Vangeline Theater to Launch Online Butoh Research Platform With Multilingual Essays

Vangeline Theater, home of New York Butoh Institute, has launched a new online platform, WRITINGS-From History to Theory, that brings together essays, lectures, reflections, and research by Vangeline exploring Butoh through the lenses of dance, embodiment, history, pedagogy, feminism, the nervous system, and contemporary culture. To read the inaugural essay by Vangeline, please visit https://www.vangeline.com/writings.

These writings emerge from more than three decades of artistic practice, choreography, teaching, and ongoing dialogue with Butoh communities around the world.

The first publication in this series, Butoh, Sensitivity, Sensuality, and the Nervous System, is accompanied by a lecture of the same title. Drawing from both artistic practice and contemporary understandings of the nervous system, Vangeline proposes a new framework for understanding Butoh through bodily sensitivity, perception, and regulation. The essay also reexamines the historical contributions of women to the development of the art form and explores receptivity as both a technical skill and an aesthetic principle within Butoh.

These writings are available in English, Spanish, and French.

The Spanish version of the essay, together with the lecture featuring Spanish subtitles (both translated by Adriana Elizondo), will be featured at KRUDO 2026-Second Experimental Butoh Dance Encounter, held in Bogotá, Colombia, from June 10-13, 2026.

"From the beginning, it felt important that this project be multilingual," says Vangeline. "Much of the scholarship and theoretical writing surrounding Butoh circulates primarily in English and Japanese. Yet today, Butoh is a global art form, practiced and continuously reimagined by vibrant communities across Latin America, Europe, North America, Asia, and beyond. It is my hope that this new publishing platform will help foster dialogue across borders, languages, and cultures, and strengthen the connections between the many communities that continue to keep Butoh alive, evolving, and relevant today."

Through these writings, Vangeline develops an evolving body of research connecting Butoh, perception, embodiment, and contemporary culture. Ultimately, she proposes Butoh as a practice of integration, presence, and profound connection-to oneself, to others, and to the larger living systems of which we are a part.

Vangeline is a New York-based teacher, choreographer, and dancer specializing in Japanese Butoh. As the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute, she is widely recognized for her rigorous, research-driven approach to Butoh and for expanding the form's relevance in the 21st century. Her work actively champions diversity and inclusion within the field, creating space for historically underrepresented voices. She carries forward the legacy of Butoh while infusing it with contemporary relevance-through activism, research, and performance.

Through her all-female dance company, Vangeline creates socially engaged, innovative choreographic works that unite Butoh with activism. She is the founder of both the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which uplifts the work of women in Butoh, and Queer Butoh, a festival centering LGBTQ+ voices within the form. She is also the visionary behind The Dream a Dream Project, an award-winning program now in its 18th year that brings Butoh to incarcerated individuals in correctional facilities across New York State.

At the heart of Vangeline's philosophy is the belief that Butoh can be a tool for both personal and collective transformation. Her work reflects a deep commitment to integrating the many dimensions of the human experience-beauty and darkness alike-and reintegrating society's marginalized voices.

Vangeline's choreography has been presented internationally in Chile, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, Denmark, the UK, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. She is the recipient of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award for her groundbreaking project The Slowest Wave, which explores the intersection of Butoh and neuroscience. She was also a 2022-2023 Gibney Dance in Process resident artist, a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, and the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Her work has been widely acclaimed, both nationally and internationally, with critics praising its power, precision, and emotional resonance. Reviews have appeared in publications including the New York Times ("captivating") and the Los Angeles Times ("moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist"), to name just a few.

Widely regarded as an authority in her field, Vangeline has taught at Princeton University (Princeton Atelier), Cornell, NYU, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Sarah Lawrence, and Duke University.

Her work extends to film as well, including a starring role opposite James Franco and Winona Ryder in Jay Anania's feature film The Letter (Lionsgate, 2012). She has also been commissioned by Grammy Award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus).

Vangeline is the author of the critically acclaimed book Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which delves into the connection between Butoh and neuroscience. She led the first-ever scientific study measuring the effects of Butoh on the brain (The Slowest Wave). Her work has been profiled in CNN's Great Big Story ("Learning to Dance with Your Demons"), featured on the BBC's Deeply Human podcast (with host Dessa), and explored in her own podcast Butoh Musing with Vangeline.