Northwest Butoh Festival LLC

Yumiko Yoshioka workshops and performance

Yumiko Yoshioka will teach an intensive series of workshops August 4th - 7th and will perform her work “100 Light Years of Solitude” on Saturday the 8th at 8:00 pm at New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont St., in Portland. Tickets on sale Spring 2026 via the N.E.W. website."100 Light Years of Solitude" by Yumiko YoshiokaFollowing Yumiko's acclaimed solo Before the Dawn, this is the second part of her trilogy From 1 to 100.Inspired by Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude to explore a state of solitude Yumiko dances the life of a unique creature, born on a planet 100 light years away from ours. Imagining that this creature is the only one of its species on that planet, it enjoys unfolding its life until it realizes its destiny... to exist in solitude.Yumiko says, "In my childhood, I was always fascinated by the imaginary creatures and monsters of fairy tales. Butoh, a dance of metamorphosis, helps me to explore this imaginary world, and make something invisible visible."Yumiko Yoshioka is a Japanese Butoh dancer and choreographer. Yumiko is a former member of Ariadone, the first female Butoh company, which was founded by Ko Murobushi and Carlotta Ikeda in 1973. In 1978, she performed with Carlotta and Ko in Paris ” Le Dernier Eden- Porte de L’Au-Dela “, the very first Butoh performance to be presented in a public theater outside Japan. In 1988, Yumiko founded THEATRE DANCE GROTESQUE with fellow Butoh artist Minako Seki and delta RA'i in Berlin (1988-1996). In 1989 she started to develop and teach her own form of bodywork. The approach became a pillar of her career as a reflection of her profound understanding of the importance of deepening consciousness of the body, not only in order to dance and express but also to illuminate our daily life, opening ourselves to the deeper layers of our inner world and rediscovering a subtle beauty in each moment. The strength of this perception led her to create her own method of bodywork, called “Body Resonance."Between 1995 and 2015, she was a core member of TEN PEN CHii art labor, an interdisciplinary and experimental art formation, as a dancer and a choreographer along with JoaXhim Manger (visual artist) and Zam Johnson (composer and musician). Yumiko is also the key founder of the storied eX..it! Dance eXchange Festival at Schloss Bröllin.Since 2015, she has been working as a solo dancer and a choreographer. She has also set up various collaborative projects across Europe such as with Gest-Azione, with Annalisa Maggiani from Italy; and dance creations with Rena Konstantaki from Greece. She has been a supervisor of “Butoh Lab Camp” project in Romania since 2021. Her workshop “Body Resonance, based on Organic Movement and Butoh” is invited to many countries across the globe.A chapter highlighting Yumiko’s career is featured in Bruce Baird’s newest book A HISTORY OF BUTŌ in which he writes that “Yumiko is an important proponent of mixed media butô through her dance company TEN PEN CHIi and one of the dancers who has most embodied what it means to practice butô as an itinerant woman. Yoshioka keeps up a grueling schedule of international travel teaching butô workshops around the world and also organized the eX..it! butô festival, bringing butô and dancers of other styles of dance in contact with each other…Whether by artists traveling to her or, as is much more often the case, Yoshioka traveling to artists, she has provided numberless dancers and artists with chances to ‘ex- change, ex- perience, ex- plore, and ex- it’ out of themselves and be changed in the process.”Workshop Description:
Body Resonance – based on Butoh and Organic MovementThe main focus of this workshop is a conscious research of our body/mind/soul unification so we can deeply enjoy the intrinsic process of metamorphosis in the spirit of dance. Through a continuous exploration of our past collective memories, we can strike a vein of abundant creative resources, enriching the essence of our life. The body is a receptacle of time.Body resonance is a key to opening up the doors of an ever-changing world inside and outside of ourselves, which helps the body to unfold its secrets, holding them up until they shine and tremble.Everything is in resonance with each other. Through a dialogue with our body, we can learn to be moved by inner and outer forces, thus realizing we are a part of the Universe. A dance of metamorphosis inevitably appears.Workshop Content:Organic Movement (release exercises), inspired by Noguchi Taiso (Gymnastics), Taichi and Yoga such as figure 8, waves, water ball rotation, hanging body,breathing exercises AUNdynamic training for the flow of energyButoh-related work (sensitization, combination of image and movement with antenna exercises, such as animal, insect, snake, witch and fairy, the creatures inside us, walking, dialogue with a partner etc)

Northwest Butoh Festival 2026
images by Jonathan Robinson

The Northwest Butoh Festival was May 13 - 16, 2026 at New Expressive Works (810 SE Belmont St.) in Portland, Oregon. There was twelve performances over three nights, 14 -16, and four workshops on the 13 -16.Performers included Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh, Julie Becton Gillum, Minja Mertanen, Vanessa Skantze, Iván Espinosa and Co, Ash Pillar, Arlo King, Amapola, Salty Xi Jie Ng, Olga Kravtsova, Monel Chang and Didi (Freddi) Wyss.Workshop teachers were Minja Mertanen, Vanessa Skantze, Julie Becton Gillum and Joan Laage.Performance ScheduleThursday May 14th at 8:00pm
1. Minja Mertanen
2. Didi (Freddi) Wyss
3. Arlo King
4. Vanessa SkantzeFriday May 15th at 8:00pm
1. Olga Kravtsova
2. Monel Chang
3. Bowels of the Earth by Ivân Espinosa and Co
4. Joan Laage/Kogut ButohSaturday May 16th at 8:00pm
1. Amapola
2. Ash Pillar
3. Salty Xi Jie Ng
4. Julie Becton Gillum

NWBF 2026 Festival Sponsors:

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Northwest Butoh Festival LLC supports and presents dance events and workshops with a focus on Butoh in Portland Oregon.Get in touch at [email protected]

Butoh Workshops With Carl Annala

“I began studying Butoh dance in the mid 90’s after having seen the inspirational dance film Butoh: The Dance of Darkness at an early screening in the late 80’s. My approach is inspired by nature, the dark terroir of the pacific northwest, the sea, the forest, its creatures and conditions. I also pull from my background as a visual artist/teacher and bandleader. My Butoh learning lineage comes from both streams, Hijikata and Ohno. My lighthouse teachers, Yumiko Yoshioka and Seisaku, however, are in the Hijikata camp.”Carl will lead 2 hour workshops on the first/second Sundays of the month beginning in January at New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont St., in Portland. Reserve your space at [email protected] - drop-ins also welcome, no experience necessary. Sliding. Classes on Sundays at 1:00-3:00pm are on 2/8, 3/1, 4/5, 5/3 and 6/7.