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UNFIX NYC 2024
-Creating An Awareness Of Ecology Through Arts- Fri.-Sat. May 17-18, 2024
(Fri. 5/17: Butoh Workshop, Sat. 5/18: Live Performance, Art Gallery, Film Showing & Panel Discussion) At Grace & St. Paul's Church, NYC
This is the 8th Season of UNFIX NYC!!! We are so delighted to be able to gather together to have this festival again IN - PERSON!
About: UNFIX NYC is a collaboration between RenGyoSoh (NY based Butoh Theatre Group) and the UNFIX festival (Scotland). It is an interdisciplinary festival including live performance, dance, film, music, installation, workshop, and debate that aims to unravel the knots in how we're living. RenGyoSoh has been holding the NYC version of the UNFIX festival since 2016 at Grace & St. Paul’s Church.
UNFIX NYC aims to raise ecological awareness through arts and to address Ecological crisis and renewal through our Bodies, Minds & Souls. What is 'ecology'? Ecology is the study of all living beings on this planet and their relationships with each other and with the physical environment. In this festival, we broaden the definition of ecology to include how we can live embedded within ecological systems in a way that supports those systems, ourselves and each other. The world is not a 'fix'ed place. The world is continuously changing as we are changing; we are all living, dynamic beings. We believe in the power of active, engaged care; in the power of art; and in what art can do for all living beings, for the land we live in and for future generations.
The theme this year is "Disturbance." Disruptions to our social and ecological systems can have profound effects, from the catastrophic to the regenerative. The evening’s events will open the questions: How have disturbances affected our lives and our relationships with our communities and the natural environment? Can we be sensitive to disturbance and also resilient in response?
Through this festival, UNFIX NYC reflects on the society we live in, and creates not only awareness but builds a community to share, to connect, and to inspire each other. This year, we have 16 pieces created by many fantastic artists!
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TICKET
FINISHED Live Performance
$20-30 Combine Tickets: Performance & Workshop $30-50 Butoh Workshop
$20-25 Note: Partial of the box office goes to nonprofit ecological organizations, and crisis areas. We will report back on this page.
DATE
Fri.May17: Butoh Workshop 6-8pm Sat.May18: Live Performance 5:15-10:30pm (door open at 5pm) VENUE Grace & St. Paul's Church 123 west 71st st., New York | ||||
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Main Stage/ Sanctuary
Technical Direction by Chase Kniffen
Photography by Krzysztof Sienkiewicz |
Art Gallery / Baptismos
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UNFIX NYC 2024 PROGRAM
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Friday, May 17th 6-8pm Radical Resonance, A workshop in Butoh Guided by Julie Becton Gillum Saturday, May 18th 5:15-10:30pm DISTURBANCE 16 live performances, Film Showing & Panel Discussion (you can come and go with one ticket) *Detail program is below! |
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Friday, May 17, 6-8pm
Radical Resonance, A Workshop In Butoh Dance
Guided By Julie Becton Gillum
Guided By Julie Becton Gillum
During the workshop, participants will investigate the possibilities of their bodies in their natural form, including floating, hanging, and various qualities of movement or stillness. As the exercises progress, customary societal and cultural behaviors will be removed, guiding dancers toward a state of bodily emptiness. At this point, without the constraints of old habits, the unconscious body can freely respond to its sensations, forces, and emotions. Dancers will be instructed to expand their range of movements to include the subtle body, the avant-garde body, the fading body, and the unleashed body.
Photographed by Brianna Jones
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Julie Becton Gillum, artistic director of the 14-year-running Asheville Butoh Festival, has been creating, performing, and teaching dance in the US, Europe, Asia, and Mexico for over 40 years. She has practiced butoh for 27 years and was awarded the 2008-09 North Carolina Choreography Fellowship She used the funds to travel to Japan to study Butoh. The Asheville Butoh Festival brings US and international artists to teach and perform at the BeBe Theater in downtown Asheville. This event has drawn a local and regional audience for butoh as well as international recognition and interest. Since 2019 Gillum has been active in India, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Mexico, and the USA. Recent performances at the Amsterdam Butoh Festival (October 2023) and Seattle Butoh Festival (November 2023) were well received. Her most influential mentors have been: Anzu Furukawa, Diego Piñon, Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, and Seasaku. Noguchi Taiso has become an equally important practice for Gillum who learned the basics from Itto Morita, Semimaru, and Dairakudakan. Gillum’s studies with Mari Osanai and Emre Thormann have further refined the practice. She has been guiding butoh for 25 years and Noguchi Taiso for 10 years.
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Saturday, May 18th, 5:15-10:30pm
Arts Gallery, Live Performances, Film Showing & Panel Discussion
"DISTURBANCE"
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5:15pm_Opening Performance / Door Opens
5:30pm_Opening Ceremony 5:40pm_ACT 1, Part I / Door Closes 6:10pm_ACT 1, Part II 6:45pm_Break / Door Opens 7:00pm_Panel Discussion 7:45pm_Film Showing / Door Closes 8:00pm_Break / Performance Art / Door Opens 8:20pm_ACT 2 / Door Closes 9:00pm_Break / Door Opens 9:15pm_ACT 3 / Door Closes 10:15pm_Closing Ceremony / Door Opens 10:20pm_Celebration NOTE: Door will be closed during ACT (Live performances). Sounds carry entire space, and when you open the door not only light comes into the space, but the sounds as well.
