NW BUTOh Festival 2026

Performers - 

 1. Minja Mertanen
2. Didi (Freddi) Wyss
3. Arlo King
4. Vanessa Skantze 

Performers - 

1. Olga Kravtsova
2. Monel Chang
3. Bowels of the Earth by Ivân Espinosa & Co
4. Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh

Performers -  

1. Amapola
2. Ash Pillar
3. Salty Xi Jie Ng
4. Julie Becton Gillum 

Minja Mertanen (Finland)
Minja Mertanen (1981) is a helsinki based dancer and a live artist. She has graduated as a dance teacher, dance- and movement therapist, a yoga instructor and Somatic Movement Therapist. She has been working with Butoh over 20 years performing and teaching in 20 countries. She is the founder of Be(a)ware Butoh Festival at Helsinki and co-director of Why Butoh Festival in Turku. 

Vanessa Skantze (Seattle)
Vanessa became a student of Jinen Butoh founder Atsushi Takenouchi in 2003. She has trained extensively with Mari Osanai; and drawn deep from workshops with Natsu Nakajima, Seisaku, and Yuko Kaseki. She has created numerous solo and group Butoh works and has taught regularly for 20 years. 

Joan Laage/Kogut Butoh (Seattle)
Embodying the Spirt: the body finds its way
This workshop explores innovative ways to create personal movement, emphasizing the space and stillness between movements within our bodies, and the process of erasing and re-creating the body through guided improvisation with nature imagery. The special focus for this workshop is working with the haunting and evocative paintings of Polish artist Beksinski, whose body of work greatly inspired Joan while collaborating with the much-respected Warsaw-based butoh artist Sylwia Hanff. Joan’s butoh practice and art are influenced by the Ohnos and Yoko Ashikawa in Tokyo, Atsushi Takenouchi JINEN Butoh in Europe and Joan’s background as a Tai Chi practitioner and professional gardener. 

Julie Becton Gillum (Asheville, NC)
The theme of this workshop, “From Rascal to Reverent,” is based on a quote by Skins, a student who described their experience in the 2025 workshop at Earthdance. Dancers will be guided to use aspects of butoh dance to explore ideas, create movements, and embody different characters. Our material is the essence of our bodies: water, air, bone, muscle, and skin—leading us into form and texture through a flow of sensations in space, time, and dynamics. The training will include exercises from the Noguchi Taiso water body practice, along with specific techniques, images, and forms to foster coordination, freedom and range of movement. Our goal as dancers is to break free from the typical, cliched, and traditional—to push beyond the conventions that have kept us bound since losing our childhood inhibitions. Movement lessons will encourage playfulness with our inner rascal and discovery of what we revere in ourselves and the universe. 

FESTIVAL PASS

We have a limited number of festival passes available for purchase now. 

Full Pass - $165.50 - ALL performances and Workshops Included. (15% discount)

Just Performances (all three Performances) - $59.50

Just Workshops (All four workshops) - $116.00

NOTE - Prices above include ticket fees.

For schedule of performances and workshops please scroll down.