Tuesday Butoh Lab in Brussels

Moving with the invisible

Just as you can read the age of a tree from the rings in a tree trunk, you can 'read' a life in a human body. The body is a living and ever transforming sculpture, shaped by life itself. Butoh is a dance of transformation that originates from the friction between opponent forces. The Butoh dancer knows how to connect with this energy and to move with it - be moved by it. What evolves is authentic expression and original being.

The Butoh Lab offers a space to practice movement and share time-space experiences, as well as to actively and collectively research what is butoh today and to explore its legacy out of its former historical context. The Lab is open to every-body regardless previous knowledge or experience with dance or butoh. We welcome all levels, gender, ages and body-types. The Lab is guided throughout the year by various artists who share their butoh or butoh-minded practice and place individual accents on the content of the Lab.

A lab usually starts with arriving in the space and exploring basic exercises (ex. standing in presence, walking, body awareness, breathing, tension-release, conscious moving and being moved by, contact, ….) that will then be deepened through improvisations nourished by poetic stimuli. We make time for a sharing circle or questions at the end of the session.

Currently on: Short spring break, we start again on April the 14th.

Rebecca Lenaerts has a background in theatre and moves on the cross over between performing arts, social art and ritual. Strongly inspired by the philosophy and practice of Butoh, she consistently explores the body with its potential, limitation and vulnerability. In the context of these Butoh Labs, she will use the “Three Role Types” as a starting point for exploration. In his teachings Zen Buddhist and No-play writer Zéami describes three basic roles that all No-actors in classic Japanese Theatre should study: the old body, the woman and the warrior. We will address these roles as qualities and textures within ourselves, exploring the tin line between imitation, expression and embodiment. We conclude this season with a performance at Crude Saturdays on June the 6th.

Practical information about the weekly Butoh Lab in Brussels

  • Location: Tictac Art Centre, Small Studio: Rue Emile Carpentier 34
    1070 Anderlecht (Brussels) www.tictacartcentre.com

  • When: Tuesday, 18h30 - 21h

  • Dates: 14/04- 21/04 - 28/04 - 05/05 - 12/05 - 19/05 - 26/05 - 02/06 + 06/06

  • Price: 15€ per Lab, 10x fidelity card for 120€

  • Contact:butofamilia@gmail.com (no registration needed, come as you are, doors open at 18:00)

  • Find us on Butoh Belgium Facebook page and Instagram @buto_familia

  • Credits picture: Performance Buto Familia @ Crude Saturday, Tictac Art Centre, June 17 2023, picture by Irene Occiato.