Impermanence - Butoh and the Body in Flux
Schedule
Sat, 24 Jan, 2026 at 12:30 am to Mon, 26 Jan, 2026 at 07:30 am
UTC+11:00Location
Dancehouse, Melbourne Australia | Melbourne, VI
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A workshop for those drawn to movement as a way of listening to the body, to the environment, and to the subtle shifts that shape our experience moment by moment.This three-day intensive explores Butoh fundamentals through the lens of impermanence. Rather than striving to create, we learn to notice what is already being created through the changes within the body and the world around us. Breath, impulse, emotion, memory, and space are all in continual flux. In this workshop, we meet that shifting reality with curiosity and presence, learning to move with it and be moved.
Drawing from Butoh, Noguchi Taiso, Body Weather principles, and somatic inquiry, we enter the body as a living process: unstable, poetic, dissolving and reforming in every moment. Through guided exercises, imagery, and improvisation, participants learn to move from sensation and impulse rather than intention, allowing dance to arise and dissolve without force.
This workshop offers an introduction to a Butoh sensibility: a way of perceiving that is rooted in listening and responding to what appears.
You will be invited to explore:
• Impermanence in the body: sensing how breath, weight, and impulse continually shift
• Releasing control and allowing movement to arise from what changes rather than from will
• Somatic perception, meeting sensation, space, and gravity as collaborators
• Butoh fundamentals for dissolving habitual form and entering states of no-mind where the body creates without effort
• Noguchi Taiso conditioning to soften the body and awaken fluidity
• Sub-body inquiry, accessing the subconscious body through imagery and deep listening
• Co-body work, exploring shared timing, resonance, and collective sensing
• Practice witnessing and being witnessed, exploring performance as a mirror for life
• Improvisation and composition, shaping movement without fixing it
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Who is it for?
This workshop is for dancers, theatre-makers, movement practitioners, and anyone curious about exploring the body in new ways. No experience in Butoh or dance is required, only a willingness to slow down, listen, and be moved.
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Facilitators
Alexandra Wynne is a nomadic performance artist and movement facilitator from Australia, dedicated to exploring the depths of human experience through Butoh. With a background in physical theatre and a three-year period of study and facilitation at the Subbody Butoh School in Dharamshala, India, her work weaves together influences such as Noguchi Taiso, natural movement, embodied awareness, and holistic practices that bridge body and mind.
Since 2011, Alexandra has travelled extensively across the globe, immersing herself in embodied research, performing, teaching, and curating artistic gatherings. She has studied closely with Butoh masters in Japan and Europe, while also sharing her work in diverse communities worldwide. Her practice invites participants into deep presence and transformation, cultivating authentic expression and a subtle sensitivity to the body’s inner landscapes and subconscious terrain.
Ripley Waters is a Butoh dancer and multidisciplinary artist currently based in Melbourne/ Naarm. With a life-long background in dance and a deep drive to explore truth through the body, her Butoh practice blends technical precision with intuitive inquiry. She first encountered Butoh in India and has since trained and performed across Europe, Japan, and Australia. Ripley’s approach is rooted in the body’s capacity for honesty and the search for honesty and inclusion in art- holding the grotesque, the ecstatic, and the subtle with equal attention. As a guide, she seeks to offer a space for movers to listen for what is true and emerging beneath the surface and to allow movement to be born from natural impulse and the mysterious forces within and without.
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About iLiminal Butoh Collective
iLiminal is an international ensemble exploring perception, transformation, and the subconscious through the raw poetry of Butoh. Their work bridges performance and ritual, inviting participants into spaces of deep listening, shared presence, and embodied imagination. Through workshops, residencies, and performances, the collective creates experiences that honour impermanence, relational tension, and the shifting landscapes of the inner world.
Their approach is intuitive, inclusive and experimental, drawing from a variety of lineages and shared research to create evocative, dreamlike experiences that awaken the sense and speak to the hidden language of the body.
Prices - 380-410 (sliding scale)
Email us at [email protected] to reserve your placements.
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Where is it happening?
Dancehouse, Melbourne Australia, 150 Princes Street,Melbourne,VIC,AustraliaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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