERICAN WOMEN IN BUTOH

Performances by Natalia Cuellar (Chile), Eugenia Vargas (Mexico)

KI, The Breath of Time. Natalia Cuellar. Ruta de La Memoria. (Chile)

“A dance made poetry” Circulo Critico Arte

“KI , the Breath of Time is a one-woman movement choreography that explores the transcendence of time and memory from a female perspective. Through the unique experience of childbirth, which also considers abortion as childbirth, the call of life and death is revealed, creating a poignant reflection on the essence of existence. Until the beginning of the 20th century and even today, in some countries, childbirth has been a critical moment in the lives of many women, as it is a thin line between life and death. This crossroads at the moment of giving birth is presented on stage as a journey where a woman immerses herself in different spaces and times. With the memory and presence of other women who accompany her on the journey of childbirth, she transforms herself into different organic matter, to remember and honor the origin of life, of her life, of the one she is about to give birth to and the journey to death.

UMBRIA or the dream of the moon- Eugenia Vargas

An offering for Natsu Nakajima

Choreography from the UMBRÍA trilogy created collaboratively between Eugenia Vargas and Tadashi Endo in 2018. Now, Vargas recreates this piece to turn it into the preamble to the presentation of what she calls "Flowers for the Wolf Girl,’ a scenic offering for her teacher and mentor Natsu Nakajima, who died last March in Mexico City.

BIOGRAPHIES

Natalia Cuellar a performing artist with a solid academic background and a distinguished artistic career, has accumulated significant experience in directing, acting, choreography, and teaching. Her journey in Butoh began in 1995 under the guidance of renowned masters such as Makiko Tominaga, Itto Morita, Katsura Kan, and Minako Seki, with whom she collaborated intensively in Germany from 1999 to 2002. Additionally, she has explored other disciplines such as Balinese dances in Indonesia and physical theater in Hungary and Germany, contributing to her artistic versatility.

In 2008, she founded the Compañía Ruta de la Memoria, establishing herself as a prominent figure in the performing arts. Her editorial focus centers on Human Rights, memory, and gender, using theater, dance, Butoh, and audiovisual media as narrative tools to generate reflection and critical dialogue. Natalia Cuéllar’s international projection is evident in the presentation of her works in cities such as Buenos Aires, La Plata, Montevideo, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Lima, New York, Seattle, and Stockholm. She also serves as the Director of the International Butoh Festival in Chile, FIBUTOH, an event that brings together national and international exponents of the discipline.

With a profound academic foundation and a diversity of artistic influences, Natalia Cuéllar contributes not only to artistic creation but also to the development and dissemination of this performing arts language in Chile and Latin America. Her latest projects include the dissemination of her most recent work, premiered in October 2023, "KI, the Breath of Time."

Eugenia Vargas. Dancer, choreographer, teacher, manager, and researcher from Mexico. Her education integrates choreography, dance research, and literary creation. Her artistic interest is based on the question about the body, butoh, and the composition of the poetic image on stage. In her workshops, Vargas focuses on the investigation of the electrical impulse as a spark of sensation to delve into the training of nervous sensitivity and transformation body, based on energy and its multiple qualities.

She is the founder and director of Laboratorio Escénico Danza Teatro Ritual (LEDTR), a space that has served not only as an incubator for dance and interdisciplinary projects but also as an artistic residence and a formative space for butoh dance, from which several generations of artists have emerged or have been influenced.

She is co-founder and director of Cuerpos en Revuelta - Butoh International Festival -, of the Seminar “Thinking from the body with and against butoh”, among several other initiatives focused on the practice and study of butoh. She is a relevant figure in the promotion of butoh in Mexico.

Vargas has trained with some of the most recognized butoh dance teachers in Mexico, Japan, and Germany, performing choreographic productions of Natsu Nakajima, Tadashi Endo, and Yukio Waguri.  She has directed choreographic projects at a national and international level and has participated in festivals and stages in various countries, being recognized for her work in specialized books on butoh. She has recently been selected as one of the resident artists at B.I.G (Butoh International Gathering) which will be held in Germany next August. She has received support from the National System of Art Creators in Mexico.

Tickets:
$22
$25 at the door