Butoh Ritual Dance and Theater
Presents
Raw Butoh Night -
Happy Chocolate
with Vangeline and Coco Villarreal
Thursday, March 12 at 7:30pm
Performance at 20:30pm
StudiodB
Uferstraße 8-11
13357 Berlin Germany
Tickets from €17.17
An evening to encounter Butoh in its depth and rawness, and to meet one another through performance and movement.
The program brings together three performances by selected artists, alongside an improvised duet, “Happy Chocolate,” by Vangeline and Coco Villarreal. The duet marks their first collaboration since performing together at the New York Butoh Festival in 2007 and premieres a new experimental work created specifically for this evening. Details about the three additional performances will be announced soon.
The evening will conclude with an interactive live music and dance improvisation: an open stage / open jam in which audience members are warmly invited to join and participate.
The event will take place at Studio dB, an independent cultural and creative space located at Uferstraße 8–11 in the historic Uferhallen complex in Berlin. A 285 m2 warehouse space committed to interdisciplinary and experimental practices.
Biography of the Artists:
Vangeline is a New York–based teacher, choreographer, and dancer specializing in Japanese Butoh. She is the artistic director of Vangeline Theater / New York Butoh Institute and is widely recognized for her rigorous, research-driven approach to the form, expanding Butoh’s relevance in the 21st century through performance, activism, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Through her all-female dance company, Vangeline creates socially engaged choreographic works that unite Butoh with activism and amplify historically underrepresented voices. She is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute Festival, dedicated to uplifting women in Butoh, and Queer Butoh, a festival centering LGBTQ+ artists within the form. She also created The Dream a Dream Project, an award-winning program now in its 18th year that brings Butoh into correctional facilities across New York State. Her work has been presented internationally in Chile, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Vangeline is the author of Butoh: Cradling Empty Space and led the first scientific study measuring the effects of Butoh on the brain. She has taught widely at leading universities and continues to shape the global conversation around Butoh today. www.vangeline.com
Coco Villarreal is a Mexican Butoh dancer, director, and singer with over 20 years of training under masters Diego Piñón, Akira Kasai, and Taketeru Kudo. Born in Mexico City’s opera milieu, he has directed IX-Butoh since 2009, developing a visceral style rooted in guttural chant, anti-form, and somatic intensity. He has performed at Butoh and theater festivals worldwide — including New York, Amsterdam, Spain, and Mexico — and has led workshops and performances across diverse settings, from Tulum beaches and Berlin neighborhoods to Turkish marathons and Indonesian jungles, cultivating a global following drawn to his raw, transformative stage presence. www.ix-butoh.com