MAN WOMAN To Premiere At Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre For The Humanities At Oxford University

Vangeline will bring MAN WOMAN, a new duet set to premiere in New York City in Spring 2026, to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at Oxford University on September 5, 2026 at 19:00. 

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara (Sankai Juku) and Vangeline.

Ichihara and Vangeline have developed MAN WOMAN during New York residencies at the New York Butoh Institute, Chelsea Factory, Monira Foundation, and Mercury Store in 2024.

Machine Dazzle has created original costumes for this 60-minute piece and Ray Barragan Sweeten has composed the music.

MAN WOMAN is a 60-minute interdisciplinary Butoh duet about the search for intimacy and the complexities of human connection. Choreographed and performed by acclaimed Butoh artists Akihito Ichihara (Japan) and Vangeline (U.S.), the work draws inspiration from the seminal 1960 photo book Man and Woman by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, which featured Tatsumi Hijikata-the founder of Butoh-and his wife, Motofuji.

MAN WOMAN uses these black-and-white photographs-saturated with ink and emotion-as both structure and departure point. Rather than reproducing the past, the dancers pass through a sequence of iconic poses from the book without physical contact, generating dynamic tension through negative space. Through a sequence of intimate, ceremonial vignettes, the dancers orbit one another-shedding layers and enacting rituals. The choreography becomes a meditation on longing, desire, and connection-culminating in a single, final touch. The piece invites audiences into a visually rich, emotionally resonant space-one that transcends language and cultural boundaries.

In homage to the legacy of Butoh and its disruptive origins, this work resists conventional binaries-male/female, East/West. Ichihara brings the precision and gravitas of Sankai Juku's "classical" Butoh lineage, while Vangeline, informed by jazz, burlesque, and two decades of Butoh pedagogy and performance, brings contemporary nuance. Their collaboration is a rare cross-cultural encounter between two master practitioners at the height of their artistic maturity.

Central to the aesthetic of MAN WOMAN are the fantastical costumes by Machine Dazzle, a visionary queer artist whose work pushes the boundaries between performance, sculpture, and fashion. Machine's concept-"Butoh Maximalism"-challenges minimalist assumptions by enveloping the dancers in lush, campy, baroque textures. Imagine creatures from an otherworldly Versailles stumbling through a forest-half human, half mythical. As the piece progresses, layers of costume are gradually removed, revealing the iconic Butoh white underneath. This symbolic unveiling strips away artifice to reveal essence, mirroring the performers' emotional exposure.

The recorded score by Ray Barragan-Sweeten bridges centuries and sensibilities. Built from aleatoric compositions and re-sampled classical works (such as a reversed fragment of Bach), and drawing from the legacies of Pauline Oliveros and Elaine Summers, the music guides the dancers' internal states, emphasizing timbre over melody and creating a soundscape that moves between stillness and intensity.

MAN WOMAN not only redefines Butoh for the 21st century-it also reframes it. In a form historically dominated by Japanese male artists, this piece foregrounds collaboration, gender equity, and queer aesthetics, while honoring Butoh's roots in resistance and reinvention. It is also a challenge to ageism: choreographed and performed by artists in their 50s, it asserts that the peak of creative power does not reside in youth but in mastery, experience, and trust.

MAN WOMAN is a hybrid and visionary encounter. At its heart lies the question: how do we hold space for one another across distance, difference, and time? And in the tension of that space-across cultures, across disciplines, across bodies-we begin to find the answer.

Ichihara and Vangeline each come from different Butoh backgrounds; Ichihara from Sankai Juku, or what could be considered "classical" Butoh, while Vangeline's 20 years of Butoh expertise was informed by her prior experience as a jazz and burlesque dancer. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: the creation of something new and original choreographically, challenging aesthetic expectations and carrying Butoh into the 21st century.

Akihito Ichihara ("Ichi") and Vangeline first met at the Sankai Juku summer camp in 2016 in Japan, and have long admired each other's work. They decided to embark on a collaboration in October of 2023, only knowing that they wanted to work on a duet. In a stroke of inspiration, Vangeline asked Ichi's thoughts on utilizing signature costumes created by her friend and collaborator of decades, the iconic queer artist Machine Dazzle. Ichi responded with unbridled enthusiasm, and thus, MAN WOMAN was born.

Machine Dazzle and Vangeline became friends as performers in the '90s at nightclubs in New York City. Having immense trust in Machine's talent, skills, and vision, the dancers gave Machine carte blanche to create a costume for each of them, with only the directive that it must be ornate and flamboyant, with elements removed layer by layer until only Butoh white remained.

Machine's costumes turn the dancers into sculptures, creating entirely new shapes that necessarily inform their movements. Vangeline and Ichi respond not only to one another's choreographic vocabulary but also to the wearable art that adorns them. In turn, Machine modifies the costumes to facilitate the emergent dramaturgy of the piece.

Vangeline and Ray Sweeten build on a 20-year history of creative collaboration; Ray has composed Vangeline's most important works, including The Slowest Wave. Ray Sweeten's composition for MAN WOMAN spans from classical to electronic music and has been scored to have the flexibility to be performed by a string ensemble or performed to recorded music. Ray's work builds on the legacy of American pioneers Pauline Oliveros and Elaine Summers, especially with regard to Oliveros' writings on modes of attention and awareness.

All four artists are seasoned professionals who see this collaboration as an exploration, expanding their own artistry as they influence one another. The artists involved in MAN WOMAN are masterful, successful professionals embarking on this collaboration to elevate their craft, push artistic boundaries, create a legacy, and help shape the future of Butoh.