Spring Residencies 2010

YUMIKO YOSHIOKA (Berlin/Japan)

Yumiko Yoshioka studied and performed with Butoh’s founders Hijikata and Ohno, and was both an original member of Ariaadine, Japan’s first female butoh company, and a participant in the first performance of butoh outside of Japan in Paris 1978.  Using the cultural “fricition” between East and West as a creative engine for her work, Yumiko became a leader of the burgeioning European butoh scene, ultimately settling in Berlin, Germany in 1988.  Ms. Yoshioka is currenly a resident artist at the internationally renowned Scholss Broellin (Castle of Broellin) theater research center.  As both performer and choreographer, Yumiko’s work explores the possibility of metamorphosis and transformation in performance by activating primal memory through physical movement.

DIEGO PIÑÓN (Mexico)

Diego Piñón first encountered butoh while dancing professionally in Europe in the early 80′s.  As a trained modern dancer and student of Mexico’s energetic movement and ritual theatre, he immediately recognized the power and potential of the art form.  Making it the foundation of his work, he studied with such renowned masters as Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima and Min Tanaka.  In addition to his work in Japan, which has included collaborations with Ohno and Tanaka, Diego has established himself as a leading teacher, solo artist and director in the U.S., Europe and Mexico.  In 2002, Piñón founded The Butoh Ritual Mexicano Dance Center in Tlalpujahua, Mexico, where he continues his wrok integrating butoh with other contemporary movement techniques.

MIZU DESIERTO (Portland)

Mizu is the founder and Artistic Director of Portland’s Water in the Desert: Festival of Art, Ritual, Performance, & Ecology.  She has been a collaborator, dancer, choreographer and costume designer with Human Nature Dance Theatre (AZ) for over a decade and was a founding member of the Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theatre Company (S.F.).  She has performed with Harupin-Ha Butoh Theatre (S.F.), Yoshito & Kazuo Ohno (Japan), & Diego Pinon (Mexico); and her solo & collaborative projects have been showcased in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Tucson, Portland, Boulder, Tokyo, Mexico, France & Spain.  She has been a recipient of project grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Oregon’s Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, Oregon Cultural Trust, and The Northwest Regional Burning Man Council; and has sat on the Arizona Commission on the Arts panel to award grants in the category of Dance.   As an educator, she has been teaching workshops throughout the west coast throughout the past decade.  In 2008 she served as adjunct faculty at Prescott College (Arizona), leading a course in Butoh-Ritual dance.