Triskelion Arts to Present FLOWER - SECRET Evening of Butoh Solos

Triskelion Arts, in association with Vangeline Theater and The New York Butoh Institute, presents the World Premiere of Flower - Secret, an evening of Butoh solos with Butoh Master Tetsuro Fukuhara and Vangeline.

Performances are Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 8pm; and Sunday, November 19, 2017 at 7pm at Triskelion Arts, 106 Calyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222. Tickets are $18 in advance ($22 at the door) and are available HERE.

Tetsuro Fukuhara and Vangeline the second and third generations of Butoh, a physical symbol of evolution - teacher to student, man to woman, past to future. For this collaboration, the artists will work together to share their art making practices to create new work. Fukuhara will perform in a large suspended hollow tube. Vangeline will create a new "Dance of Darkness" work. Through this collaborative performance, the artists seek to reveal the way the art form has grown and shifted, and how individuals are encouraged to adapt the Butoh, ensuring the style is reflective and responsive.

Over the past 60 years, Butoh has become a universal and international movement language. Developed in post-World War II Japan, the minimalist avant-garde dance form has grown, evolved, and travelled worldwide; Butoh is taught and performed across the United States, in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. While the form has its roots in Japan, there are Butoh artists of all cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities continuing its legacy into the 21st century.

Photographs of flowers by artist Tal Schpantzer will be projected on Vangeline for her solo.

Tetsuro Fukuhara, President of Tokyo Space Dance, is a second-generation movement artist of "Improvisation Butoh." Tetsuro's studied under Akira Kasai, and Butoh founders Kazuo Ohno, and Tatsumi Hijikata. At 68, Tetsuro represents the oldest generation of Japanese Butoh. His style of "New Butoh Space Dance" is a way to socialize Butoh for the general public, bringing together elements of dance, architecture, information, and design.

Vangeline is an internationally-acclaimed French-born New York City-based Butoh choreographer and is regarded widely as an expert in her field in the United States. She is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute and Artistic Director of the Vangeline Theater, an all-female dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese Butoh while carrying it into the 21st century. Vangeline's socially conscious performances tie together Butoh and activism. Her performances have dealt with subjects as varied as feminism, climate change, war and perceptions of gender.

Tal Shpantzeris an award-winning Brooklyn-based fine art photographer, recognized both internationally and nationally. Tal Shpantzer's petal portraits, are striking in their apparent simplicity and richness of detail. The portraits both engage with and challenge our traditional notions of flowers as symbols. "My principal interest," Shpantzer says, "is exploring moments that are undefined on sensory, emotional, and psychological levels. I am fascinated by the dialogue that arises from and intersects with expressions of uncertainty and states of transience. What I see may appear to be the simplest of moments and yet reveal otherwise unknown complexities or evoke imagined histories and hidden truths."

VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh, while carrying the art form well into the future. The unique art of Butoh originated in post-World War II Japan as a reaction to the loss of identity caused by the westernization of Japanese culture, as well as a realization that ancient Japanese performing traditions no longer spoke to a contemporary audience. One of the major developments in contemporary dance in the latter half of the 20th century, Butoh combines dance, theater, improvisation and influences of Japanese traditional performing arts to create a unique performing art form that is both controversial and universal in its expression.The Vangeline Theater is home to the New York Butoh Institute, dedicated to the advancement of Butoh in the 21st century.

Triskelion Arts houses five lovely rehearsal studios, one of which is a the fully-equipped black-box performance space, the Muriel Schulman Theater, and one of which is the Douglas Elliman Studio Theater. The original space, in heart of Williamsburg at 118 N. 11th Street, opened in 2000 where it thrived for nearly 15 years before its recent relocation to a two-story, stand-alone, treelined corner in Greenpoint. Triskelion offers affordable rehearsal, class and performance space to hundreds of working artists and hosts a full roster of shows and classes. The Triskelion Arts Presents program presents full-length or half-evening-length work of over 50 select artists and companies every year. Additionally, Triskelion's annual festivals feature the work of over 75 choreographers, clowns, comics, and film makers. The organization is grateful for past or current support from Dance Theater Workshop, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYSCA, the Brooklyn Arts Council/JP Morgan Chase Regrant Program, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

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