Butoh Dance Workshop

Butoh is an immersive dance form originating in Japan and dubbed the ‘Dance of Darkness’. This class uses gravity-awareness exercises to dissolve tension and rich imagery to waken the Imagination-body, unlocking the unique dance within each of us.

Everyone is welcome, with no experience needed. These workshops are suitable for performers and anyone interested in expanding their notion of what a human body can be. We are not performing for each other so much as dropping our daily body habits to uncover the imagination hidden beneath.

During the workshop we use physical awareness exercises drawn from Noguchi Gymnastics and Body Weather. These help us to remove tension, move with less effort and make friends with gravity. Moving meditation exercises aim to increase our physical honesty and ability to listen to body energies. Then through Image work and improvisation we experience how surrendering to images frees our bodies into new movement.??

Paul Michael Henry has studied Butoh dance and Noguchi Gymnastics with teachers including Yoshito Ohno, Yukio Waguri, Kayo Mikami, Seisaku & Yuri, Tadashi Endo, Yumiko Yoshioka, Imre Thormann, Yuko Kaseki and Gyohei Zaitsu, and Body Weather with Frank Van de Ven. He is also co-director of Moving Bodies Festival, a touring festival based around Butoh dance. These workshops are his synthesis of these experiences and his own research.