LoKo Arts at SUNY Potsdam to Present Yokko's 'Butoh Medea'

Visiting Performing Artist Yokko Presents 'Butoh Medea,' Blending Japanese Dance Form with Greek Tragedy, at SUNY Potsdam on March 2

Potsdam, NY (02/21/2024) — LoKo Arts at SUNY Potsdam will welcome visiting performing artist Yokko as part of its spring line-up, with an upcoming performance of the award-winning show "Butoh Medea."

"Butoh Medea" will make a stop at SUNY Potsdam's Performing Arts Center on Saturday, March 2, for an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre. This event is free and open to the community.

Inspired by the Greek myth and Euripides' great tragedy, and using the Japanese Butoh dance form, Yokko will bring the tortured spirit of Medea to life in this unique show. This fusion of Eastern dance and Western drama invites the audience inside Medea's dark and desperate struggle. Trapped in the underworld, she is forever cursed to relive her tragic journey through love, hate and ultimate loss.

"Butoh is an art form that few people ever get the chance to experience. To say it is life-changing and awe-inspiring is an understatement. This is a performance that should not be passed up," said Kerri Canedy, visiting assistant professor of theatre and dance at SUNY Potsdam.

"Butoh Medea" was first premiered at United Solo 2014 and received four awards, including Best One-Woman Show. Since then, the show has toured across the USA and Europe (Poland, Scotland, Italy, Turkey, Germany and the Czech Republic), garnering award nominations for Asian Arts Award (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015) and Best Dance and Physical Theatre (Hollywood Fringe Festival 2018).

About the performers:

Yokko is an actor and interdisciplinary artist from Japan. She has acted in, devised and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, having won several awards, including for "Butoh Medea." Her other theatre credits include "Hide Your Fires: Butoh Lady Macbeth" (United Solo 2017, Pan Asian Rep's NU WORKS Festival 2017, Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019), "Lone Wolf Tribe's Body Concert" (Labapalooza! 2018 at St. Ann's Warehouse), "BALDY" (CRS, United Solo 2013, HFF 2013, Fringe NYC 2012) and "FACET" (Irondale Center, Wave Rising Series, HFF 2013). Her choreographed and directed ensemble work "SHINKA" won awards for Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play and Outstanding Choreography and Movement at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards (2019). Yokko has also acted in several award-winning films, such as "Cloud-Kumo" (2016) and "planet b234" (2019). Yokko's Butoh work has been seen in several music and arts videos, including "Ready To Let Go (Cage The Elephant" (2019) and "The Eight Dissolutions" (2022) at Morris Museum and presented on the ZAZ Corner's In Between Programming on a digital billboard in Times Square. Yokko has been offering her Butoh and movement workshops across the U.S. and Europe since 2014, and serving as an adjunct faculty member at several universities and training programs. Yokko is the recipient of the G. William Hume Fellowship in Performing Arts (2023), and is the producing artistic director of the New York City-based Butoh theatre group Ren Gyo Soh and of the Unfix NYC Festival, working to create an awareness of ecology through the arts.

Brooklyn-based Lighting Director Derek Van Heel's designs have been seen in venues large and small -- from Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the kinds of basements, bars, churches and teeny-tiny rooms where New York theater is often forged. He is especially drawn to new works, and has contributed to dozens of premieres and workshops. Notable collaborations include New York City Opera, Madison Opera, Doug Varone and Dancers, Finger Lakes Opera, Syracuse Opera, Palm Beach Opera, the Actor's Studio Drama School, Scandinavian American Theatre, Origin Theatre and The Civilians.

About LoKo Arts:

Thanks to the spirit and generosity of the festival's benefactors, Kathy (Kofoed) Lougheed '54 and her husband, the late Donald Lougheed (Hon. '54), SUNY Potsdam celebrates the campus culture of creativity and reinforces how important the arts are to learning environments for every discipline, as well as a lifetime of creativity. The LoKo Arts Festival was founded in 2012 with the purpose of infusing energy and opportunity into the visual and performing arts of the SUNY Potsdam campus and community. This year's LoKo Festival will be held from May 1 to 5, 2024. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.

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