Butoh Mutations Workshop Series 2026

Butoh Mutations London Series 2026

Schedule:

• Butoh Mutations workshop 1: 8 February 11am – 6.00 pm
• Butoh Mutations workshop 2: 15 March 10.30am – 5.30 pm workshop
• Off-site Residential Retreat: 17 – 25 April Residential in Sapmí, Sweden (see butoh.co.uk/aurora-butoh-retreat)
• Butoh Mutations workshop 3: 5 July 10.30 am - 5.30 pm
• Butoh Mutations workshop 4: 3-4 October 10am - 5 pm
• Butoh Mutations workshop 5: 13 December 10.30 am - 5.30 pm

The Business of Human Rehabilitation & Dance of Ecstatic Darkness

“I am a body shop; my profession is the business of human rehabilitation, which goes today by the name of dancer.”
— Tatsumi Hijikata

This is a series of workshops and dance gatherings exploring dance as a practice of rehabilitating collective consciousness through myth, ritual, and embodied imagination.
The series takes place at Colet House, London, with an optional Arctic residential retreat in April 2026, hosted by Northern Sustainable Futures in Sweden.
More information: butoh.co.uk

What is Butoh, and why is it relevant today?

Born in postwar Japan, Butoh emerged as a dance of revolt — responding to the devastation of war, the trauma of nuclear catastrophe, and the rapid spread of American consumer culture. Often described as a Rebellion of the Body, Butoh was shaped by influences from Surrealism, literature, painting, and German Expressionist dance.

For its founder, Tatsumi Hijikata, Butoh was a form of rehabilitation. He drew inspiration from the “dirty work” of garages and body shops, from manual labour, street life, and bodies that could not — or would not — move to the tempo of Japan’s so-called economic miracle.

To rehabilitate means to make fit or suitable. But the question remains:
What embodied practices make us fit for the ecological, political, and emotional conditions of our time?

Also known as the Dance of Darkness, Butoh invites us to listen deeply — to sensation, to slowness, to what moves beneath conscious intention. Through embodied listening, we encounter elemental forces, ancestral memory, and the imaginal realm already alive in the tissues of the body. The dance is not imposed; it is already happening, coursing through breath, blood, and cellular life.

This London series unfolds across the year, with each workshop building on the last, while also remaining open to those who wish to attend individual sessions. For participants seeking deeper immersion, this year, participants are invited to deepen this work as a part of a community of embodied explorers, through an intensive residential retreat in Sápmi (Swedish Arctic lands), exploring themes of endings, collapse, and renewal in close relation to landscape.

About the facilitator

The Butoh Mutations project and current London series are guided by Dominique Savitri Bonarjee, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator.

A long-term dance practitioner and somatic researcher, Savitri’s approach is one of mutation — further unraveling and evolving the legacy of postwar Japanese Butoh dance by seeking its contemporary and cosmic resonances. Her work draws on ancient eco-somatic and spiritual arts of living, particularly within Daoist, Sufi, and Tantric traditions.

She is the author of Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer (Routledge, 2024), a wide-ranging gathering of voices from Japan’s revolutionary postwar generation of Butoh artists. Her doctoral research in contemporary art, Space of the Nameless, develops an embodied methodology for making art beyond personal will or self-intention.

Savitri’s artistic practice spans visual art, dance, sound composition, instrument-making, computational technologies, exploring the politics of energy, tapestries of vibration, and spirituality as the perpetual motion of cosmic breath.

Links
butoh.co.uk
spaceofthenameless.art
Instagram: @butoh_mutations

About Colet House

Colet House is home to The Study Society for Nonduality, a long-established community dedicated to syncretic spiritual research. Founded by mystic philosopher P.D. Ouspensky, author of The Fourth Way, Colet House has a long history of inquiry into consciousness, embodiment, and inner work.

It is also the London home of the Butoh Mutations project, which forms part of Colet House’s contemporary offering of spiritual study and embodied research.

What to expect

Participants can expect a mix of guided practice, creative exploration, and ritual dance, including:

• Warm-ups blending Japanese release techniques, energy work, and dance and movement research.
• Introductions to animist practices, spiritual inquiry, and sensorial research prompts
• Butoh techniques focused on inner landscape and micro-movement, cultivated through ekāgratā (one-pointed attention)
• Creative movement through imagery and live choreography that channels elemental forces
• Improvisation and ritual dances in solo, paired, and group forms
• Developing an attitude of self-remembering rather than spectating, through the role of the loving witness, supporting one another’s processes and transformations

No prior dance experience is required — all levels are welcome.