Award-winning Butoh artist Vangeline’s latest venture: Butoh musings with Vangeline, a podcast, is now available to stream on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Launched on March 25, 2024, the series features Vangeline’s reflections on Butoh as a practitioner and teacher, and includes insights on subjects ranging from: the art of listening to sensitivity and sensuality, all through the lens of Butoh.

In the latest episode, Vangeline is joined by Danish actresses Marie Bach Hansen and Christine Albeck Børge. Recorded soon after a recent Butoh workshop led by Vangeline in Florence, Italy, the three artists discuss the impact of the experience on their work as artists and the revelations working with Butoh has led them to. Tune in to the episodes 1-3 wherever podcasts are available to gain a deeper understanding of the art form and Vangeline’s practice: https://open.spotify.com/show/3EYEj5rmWYwDCVxVFvr9T3?si=826cfc38f4ac4333

“What really really struck me deeply is the way you communicate your relationship to Butoh, both now and also on the podcast…It comes across as more than an art form, it’s like you communicate this life wisdom transformed into movement. ”
– Christine Albeck Børge, Episode 3

Christine Albeck Børge was born on 12 August 1974 in Værløse, Denmark. She is a celebrated actress and director, known for A BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Netflix-2023), CRY WOLF (2020), LOVE AND OTHER CATASTROPHES (2016), DEN ANDEN VERDEN (2016), MANDEN BAG DOREN (2003), and many other prominent projects. She has been married to Lars Ranthe since 1998.

Marie Bach Hansen is one of Denmark’s most prominent actors. She was trained at The Danish National School of Performing Arts. She had her stage debut in 2010 at Mungo Park Theatre, where she joined the ensemble for 4 years. Since she has had roles in numerous stage plays. Marie’s breakout role came as part of the lead ensemble in the award-winning Danish television series THE LEGACY, following which she performed in series like THE TEAM and WHITE SANDS.

Most recently Marie was highly praised for her leading performances in the feature film THE BEREAVED (2022), in the feature film SUPERPOSITION (2023) and in the TV Series CHORUS GIRLS (2023).
In 2023 Marie received an Best Actor Award at Svend Prisen for her role in CHORUS GIRLS.

Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Japanese Butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese butoh while carrying it into the twenty-first century.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute is dedicated to advancing Butoh in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving.

The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute reaches out to the New York and international community by offering public Butoh classes, workshops, and performances through collaborations with international and national Butoh artists. Our socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism; our work addresses issues of gender inequality and social justice. Our yearly New York Butoh Institute Festival elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and our festival Queer Butoh gives a voice to LGBTQIA+ butoh artists.

Our award-winning, 18-year running program, The Dream a Dream Project, brings Butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. “The Dream a Dream Project” contributes to the rehabilitation of New York’s incarcerated population. Overall, our programs promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of butoh.

Vangeline firmly believes that Butoh can be an instrument of personal and collective transformation in the 21st century. This transformation comes from holding a mirror to each other and integrating our many facets–the beautiful and the ugly; and from reintegrating the forgotten of our society into our midst.

Vangeline’s choreographed works have been performed in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance Dance in Process residency and the 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award winner. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, 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 heralded in publications such as the New York Times (“captivating”) and Los Angeles Times(“moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist”) to name a few. Film projects include a starring role alongside actors James Franco and Winona Ryder in the feature film by director Jay Anania, ‘The Letter” (2012-Lionsgate).

In recent years, she has been commissioned by triple Grammy Award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus). She is the author of the critically-acclaimed book: Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which explores the intersection of Butoh and neuroscience. She pioneered the first neuroscientific study of Butoh (“The Slowest Wave”). She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).

https://www.vangeline.com

VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com

Vangeline Theater programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. www.vangeline.com

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