Butoh Dance Workshop

Tana Maneva teaches Subbody Resonance Butoh Method
25-26 March 10:00 - 18:00
Price 700 sek
Maximum 10 participants
Anyone can participate

ABOUT BUTOH 舞踏
Butoh is a Japanese avant-garde dance form created by Tatsumi Hijikata (1928 – 1986) in collaboration with writer, poet, and director Yukio Mishima (1925-1979). Butoh appeared in the late 1950's as an anti-traditional and anti-establishment movement, and was in a way a response to the “Westernization” of Japan. It opened а door to an alternative way of approaching the body and it’s movements. This approach didn’t look at the body as a functional object, as demanded by society, but rather viewed the body as a living and changing sculpture, fashioned by life itself. Through the means of dance, it was an attempt to bring back a traditional Japanese belief, saying that the body is in tunes with nature, an idea that had been lost in contemporary society. Butoh in it self doesn’t have it’s own form or technique; it’s more of an aesthetic. An aesthetics that goes against the western archetypes of perfection and beauty. The alignment of Butoh is absurd, sometimes even grotesque and with provocative body movements which are often oriented towards taboo subjects and extreme environments. Traditionally Butoh is performed with white or grey body paint and with hyper controlled slow movements. There are many different forms of Butoh methods. The Japanese Butoh master Resome Lee developed the Sub-body Butoh method.

SUB-BODY METHOD
Sub-body is a unification of our subconsciousness and our body. When we calm down our daily thinking and judgment through various conditioning methods, it becomes possible to listen to a more subtle life in our body. We transform from thinking to listening, and from listening to resonance. We resonate with our subconsciousness and let movement surface. The subconsciousness is the seat of our feelings and emotions. We let our subconsciousness dance.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

1 Calm down
Calming down our daily body and mind by breathing and swaying meditation. When you feel relaxed and comfortable in your body, gradually your thinking slows down, and becomes quiet. To become Quiet Body is the entrance level for Sub-body world.

2 Listen to the Body
Transforming from thinking to listening in the 'darkness' of our body. Becoming consciously aware about subtle feelings in our bodies. Listening to them, tasting them. These physical feelings resonate with our inner memories beyond time and space. Dreams, images and inner rhythms are streaming in darkness of the body. They are much more subtle than daily senses. We call them "Qualia".

3 Resonance
Sharpening and opening our perceptions of the body. Working with 'hidden" skin, becoming consciously aware about our inner and external space. We learn how to resonate with subtle life.

4. Become Sub-body
Sub-body is a unification of subconsciousness and body. They are not separated but rather oneness in the subconscious realm. Through a deep resonance with subtle life we embody different Qualia’s. We merge with them, we become them, and we give them a body, a Sub-body.

5.Theory
We learn the meaning of different Butoh terms such as Darkness of Body, Hidden Skin, Hidden Muscles, and Week Body, among more.

ABOUT TANA MANEVA

The artist Tan Maneva was educated at National Academy of Theatre and Film in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has also studied Butoh at Subbody Butoh School in Dharamshala under the Japanese master Rizome Lee. Before moving to Stockholm, Sweden, Tana worked in several Bulgarian theaters. She co-founded the group Theatre for New Forms in Bulgaria and toured all over Europe and the US. Tana Maneva has since developed her own stage language: a mix of Butoh, performance, and theatre. She often examines the human ego and persona versus the inner world of shadows. Tana Maneva has worked with Teater Giljotin since 2002, and together with the composer Rikard Borggård produced a number of performances, both in Sweden and abroad.

APPLY TO WORKSHOP

Butoh performance - Emergency Exit by Tana Maneva at Teater Giljotin 2010.