Butoh Workshop - Special Day of the Dead edition with Yael Karavan

A bi- lingual intensive exploration of Butoh, starting from the philosophy of its founding members until its current relevance, as a tool of creation, rebirth and transformation.

"Again and again we are reborn. It is not enough simply to be born of the mother's womb. Many births are necessary. Be reborn always and everywhere. Again and again." T. Hijikata Founder of Butoh.

What is butoh? An exotic performance style based on spectacular effects, white body makeup, grotesquely distorted limbs and faces, and a grueling slow speed of motion? Or is it a form of physical training that releases and brings forth primordial memory in the body that has been suppressed by contemporary society? It is both and neither and something completely else all together. As a simple man from the street once tried to explain:
1. All movements and dances, whose origins are unknown, are butoh. �
2. Butoh is that which knows no rules or taboos. �
3. When one person says “no” and the others say “yes”, then it’s butoh. �
In contrast with other dance styles, butoh does not require learning a fixed vocabulary of dance movements. It draws its inspiration and power from internalised imagery: “Butô attempts to return the abstract, generalised body to its original place...”

Yael shares nearly 3 decades of Butoh Dace experience, having worked and studied with Buohists from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation, in Japan and Europe.

"We shake hands with the dead, who send us encouragement from beyond our body; this is the unlimited power of BUTOH. In our body history, something is hiding in our subconscious, collected in our unconscious body, which will appear in each detail of our expression. Here we can rediscover time with an elasticity, send by the dead. We can find Butoh, in the same way we can touch our hidden reality, something can be born, and can appear, living and dying in the moment." T. Hijikata in a letter to Natsu Nakajima, 1984, "To My Comrade"

BIO
Yael Karavan, award-winning performer, dancer, and Director, In her dance research, she traveled across Japan, Russia and Europe searching for a physical language of expression that bridges between East and West, Dance and theatre. She studied and worked with Butoh masters such as Kazuo Ohno, Tadashi Endo, Carlotta Ikeda, Yumiko Yoshioka, Akiko Motofuji, Ko Morobushi, and Katsura Kan, Yuko Kaseki, Yuko Kawamoto, Natsu Nakajima, Sankai Juku, Akira Kasai, amongst others. She was a member of Tadashi Endo's MAMU Dance Theatre for nearly 8 years and of Ten-Pen-Chi led by Yumiko Yoshioka for 3 years.