Vangeline Theater Receives $10,000 Grant From The National Endowment For The Arts

Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support The Slowest Wave. This project combines butoh and neuroscience, culminating in a full-length choreographed piece for four dancers. Vangeline Theater's project is among 1,248 projects across America totaling $28,840,000 that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from Vangeline Theater that help support the community's creative economy," said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute in New York is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts."

"We are so grateful to receive this award from The National Endowment for the Arts," says Artistic Director and choreographer Vangeline. "One important precept in butoh is to "make the invisible visible." I cannot think of a better way to honor our beautiful yet mysterious art form."

The Slowest Wave will be informed by the brain-wave activity of butoh dancers. In combination with live performances, a series of lectures and demonstrations will be offered to educate the public about brain-wave activity and butoh. The Slowest Wave investigates the relationship between human consciousness and dance through the use of EEG and will create connections between dancers, scientists, and audiences in the US. The Slowest Wave will premiere in the Fall of 2022 in New York City.

About Vangeline

Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in the Japanese postwar avant-garde movement form butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese butoh and the New York Butoh Institute's founder. She is a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography. Vangeline's work has been heralded in publications such as the New York Times ("captivating"), Los Angeles Times("moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist"), and LA Weekly, to name a few. More recently, her solo Hijikata Mon Amour received critical acclaim in New York Butoh Institute Festival 2019 ("a triumphant experience for both performer and viewer"- Broadway World). With her all-female dance company, Vangeline's socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism. Vangeline is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and the festival Queer Butoh. She pioneered the award-winning, 15-year running program The Dream a Dream Project, which brings butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. Her choreographed work has been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is the author of the book of non-fiction Butoh: Cradling Empty Space (2020). www.vangeline.com.

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute The Vangeline Theater's mission is to educate the public about butoh, promoting an understanding of Butoh dance history and its social and cultural significance, and to build community through butoh. The Vangeline Theater is home to the New York Butoh Institute, dedicated to the advancement of Butoh in the 21st century, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

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