Butoh in Contemporary Performance: Composition

As part of the project Butoh in Contemporary Performance: Composition, visiting artist Michiyasu Furutani will share his practice in a series of eight workshops held on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings throughout September. These workshops takes place in conjunction with his two-month residency at MeetFactory, where he is researching food and movement as mediums of communication and collaboration, with a focus on communal dining and its impact on human connections and the environment. The research draws on Furutani’s butoh practice and is deeply rooted in his personal experiences, including as a dancer and one-time restaurant manager. 

Workshop participants discover the connection between physical movements and food ingredients through movement practice, examining the potential of food and movement as mediums for artistic expression, cultural  exchange, and social interaction. Inspiration will be drawn from Japanese folklore traditions and East Asian and Western dining etiquette. Movements and gestures related to eating will be analyzed and exaggerated to create a choreographic framework that challenges conventional dining manners. Participants will explore the spatial relationships between body and food beyond the limits of social norms and values.

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SCHEDULE

Tuesdays 3, 10, 17, 24 September: 19:00-21:00

Wednesdays 4, 11, 18, 25 September: 9:30-11:30

Each session is a standalone encounter; participants may choose which/how many sessions to attend. All sessions will be held at MeetFactory. The cost to attend is pay-what-you-will on a sliding scale (0Kč - 300Kč/session).

Space is limited; please book your place in advance on GoOut.net. The series will culminate with a public sharing in late September – details will be shared during the workshops. Attendance at all workshops is not a prerequisite for taking part in the sharings.

Prior Butoh training or experience is not required, nor is an advanced movement or dance practice. Participants should come dressed in comfortable clothes and prepared to move and explore. Workshops will take place in English.

The project Butoh in Contemporary Performance: Composition is financed by the programme NPO no. 0315/2023, Development of Competencies: Projects of International Artistic and Professional Cooperation in the Czech Republic II.

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About the artist

Born in Osaka, Japan, Michiyasu Furutani is a choreographer, dancer, and performer whose work and expression grow from Butoh technique and practice. In the process of continual research, he has developed his vocabulary of movement to encompass in improvisation and a variety of modern and classical dance techniques forming necessity, possibility, and contingency. Furutani has collaborated frequently with theatre directors, filmmakers, architects, painters and musicians, aiming to broaden the communications between diverse art disciplines, and has performed widely throughout the world, always investigating new modes of expression and movement. He believes that improvisation is a crucial factor in discovering new spaces for mutual sharing and exchanging our experiences and knowledge of corporeal sense. He graduated from Nihon University, College of Art in Tokyo with a BA in Theatre and completed the MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship at HZT – Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz in Berlin.