Katsura Kan’s approach to Butoh training emphasizes group work based in close observation and awareness of direct sensory and somatic experience as a ground for developing choreography and structuring performance. In recent years he has also emphasized study of the movement vocabulary, aesthetics, and philosophy of Noh as a path to deepening and refining the practice of Butoh.
Participation in the workshop requires no previous training in dance or familiarity with either Butoh or Noh. We welcome anyone interested in developing a heightened awareness of body, mind, and space in the context of performance.
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Katsura Kan is a master artist from the senior generation of Butoh in Japan. He was a member of the pioneering Butoh troupe Byakkōsha from 1979 to 1981, after which he set out on his own path as an internationally recognized solo and collaborative performer and choreographer. For more than forty years he has combined his work as a dancer with research and teaching, investigating a variety of international dance traditions and working in remote locations throughout Africa, Europe, Russia, China, South East Asia, and Latin and North America. He has sought hints of the origins of Japanese dance in Indonesia and Thailand, and is currently working with how the philosophy and techniques of traditional Japanese Noh theater can inform Butoh practice. For the past four years he has organized the Kyoto International Butoh Festival in order to pioneer new horizons for dance, and was awarded the Kyoto City Artistic Achievement Award in 2020. He was a teaching artist at the second Salish Sea Butoh Festival in Port Townsend last year.
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The dates for the workshop are August 6–12, 2023. The first six days will offer four hours of Butoh training and practice in the early part of the day, followed later by two hours of training in fundamentals of Noh (both movement and chanting). The seventh day will be devoted to staging , rehearsal, and work with musicians in preparation for a final performance that evening. August 12 is the opening night of the upcoming 2023 Salish Sea Butoh Festival, and festival participants will be invited to attend our workshop performance.
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The tuition fee for the workshop is $300. We invite workshop participants to stay onsite for an additional fee of $175 for the week ($25 per day) during the workshop, but accommodations are limited.
August is normally one of our only rain-free periods and there are a number of good places to camp on our land. There is also a large pole-barn that will serve as the primary workshop space, but may also be used as a dormitory space by a small number of participants. In either case, we ask you to bring your own camping/sleeping equipment (tent, sleeping bag, hammock, etc.).
Participants who choose to stay onsite will have access to an indoor bathroom and shower and an outdoor camp kitchen which includes a stove, tables, cooking utensils, and refrigerator. There are two grocery stores, several restaurants, and a laundromat five miles from here.
We will provide one main communal meal with vegetarian options every evening; other food will be the responsibility of the individual participants. If you are not staying onsite but would like to join us for the evening meal, we ask a $15 contribution.