Butohsf was founded in 2009 by Shoshana Green after many years of searching for a quality of dance that valued the internal and existential experience of the dancer. Butohsf was created to support the appreciation, education and contemporary movement of the Butoh art-form in San Francisco. Since then, this effort has been collectively supported by the creative and dedicated efforts of Megan Nicely and Molly Barrons who have dedicated many years to studying, teaching and performing Butoh,
Shoshana Green (Founder) is a Butoh and movement artist, teacher, curator and presenter for Butoh Programming in San Francisco. Her programming is dedicated to the appreciation, education and contemporary movement of the Butoh art-form by offering public workshops and performances through collaborations with International and National Butoh Artists. Shoshana studied contemporary, Ballet and West African dance at University of Oregon and San Francisco State University. She draws from her studies with renown Butoh teachers, Vangeline, Diego Piñon, Katsura Kan, Semimaru-San (Sankai Juku), Natsu Nakajima, Akira Kasai, Tadashi Endo and Yumiko Yoshioka, Atsushi Takenouchi. Shoshana has performed in KATSURA Kan's Oracle and Enigma at CounterPULSE in San Francisco and in Vangeline Theater's (NYC) production of FIFTH OF BUTOH at Triskelion Arts in New York. Shoshana also produced & performed in Vangeline's FIFTH OF BUTOH in San Francisco at NOHspace. Shoshana starred in Mercury’s Antennae Music Video filmed by Fred Grasset and recently participated in the eX..it performance festival at the International Art Research Residency, Schloss Bröllin in Berlin, Germany & performed in a work by Natsu Nakajima.Shoshana has a Masters in Somatic Psychology and is a somatic practitioner and psychotherapist. To see Psychotherapist web-site click HERE
CONTACT INFO: butohcontact@gmail.com
Dancer: Shoshana Green | Photo: Erick Scheid
Megan Nicely is an artist/scholar who approaches "butoh" as a somatic means for experimenting with choreographic problems and performance presence. She is interested in states of consciousness experienced through the physical body and its thinking processes. As a teacher, Megan seeks to bring others toward finding a sense of ease and alert presence in the body informed by anatomy, sensation, rigorous attention to detail, and actualization what has not yet been thought. Megan began her studies in the early years of the San Francisco Butoh Festival with artists such as Akira Kasai, Yumiko Yoshioka, Saga Kobayashi, Setsuko Yamada, Katsura Kan, and Maureen Fleming, and at the Colorado Dance Festival with Eiko and Koma. She has also taken classes in Japan with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno and Akiko Motofuji. Sh e performed with Akira Kasai in Exusiai, was a company member in Brechin Flournoy's Underbelly Dance Theater Beast, contributed to several projects with artist Leigh Evans, performed at Ex…it! Artist exchange in 2007, and in 2009 worked with Tadashi Endo and director Doris Dörrie on the opera Admeto, presented at the Edinburgh International Festival. She has also studied Noh Theater and Costuming and in addition to her studies in butoh also has a background in release-based dance techniques. Her own work has been presented in the San Francisco and New York Butoh Festivals and her writing has been published in TDR, Choreographic Practices, Performance Research, and in the Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance (2018). She is associate professor in performing arts at the University of San Francisco, whose program focuses on the arts and social justice. www.megannicelydance.org
Dancer: Megan Nicely | Photo: Michael Woolsey
Megan Nicely is an artist/scholar who approaches "butoh" as a somatic means for experimenting with choreographic problems and performance presence. She is interested in states of consciousness experienced through the physical body and its thinking processes. As a teacher, Megan seeks to bring others toward finding a sense of ease and alert presence in the body informed by anatomy, sensation, rigorous attention to detail, and actualization what has not yet been thought. Megan began her studies in the early years of the San Francisco Butoh Festival with artists such as Akira Kasai, Yumiko Yoshioka, Saga Kobayashi, Setsuko Yamada, Katsura Kan, and Maureen Fleming, and at the Colorado Dance Festival with Eiko and Koma. She has also taken classes in Japan with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno and Akiko Motofuji. Sh e performed with Akira Kasai in Exusiai, was a company member in Brechin Flournoy's Underbelly Dance Theater Beast, contributed to several projects with artist Leigh Evans, performed at Ex…it! Artist exchange in 2007, and in 2009 worked with Tadashi Endo and director Doris Dörrie on the opera Admeto, presented at the Edinburgh International Festival. She has also studied Noh Theater and Costuming and in addition to her studies in butoh also has a background in release-based dance techniques. Her own work has been presented in the San Francisco and New York Butoh Festivals and her writing has been published in TDR, Choreographic Practices, Performance Research, and in the Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance (2018). She is associate professor in performing arts at the University of San Francisco, whose program focuses on the arts and social justice. www.megannicelydance.org
Dancer: Megan Nicely | Photo: Michael Woolsey
Molly Barrons is from Detroit. In 1990 she received her B.A. in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. From 1999-2002 she was the Associate Producer of the SF Butoh Festival; as a result she studied with numerous Butoh masters, some of her favorites include: Anzu Furukawa (RIP), Akira Kasai, Saga Kobayashi, Yukio Waguri, Setsuko Yamada, Yumiko Yoshioka. She worked with Hiroko & Koichi Tamano for over a decade. She also studied extensively and performed with Katsura Kan. In 2003 she created Metropolitan Butoh as a vehicle for training, performance and community.
Dancer: Molly Barrons | Photo: Doug Slater Photography
Molly Barrons is from Detroit. In 1990 she received her B.A. in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. From 1999-2002 she was the Associate Producer of the SF Butoh Festival; as a result she studied with numerous Butoh masters, some of her favorites include: Anzu Furukawa (RIP), Akira Kasai, Saga Kobayashi, Yukio Waguri, Setsuko Yamada, Yumiko Yoshioka. She worked with Hiroko & Koichi Tamano for over a decade. She also studied extensively and performed with Katsura Kan. In 2003 she created Metropolitan Butoh as a vehicle for training, performance and community.
Dancer: Molly Barrons | Photo: Doug Slater Photography