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Arts Gallery
It consists of interconnected elements binded together by mycelium, symbolizing the unseen responses to disturbance in nature and society but also reminding of the underground world and death.
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It explores the “wall” we imagine between dreaming energy and what we call reality and the abundant, closely knit together stories of this wall.
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OPENING PERFORMANCE
5:15-5:30pm
5:15-5:30pm
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"STOPBOTHERINGME! LEAVEMEALONE! BACKOFF!"
by Zhenya Sklar, madeline at neighbors, Irena Romendik, and Yuri Osagawara It is a multidimensional performance that explores the symbiotic relationship between sound, movement, and a specially designed UV-reactive paint surface, creating a sensorial journey for the audience. |
OPENING CEREMONY
5:35-5:40pm
ACT 1, Part I_5:40-6:05pm
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"BRINK "
by Judith Barnes & Irena Romendik / Vertical Player Repertory It deals with themes of losing one's beloved home, with exile, and with a lamentation for a lost city. |
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"Les Berceaux & The Lighthouse: Movement 1-A Mental Health Crisis"
by Lucada Mélange It is an Experimental Opera addressing the disturbances in ecosystems created by pandemics and war. |
ACT 1, Part II_6:10-6:45pm
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"Wild Butterfly"
by Alana Rosa It is a manifest to the butterflies of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and a metaphor to the wild butterfly in all of us that screams for the right to be a butterfly. |
BREAK 6:45-7:00pm
Panel Discussion_7:00-7:45pm
Social-Ecological Disturbance
Moderated by Megan Cattau
(Assistant Professor of Human-Environment Systems at Boise State University,
Co-founder & Co-director at Flight Collaborative Aerial Dance)
PANELISTS
Pastor Martin Hauser (Pastor)
Julie Becton Gillum (Butoh)
Aida Miro (Butoh and visual art)
Karen Malpede (Playwrite)
Moderated by Megan Cattau
(Assistant Professor of Human-Environment Systems at Boise State University,
Co-founder & Co-director at Flight Collaborative Aerial Dance)
PANELISTS
Pastor Martin Hauser (Pastor)
Julie Becton Gillum (Butoh)
Aida Miro (Butoh and visual art)
Karen Malpede (Playwrite)
Film Showing_7:45-8:00pm
“The King's Keeper”
by Thomas Rowell/Brother Mountain
by Thomas Rowell/Brother Mountain
In the King’s Keeper we meet Gajraj and Prahlad on their journey home. Gajraj, a seventy year old tusker whose name means “King of the elephants,” spent more than fifty years of his life in chains. When Prahlad first saw him come out of the rescue vehicle and step into the Elephant Conservation and Care Center he says “I had my heart set on him.”
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Break 8:00-8:20pm
10 minutes live performance will happen in a gallery space.
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"Breakthrough"
by Stacey Anne Pea (xi/dry) |
ACT 2_8:20-9:00pm
"Blind Contour"
by Carl Annala a meditation on the artist's immediate ancestors, combines butoh improv with drawing, to produce abstract expressionism and a direct notation of choreography. |
"A Message from Those that Have Gone Before…,"
by Moving Productions it blends theatre, music, dance and video to embody the lost creatures of the earth and to bring a message from them to us that will help us change the near future. |
"ASHITA MAÑANA"
by AIDA MIRÓ & KEN ARII It addresses the microcosm in nature and the ecological system in continuous transformation, life & death, beauty & degradation, all simultaneously. |
Break 9:00 - 9:15pm
ACT 3_9:15-10:15pm
"broken limbs and broken roots"
by Jacquelyn Marie Shannon It is a ritual movement piece that draws upon historical representation of the figure of the witch, modern western witchcraft dramaturgy, and ritual eco-poetics. |
"KUZU/屑: dust"
by RenGyoSoh Performers: Zak Ma, Megan Cattau, Grace Olinski Choreographed by Yokko Music composed by Paul Michael Henry, Hiroko Komiya, Yuri Dini Kuzu, a tiny piece/dust particles, have fallen down from the sky; they float between material and subtle bodies, dance among turmoil and disturbance, and ask ‘Where are we going? What action will we take in this given life?’ |
"Dusk, the darkening"
by Julie Becton Gillum / Asheville Butoh Collective It explores images of border walls to symbolize contrasting ideas from struggling against, to overcoming obstacles, and breaking through. |
UNFIX NYC 2024 TEAM
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Founder, Co-Producing Artistic Director: Yoshiko Usami
Co-Producing Artistic Director: Megan Cattau Technical Director : Chase Kniffen Associate Technical Director : Saki Kawamura Social Media: Zak Ma Visual Arts Program Coordinator: Brandon Perdomo Photography: Krzysztof Sienkiewicz Associate Producer: Paster Martin Hauser (Host of the event) Associate Producer: Jonah Piali (Music Director of Grace & St. Paul's Church) Founder of Unfix Festival: Paul Michael Henry |
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