World Theatre - Butoh in New York / LEIMAY

LIVE / IN PERSON

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Join us for a day of screenings, a book talk, and a movement class that offers a glimpse into the world of New York's multidisciplinary company LEIMAY, and their newly created public archive.

A special screening of Butoh master Ko Murobushi's performance of “Quick Silver” (U.S. Premiere) at the 2007 New York Butoh Festival will be followed by a series of screenings of works by LEIMAY’s Artistic Co-Directors Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya. LEIMAY’s Archive Coordinator Brandon Perdomo and Ximena Garnica will talk about the archive and the history of the company.

Tanya Calamoneri will talk via zoom about her book Butoh America: Butoh Dance in the United States and Mexico from 1970 to the early 2000s (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies, 2022). Calamoneri will touch on her chapter Gen X Butoh and the LEIMAY archive. A LUDUS movement class taught by LEIMAY Ensemble member Andrea Jones, Masanori Asahara, and Ximena Garnica will complete the day (see detailed information below.)

Screenings:

• 12:00 noon: Quicksilver, by Ko Murobushi (U.S.Premiere), 45 min.
• 1:00 pm: Correspondences View #2. 20 min., by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya
• 1:30 pm: A Meal: Dream Portraits. 27 min., by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya
• 2:00 pm: Borders. 1:30 min., by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya

LEIMAY Archive Presentation + Book Talk

• 4:30 pm: Tanya Calamoneri via Zoom Butoh America: Butoh Dance in the United States and Mexico

WORKSHOP

• 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: LUDUS (water) Movement Master Class: A two-hour class focused on the LUDUS practice as it's relation to water.

SCREENINGS OVERVIEW

LEIMAY Archive: Selected Screenings

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12:00 noon

Quicksilver (U.S.Premiere), 45 min.

by Ko Murobushi at the NY Butoh Festival 2007, presented by LEIMAY

“In Quicksilver, Ko Murobushi takes his body to the limit to enter a universe of pain and darkness. His extraordinarily muscular body, painted entirely in silver, changes and transforms, combining images of a man who moves at the extreme limit between life and death. Quicksilver subtracts any notion of decorative movement and plunges, both the performer and the spectator, into a timeless world of catharsis. Ko Murobushi presented Quicksilver for the first time in November 2005 as a work in progress at the Kazuo Ohno Festival at BankART NYK. The piece premiered at Die Pratze in Azabu, Tokyo.

1:00 PM

Correspondences View #2. 20 min.

by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya, performed by the LEIMAY Ensemble

at Astor Place Plaza, New York City 2020

An art film capturing the NYC public premiere of Correspondences, shot at Astor Place, 2020. This project was initiated at Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center, where the three chambers of the installation were built. The work is dedicated to the presentation in urban plazas and parks. The installation performance has been shown in Manhattan at Astor Place (in partnership with HERE Arts Center), in Queens at Socrates Sculpture Park, and in upstate New York at Hurleyville Art Center. The work will continue and expand the work in collaboration with leading cultural and academic institutions, most recently at MIT.

1:30 PM Screening

A Meal: Dream Portraits. 27 min.

by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya, performed by the LEIMAY Ensemble

presented by All Arts, 2023

Multimedia artist duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya share a personal meditation on food through a visual poem of enigmatic landscapes, ambiguous bodies and mythical characters.

2:00 PM Screening

Borders. 1:30 min.

by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya, performed by the LEIMAY Ensemble

World Premiere at BAM, 2016.

This recording of the world premiere of Borders at BAM features the LEIMAY Ensemble with musical composition by Joe Diebes. “Sound, light, voice, and movement orbit, collide, fuse, and repel to create a hauntingly evocative landscape of bodies turned inside out. A sequel piece to the ensemble’s acclaimed Becoming-corpus, borders sets stillness against high physicality, and visceral vocalizations against sonic harmonies. Forms dissolve through walls of light and mutable axes of space. Shige Moriya and Ximena Garnica transform the stage into a hanging valley of shadows and swelling interferences, enveloping the audience in a universe at the thresholds of itself.”

LEIMAY Archive Presentation + Book Talk

4:30 PM: LEIMAY Archive Coordinator Brandon Perdomo and LEIMAY’s Artistic Director Ximena Garnica will talk about the state and the current plan-s of the archive.

Tanya Calamoneri will join via Zoom to introduce her book Butoh America: Butoh Dance in the United States and Mexico from 1970 to the early 2000s [Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies] [2022] and her chapter Chapter: Gen X Butoh, which features the work of multidisciplinary artist duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya and uses materials from the LEIMAY archive.

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: MOVEMENT MASTER CLASS

LUDUS (water) Master Class: A two-hour class focused on the LUDUS practice as it's relation to water. LUDUS is based on ideas and principles developed by Ximena Garnica over nearly two decades during her studies of Butoh, Noguchi Taiso, and Experimental theater--and it has been further developed by core Ensemble members over the years. The class explores methods for conditioning the body and developing a sensitivity to the ‘in-between space.’ LEIMAY LUDUS aims to stimulate imagination, enhance creativity, and challenge Euro-centric dance and performance training frameworks by expanding notions of body, space, and time.