From Ocean to Ember: A Butoh Movement Meditation of Unmaking with Maya Kaufmann

Name: From Ocean to Ember: A Butoh Movement Meditation of Unmaking with Maya Kaufmann
Start: 2026-03-08T17:00:00-07:00
Location: The Alembic

Schedule

Sun, 08 Mar, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

The Alembic | Berkeley, CA

A butoh-fu exploring metamorphosis, elemental embodiment, and the dissolution of form. The score guides dancers through a narrative arc of immersive states: beginning in the cold cradle of the ocean, becoming a creature learning humanness, gravity, heat, and communion for the first time. Drawing from butoh’s lineage of transformation and from ritual motifs of rebirth, the piece investigates what it means to shed a body, inhabit a new one, and then relinquish even that. It asks: What remains when every layer has burned away?
This offering begins with collective intention-setting, grounding each participant into their own inner landscape before movement begins. A somatic warm-up follows, preparing the body to enter heightened states of sensation, imagination, and permeability. From there, dancers move into the butoh-fu itself: a guided imaginative score that uses metaphor, sensation, and image to evoke physical transformation beyond habitual movement patterns.
After completing the score, we transition into a brief butoh-focused exercise to deepen the embodied themes of the piece and allow participants to explore its imagery more interconnectedly. The session closes with an integration circle, creating space for reflection, grounding, and shared meaning-making. From Ocean to Ember is, at its core, an invitation into deep imaginative somatics, ritual slowness, and the alchemy that happens when a body enters the unknown.
TEACHER BIO
Maya Kaufmann is a movement artist, educator, and ritualist prayerformer whose work is rooted in the belief that the body is a site of knowledge, devotion, and transformation. Raised by Zen meditation teachers and authors, she grew up immersed in contemplative practice, shaping a movement philosophy grounded in presence, listening, and reverence for what emerges through the body. Drawing from modern dance, belly fusion, butoh, and somatic traditions, her approach honors both form and flow, structure and surrender, inviting movement to arise as inquiry rather than display.
Maya holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from UC Berkeley, with concentrations in Dance Practice, Philosophy, and Anthropology, and a minor in Creative Writing. Her thesis, “The Divinity of Dance,” explores how dancers encounter spirituality, liminality, and altered states through embodied practice, and how this divinity inspires care and compassion. With over a decade of teaching experience, she has guided movement across a wide range of contexts - from accessible dance for humans with disabilities, ecstatic dance facilitation, fusion technique classes, ceremonial movement, and meditation-based somatic work. Alongside her teaching, Maya performs internationally in ritual and contemporary dance settings, weaving sensuality, shadow, and mythic presence into work that blurs the boundary between altar and stage.
Whether onstage or in the studio, Maya’s work centers inclusivity, emotional alchemy, and the liberatory potential of dance. She conjures spaces where devotion becomes motion, where archetypes breathe through flesh, and where transformation moves with its own wild grace.