The face we believe is ours is already a mask. The workshop begins when we know it.

Matilde

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While we dance, our body should not be a physical manifestation of the self, but a set of tissues that offer their life to embody the mystery of existence: the dance.

The work of masks is a fundamental part of butoh, for it is in the face that we hold, aesthetically, the greatest charge of identity. Our Person is built upon the mask that is our face, and from it has managed to create, through a great deal of rehearsal, a series of masks with which to communicate in society. Each of our gestures is a rehearsed mask we can use with great ease.

On the physiological level the face is a fascinating part of the body. It holds more than 7.5% of the body’s muscles, with an extreme mobility found nowhere else. Four of the main senses have their observatory in the face. Our experiences and actions furrow our face, sustained tensions that gradually transform the shape of our tissues. The face is a subtle, deep biography of a person’s life.

The mask, besides being an element through which a person can transform into something else, has in many cultures been a means of communicating with the mysterious and the divine. During this course we use our own face as a mask: allowing it to stop being our Person’s and become something else.

what we’ll work on

• The mask as inner state, not as external object
• The eyes of the dance: glass, meditation, white, empty
• Facial deformations and silhouettes
• From the subtle gesture to the grotesque gesture
• The headless warrior
• The face as biography and the ritual mask
• Facial training: stimulation, flexibility, resistance

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upcoming dates