Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute to Present Duet MAN WOMAN

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create a new duet titled MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara(Sankai Juku, ELF) and Vangeline. Ichihara and Vangeline will finish creating MAN WOMAN during a Mercury Store Residency between October 14 and 18, 2024 in NYC.

MAN WOMAN is expected to premiere in the US in New York in 2025. Emmy-Award winner Machine Dazzle created original costumes for the piece and Ray Barragan Sweeten composed the soundscape.

MAN WOMAN is a duet about love articulated through the language of Butoh.

The piece is a reimagining of Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe's eponymous photo book from 1960. Choreographed and performed by Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara and Vangeline, the duet explores the tension between male and female forms by way of an intimate encounter. The iconic poses from Hosoe's work serve as inspiration and leitmotifs for this sculptural piece; like photographs coming to life, the dancers weave in and out of the poses without making physical contact. The tension found in negative space rises, a commentary on distance and connection in intimate relationships that culminates in a single touch.

Eikoh Hosoe's photographic masterpiece tried to "capture the human drama in the dark, like a ritual in a closed room," by featuring Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh, and his wife Motofuji in sexualized depictions of traditional gender roles. This new, dynamic dance encounter between two 21st-century Butoh artists from Japan and the US disrupts normative expectations of dyadic heterosexual relationships. The dancers embody ambiguous gender roles as they slowly emerge from what seems an enchanted forest as creatures that are only half human, bedecked in fantastical costumes created by Machine Dazzle. In an allusion to Ninjinski's Rites of Spring, a piece that exerted a profound influence on Butoh, they gradually perform a mating ritual of sorts. However, never before in the history of the art form has the dramaturgy of a piece been propelled by such extravagant, wildly colorful, campy, and fabulous costumes; the signature costumes by Machine Dazzle are reminiscent of Louis XIV and Versailles and carry the story forward as the dancers gradually undress until only classic Butoh white remains.

Ichihara and Vangeline each come from different Butoh backgrounds; Ichihara from Sankai Juku, or what could be considered "classical" Butoh, while Vangeline's 20 years of Butoh expertise was informed by her prior experience as a jazz and burlesque dancer. Ray Barragan Sweeten and Vangeline build on their 22 years of collaboration; the artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: the creation of something new and original choreographically, challenging aesthetic expectations and carrying Butoh into the 21st century.

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