Coney Island Butoh & Beyond

AN EVENING OF PERFORMANCES FEATURING BUTOH AND SO MUCH MORE...



March 31 - April 2, 2017
at

Sideshows by the Seashore
1208 Surf Ave., Coney Island



PHOTOS BY NORMAN BLAKE AND DIEGO PINON

BUTOH ENSEMBLE: Katherine Adamenko, Dean James Beckwith, Christopher Carlone, Abou Farman, Timon Hall, Brian Hicks, Daniel Inamorato, Meyung Kim, Jonathan Kopp, Bob Lyness, Brandown Perdomo, Jennie Portney, Bronwyn Preece, Jacquelyn Shannon

AND BEYOND:
--Tightrope performed by Miss Mary Cyn
-- Original music written and performed by Paige Johnson-Brown of Irrevery, joined by dancers Brandon Perdomo, Christopher Carlone and Jacquelyn Shannon
-- Bird of Prayer, are You Out There? performed by Sick Nick the Bellevue Boy
-- Original music written and performed by Wharton Tract, joined by dancers Katherine Adamenko, Bob Lyness and Jennie Portney

On Sunday, April 2 only, dancer and master teacher Diego Piñón presents an offering toward bridging cultures and healing the disharmony that has developed between North and South, between Mexico and the United States.

CONEY ISLAND is famous for its historical exhibitions of living forms – human, non-human "and beyond." Displaying everything from “freaks, geeks and human curiosities” to a bewildering assortment of captured and caged animals, the menagerie was central to the often exploitative thrills of old Coney Island.

For 3 evenings only, International Culture Lab gathers an idiosyncratic “menagerie” of 15 Butoh performers who—under the guidance of Mexican master teacher Diego Piñón—will explore this history through body rituals on Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore stage. Joined by a revue of acts beyond Butoh but exploring these central themes, each evening is a unique extravaganza.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURE LAB, especially early in its history as Thieves Theatre, examined the role of "the other" in contemporary society with a series of controversial landmark productions starting with its 1982 collaboration with a group of ex-mental patients called On Our Own in a production of Marat/Sade; to its world premiere in 1987 of Fassbinder's "unproducible" Trash, the City, and Death; and perhaps its best known project, the 1990-1993 Nomad Monad: The Making of Thieves Theatre's Last Stand for which the company's directors erected and lived in a full-sized Lakota tipi replica, handmade from 78 US#3 mailbags, in the then oldest Manhattan shantytown at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, presenting plays, art exhibits and other work inside it. [see Spring 2015 issue of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art]

DIEGO PIÑÓN's Body Ritual Movement is the distillation of his extensive research in body-based energy methodologies since 1975. BRM is primarily derived from Piñón's Mexican heritage with traditional energetic practices and Japanese Butoh under the guidance of Kazuo Ohno, Yoshito Ohno, Min Tanaka, Natsu Nakajima, among others. He performs and teaches throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Mexico using BRM as a means to transform personal and collective divisions through the dancing body in order to cultivate a deeper connection to our shared humanity. Piñón proposes the possibility of developing an aliveness on stage beyond the personal ego that can be carried equally in art, in ritual, and in our daily lives.

Coney Island USA exists to defend the honor of American popular culture through innovative exhibitions and performances. Presenting and producing exciting new works, the organization's approach is rooted in mass culture and the traditions of P.T. Barnum, dime museums, burlesque, circus sideshows, vaudeville, and Coney Island itself. Serving both New York City and an international community that includes visitors to Coney Island and enthusiasts of various cultural forms, CONEY ISLAND USA's signature activities include the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, the Coney Island Museum, and new theatrical work.