Facilitator: Yokko

The world is a playground.*

It is an invitation to listen to the hidden deep truths held within the body and outside of the body. We play with everything and anything exists between earth and sky—within and out, micro and macro. This is a ritual. We let go of things that no longer serve us in this moment of our lives, allowing ourselves to transform not only physically, but energetically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. This workshop contains Noguchi Taisoh, Butoh, Ritual movement, and several somatic movement practices. Everyone is welcome. No previous experience needed.

“Everything and Anything existing in this Universe- all creation in this whole universe,,, unless you concentrate with every single cell and nerve and fiber of your being... you cannot dance. we cannot even embody a bird, can we?” - Tatsumi Hijikata 

*Playing with Shinra-Bansyo / 森羅万象 (million billion of forests spreading between earth and sky, and play with Universal phenomena)

Yokko is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist, an Actor, and theatre maker from Japan, specializing in Butoh, Acting, and anything they can play with.

As the founder and Artistic Director of RenGyoSoh and Producing Artistic Director of the Unfix NYC Festival- creating an awareness of ecology through Art- Yokko passionately collaborates with other artists to synthesize diverse disciplines to create new works for global communities.

The solo work, Butoh Medea, has gained acclaim, winning “Best One-Woman Show,” “Best Choreography,” and “Best Physical Theatre” at United Solo NYC (Theatre Row, 2014-2015). It toured internationally across the USA and Europe (Edinburgh-UK, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Poland, and the Czech Republic) from 2016 to 2025. Other original works Butoh Lady Macbeth (United Solo 2017, Hollywood Fringe 2019) and ShiraHimeRyu (Amsterdam Butoh Festival 2024).

Yokko’s choreographed and directed ensemble work, SHINKA, earned “Outstanding Premier Production of a Play” and “Outstanding Choreography and Movement” at the 2019 New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Other Butoh Dance credits include: Body Concert (Lone Wolf Tribe, Labapalooza! 2018 at St. Ann's Warehouse), Hijikata Tatsumi's Last Words (Dance Medium, Noguchi Room, Hijikata Archive, Keio University, Tokyo, 2018), ManJuShaGe: A Flower on the Earth, A Flower in the Sky (Dance Medium, Noguchi Room, Hijikata Archive, Keio University, Tokyo, 2017), FACET with Jordan Rosin(The Ume Group, Irondale Center, White Wave, Hollywood Fringe 2013). 

Yokko has appeared in music videos, including Cage The Elephant’s Ready to Let Go (2019), collaborated with a fiber artist Erik Bergrin’s The 8 Dissolutions (Morris Museum/Times Square Billboard, 2022) and performed in Spirits Body (House of Yes, 2023). Yokko is co-author of an article,Why Butoh Theatre (Routledge, 2020) and a recipient of the G. William Hume Fellowship in Performing Arts (2023). Motto: Magic & Transformation!