16.10. Butoh and Queerness by Quentin Chaveriat

Workshop: Butoh and Queerness: Gender Performances in the Darkness

Facilitator: Quentin Chaveriat

Date: Friday 16th October

Time: 11:00 am – 13:00 pm

How can butoh transform the way we experience and perform gender? How can the body become a space where masculinity, femininity and androgyny dissolve, collide or coexist?

This workshop draws from Quentin Chaveriat’s practice as a Belgian butoh performer, teacher and drag artist based in Brussels. He began studying with Seiji Tanaka in Nara in 2015 and received his teaching method in 2017. Since 2018, he has been teaching butoh, combining Tanaka’s approach with influences from contemporary dance, physical theatre, drag and Body Weather. He also performs as Memento, a drag-butoh creature, and has created performances presented internationally, including Leonora, created for the Queer Butoh Festival in New York.

Beginning with basic exercises from Seiji Tanaka’s legacy, the workshop explores gender as physical and performative material. It draws on gender transformations found in the work of butoh artists such as Kazuo Ohno and Akaji Maro, while investigating androgyny, shifting identities and the possibility of embodying a gender beyond fixed categories.

Quentin will introduce his concept of drag-butoh, sharing exercises from his research, including The Dead Diva’s Last Performance and his exploration of embodying Leonora Carrington’s spirit through a male body.

The workshop will also explore how butoh can enter cabaret: short-form performance, musicality, striptease, glamour and theatricality.

Belgian actor, performer and butoh teacher based in Brussels, Quentin Chaveriat began studying with Seiji Tanaka in Nara in 2015. His practice has also been shaped by encounters with many different teachers. Since 2016, he has created performances with Sombre Compagnie, presented internationally in Europe, Japan, Chile, Vietnam and the USA. He teaches butoh in Belgium and internationally, while also performing in queer and drag cabarets as Memento, a drag-butoh creature.

He also works as a performer with renowned dance companies such as Mossoux-Bonté and t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e., and is currently developing a new creation with bodybuilders.

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