butoh lake .

Project Description
Butoh Lake is an independent artistic and educational platform inviting people to discover the Japanese avant-garde dance form butoh through workshops and performances.

Butoh was born in Japan in the late 1950s and 1960s as a manifesto by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno: not dance and not theater, though it is often called a dance. It emerged in postwar Japan as a search for a new, honest language of the body, free from the conventions of both traditional Japanese forms and Western ballet. Its creators sought a state in which the body is danced, rather than dancing itself: they led physically exhausting trainings to tire the body and free it from control, intention, and learned form. What emerges in butoh comes from this state of exhaustion and surrender, not from technique or choreography.

Since then, butoh (also known as ankoku butō, "the dance of darkness") has developed and changed with successive generations of dancers, reaching beyond Japan and taking root in Europe, where it gained its own local variations and schools. Today it is a living, still evolving practice: an element of improvisation and folk ritual gives it a trance like dimension, and each performer draws on their own experience, making every workshop and performance unrepeatable.

Project Foundations
Butoh Lake was created to popularize butoh and make this art form accessible to as many adults as possible, regardless of gender ♀️♂️⚧️, origin 🌍, or sexual orientation 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. Our goal is to inspire participants to immerse themselves deeply in art and to discover the potential of their own bodies.

Because butoh does not impose a body form or gender role, non binary and queer people also find their place in it, for whom dance becomes a space free from imposed expectations. We create a space full of acceptance and diversity, allowing everyone to discover their inner freedom, regardless of where in the world they come from.

Project Goal
Organizing butoh workshops and performances accessible to a wide audience, enabling participation from people of different backgrounds.

Creating a space where experienced dancers and people seeking connection with their bodies can meet, share knowledge, and inspire one another.

Exchange of experiences and inspiration among participants through post workshop gatherings.

Building a community based on acceptance and diversity, where every participant can express their individuality.

Collaborating with local and international artists to enrich the educational and artistic offer.

Promoting butoh as an art form that allows for a deep understanding of oneself and the expression of authentic emotions through movement.

Breaking down the cultural mechanism of making older people invisible, especially mature women: unlike classical dance, butoh does not reject signs of aging, it turns them into artistic value.

Collaboration and Openness
We collaborate with artists from all over the world 🌏 (dancers, musicians, photographers) as well as local cultural centers in Poznań. So far we have had the pleasure of working with, among others, Minako Seki, Yuko Kaseki, Yumiko Yoshioka, Natsuko Kono, Ken Mai, Motoya Kondo, Kea Tonetti, Edegar Starke, Tsuki Berghain, Lucas Cane, Hoshiko Yamane, Magdalena Hałoń, Katarzyna Zimna, Katarzyna Grażewicz, Ewelina Piguła, and Karsten Bartel.

We do not yet have our own permanent stage, we co create the program with Republika Sztuki Tłusta Langusta 🖤, and earlier editions took place at Scena Wspólna, Teatr Ósmego Dnia, Pawilon, Studio Nieznane, Dom Dźwięku, Centrum Tańca Pendulum, and Szkoła Tai Chi Jadeit.

Thank you to the Republika Sztuki Tłusta Langusta team and to all the workshop participants and audience members who have been building this community with us since 2022 🖤🖤🖤

Who Is With Us?
Performance audiences: consumers of high and alternative culture, theatergoers and visitors of performing arts festivals.

Workshop participants: somatic practitioners, leaders, psychologists, dancers, corporate employees investing in personal development.

The group is diverse in age and profession, but united by a shared profile: conscious recipients, curious about the world, interested in Japanese culture, travel, and mindful living.

Workshops and performances are open to all adults 🌈. We believe diversity is our strength and that everyone can feel welcome and valued here, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and acceptance.

Organizer
The project organizer is Fundacja Jesteś Wszystko Contemporary Artist Cooperative, and the coordinator, producer, and contact person for Butoh Lake is Irmina Sadecka: UX designer, yoga nidra instructor, practicing yoga for over 20 years 🧘🏻‍♀️

Workshop Registration
Registration takes place exclusively through the form on the Fundacja Jesteś Wszystko website.
Events we create on Facebook always lead to the foundation's website (see the URL bar).
We do not sell tickets or collect registrations through any email or other channels. We do not plan to create any accounts other than the ones we currently have: two Facebook profiles (personal and event page), Instagram, and TikTok.
👍 facebook.com/butohlakeworkshops/
👍 facebook.com/butoh.lake/
📷 instagram.com/butoh.lake/
🤡 tiktok.com/@butoh.lake

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