PAUL MICHAEL HENRY
BUTOH WORKSHOP
SATURDAY 23RD 1 - 4 PM.
Butoh is an immersive dance form originating in Japan and dubbed the ‘Dance of Darkness’. This
class uses gravity-awareness exercises to dissolve tension and rich imagery to waken the
Imagination-body, unlocking the unique dance within each of us.
Everyone is welcome, with no experience needed. These workshops are suitable for performers
and anyone interested in expanding their notion of what a human body can be. We are not
performing for each other so much as dropping our daily body habits to uncover the Imagination
hidden beneath.
During the workshop we use physical awareness exercises drawn from Noguchi Gymnastics and
Body Weather. These help us to remove tension, move with less effort and make friends with
gravity. Moving meditation exercises aim to increase our physical honesty and ability to listen to
body energies. Then through Image work and improvisation we experience how surrendering to
images frees our bodies into new movement.
Paul Michael Henry has studied Butoh dance and Noguchi Gymnastics with teachers including
Yoshito Ohno, Yukio Waguri, Kayo Mikami, Seisaku & Yuri, Tadashi Endo, Yumiko Yoshioka, Imre
Thormann, Yuko Kaseki and Gyohei Zaitsu, and Body Weather with Frank Van de Ven. He is also
co-director of Moving Bodies Festival, a touring festival based around Butoh dance. These
workshops are his synthesis of these experiences and his own research.
Paul Michael Henry is a Scottish performance artist, dancer and musician. His work is informed by
Butoh dance, punk rock and ritual, and is performed all over the world. Recent projects include
SHRIMP DANCE (a multimedia dance work exploring the links between anti-depressants,
ecological crisis and late capitalism), a tour of the United States with Laughter at Being Crushed,
touring as a Butoh dancer in France and Japan, the premiere of new performance Mammy at CCA
Glasgow, and a new film exploring high rates of male suicide in Scotland and globally called
SMITE ME NOW. He is currently working towards a PhD at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,
researching techniques for shifting our sense of self from Individual-Consumer to Interdependent-
Ecological.
Michael’s themes are political, social & spiritual, dealing with love, neglect of the body, destruction
of the environment and atrophy of the soul in consumerist society. www.paulmichaelhenry.com
He is also Artistic Director and creator of UNFIX, an evolving and experimental festival platforming
ecologically committed performance, dance, music, film and discussion. UNFIX is intended as a
contribution to the waking up of the human species to our predicament in an age of climate
change, massive inequality and crazy consumerism. It is based in Glasgow and is ongoing there
and in New York City and Tokyo. www.unfixfestival.com
Paul Michael Henry’s work has been reviewed in the following terms:
“The body cannot lie, and Henry attacks the challenge of moving with uncompromising
intention with rigour.”