<<< Current Events | Past Events >>>
fall 2006 Events:
Lani Fand Weissbach
Performance/Workshop
November 3rd, 2006: 7:00PM (Performance)
November 4th, 2006: 10:00AM-12:00pm(Workshop)
Tickets on Sale at the Common Market $5 students $7 general public
For more information call 273-5150
CHOREOGRAPHER Lani Fand Weissbach will be performing her work in Butoh,
a contemporary dance form that emerged in Japan shortly after WWII.
The American Occupation in Japan at the end of World War II launched
the nation into a rapid assimilation of Western ways, causing
widespread confusion and a feeling of loss of identity for the Japanese
people. In this chaotic East/West atmosphere, western trained
dancers Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno began their search for a way
of moving that better suited their bodies, one that was distinctly
Japanese without being traditionally Japanese. In seeking their dance,
they discovered something universal, a new art form that was neither
theater nor dance, that offered a way to reconnect the self with the
body and the body with the universe. This new art, called simply Butoh
(“dance step”) has become an international aesthetic movement, crossing
cultural, racial and aesthetic boundaries.
Today Butoh maintains many of its Japanese roots, yet its deeper search
is for corporeal universals—in essence, what it means to be human. As
a performing art, Butoh embraces contradictions and contrasting states
of being. It can be simultaneously simple and complex, disturbing and
playful, raw and refined, defying expectations of a specific movement
language. With its strong emphasis on both organic and theatrical
expression, Butoh has inspired photography and visual art around the
globe. Butoh also has
profound therapeutic potential, as it accepts imperfections and honors
internally motivated responses. In our modern culture’s fast-paced and
electronic, often disembodied lifestyle, Butoh has great relevance both
as a form of art and therapy. With its emphasis on the return to the
body and a more primal state of being, Butoh allows us to rediscover
our deepest sense of self, our ties to each other, and our connection
to the universe in a tangible way.
Lani Fand Weissbach has worked as a dancer, teacher and choreographer
of contemporary modern dance-theater and butoh for over 15 years. As
founding director of Shen & Bones Performance Group, she has created
and performed work in Washington D.C., Chicago, New York, North
Carolina and throughout Northwestern Pennsylvania. From 1990-93, she
was a principal dancer in Honolulu’s first butoh company, Iona Pear
Dance Theater, and since then she has traveled nationally and abroad to
work with many esteemed butoh artists including SU-EN, Yumiko Yoshioka,
Yukio Waguri, Daisuke Yoshimoto, Akira Kasai, Katsura Kan and Diego
Piñón. She has recently been invited to perform in Mr. Piñón’s
American Project, which will begin rehearsals and touring throughout
the U.S. and Mexico in 2007. Ms. Weissbach has initiated the
instruction of butoh for several colleges and universities in
Northwestern PA, and has taught master classes for the American College
Dance Festival and the Eastwest Somatics Institute of Dance and
Movement Therapy. She received her MFA in dance from Arizona State
University, yoga teaching certification from the Integral Yoga
Institute, and movement therapy certification from the Eastwest
Somatics Institute. Ms. Weissbach teaches a variety of movement
classes to people of all ages and varying needs in her hometown of
Erie, PA and throughout the region.
Workshop
Free Workshop with Lani Fand Weissbach
Saturday, November 4 10a.m.-12:00p.m.
Spurrier Dance Studio - River Campus
please call 273-5150 to sign up
•Explore the impetus for one’s internal movement
impulses and investigate how these impulses transform
the body into authentic and vivid expression.
•Create energetic exchange with others to build
community
•Connect to the environment through personal and
collective ritual
past events:
2007-2008 Events
2006-2007 Events
2005-2006 Events
2004-2005 Events
2003-2004 Events
