Butoh and the Imagination

About the workshop
This will be a workshop to add to the toolkit of all theatre makers, yet especially those making physical and visual work, yet also suitable for complete beginners as well as those with experience in performing arts, acting, dance and movement.

Butoh (dance of transformation) is an avant-garde dance philosophy/method created in Japan in the late 1950s. Working in a focused and supportive group, we will explore Butoh through imagery, presence, awareness and the tension between opposites. The aim is to free the body from its routine, preconceived everyday set of gestures, in order to access a deeper and more authentic essence of movement and archetypal expression.
Participants will gain a freedom and a way in to working with one's imagination, in a creative and deep way.
About the teacher
Mim is an artist/choreographer/dancer/live artist/performer/movement director born in London, living in Brighton, working internationally. She is also currently head of Movement at Academy of Creative Training, Brighton.
Her professional performance career commenced in 1984. Moving from circus and clowning, to visual theatre through to dance, and to live art and film, her most significant training was with Anton Adasinsky and his performance company DEREVO at their former studio in Leningrad, Russia in 1990.
Mim's work is influenced by Butoh dance. Her main Butoh teacher was Masaki Iwana. Mim has been creating her own unique performances since 1992, taking her to dance and live art festivals and artist-in-residences around the World. She has researched, lectured and presented work in many countries including France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Iceland, USA, South Korea, China, New Zealand and Australia. Her award winning dance film work has been shown at Lincoln Centre/ New York, Pompidou Centre/Paris, ICA/London, the Venice Biennial and at the Sydney Opera House.
For many years Miriam contributed reviews and articles on Physical Theatre for Total Theatre Magazine. She was a founder member of Movement 12 and also BUTOH Brighton. For a decade, regularly gave lectures, led tours and created workshops on art for The Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and Tate Britain.
Testimonials

"It was genuinely more than I could possibly have hoped for - somehow you got us all into the zone straight away, with a sparkling fresh appreciation of every nuance of the world about us! It was really like a sacred experience for me." - Steve Todd, Butoh workshop participant 2024.

"I felt deeply affected by our Butoh journey throughout the workshop. I came in not really knowing what to expect, and you guided us so gently and beautifully through the shifting shadows of this movement philosophy/language. It was lovely to be reminded that we are emotionally connected to the world and the universe, and that our feelings can vibrate from within and from without." - Maria Ziółkowska, Butoh workshop participant 2024.

"An amazing day with Mim at The Cockpit learning a little of the mysteries of Butoh. Tender, playful, mesmerising time spent giving presence and movement to to the imaginal. Revealing hidden worlds from deep within the body, from the spaces in between things. A joyful return to speaking the language of the body. Oof I've missed that!' - Kate Alderton (Actor & Producer)