This February 6-8, 2026, Butoh practitioners across Asia convene in Manila for the Asia Butoh Gathering 2026 (AGB 2026). Attendees from Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines will gather for the three-day festival consisting of performances, workshops, film screenings, roundtable conversations, and lecture-presentations.
Butoh is an avant-garde dance from originating in Japan during the postwar era. Founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, Butoh is characterized by the grotesque, contorted yet precise movements of the dancers usually in white face and body paint. This artform, straddling the line between dance and theater, has taken a foothold on the rest of the world with Sasa Cabalquinto pioneering Butoh in the Philippines. Cabalquinto, the founder of Kapwa Movement, serves as Festival Director and Program Curator of the Asia Butoh Gathering.
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| Sasa Cabalquinto |
Rooted in cultural exchange and dialogue, the Asia Butoh Gathering honors the powerful legacy of Japanese Butoh while opening space for regional voices shaped by distinct social, political, and ecological contexts. The festival creates an environment where artists meet across borders to share embodied practices, engage in critical conversations, and explore how Butoh continues to transform across Asia today.
Through performances exploring themes of ecology, ancestry, land, and gender; roundtable discussions on ethics, lineage, and decoloniality; and lecture-presentations tracing Butoh’s historical and contemporary intersections, ABG 2026 holds space for both critical discourse and embodied practice, inviting artists and audiences alike into processes of reflection, exchange, and movement.
The 2026 edition of the Asia Butoh Gathering coincides with the 70th anniversary of Japan–Philippines diplomatic relations, marking a significant moment for cultural collaboration. The festival honors historical ties while fostering new solidarities across Asia, embodying the spirit of kapwa—the shared self and interconnectedness—as an ethical ground for creating, remembering, and imagining together.
Moving Roots, Moving Cultures
Under the banner Moving Roots, Moving Cultures, the festival recognizes Butoh not only as a form born in Japan but as a living, evolving ecology of practices across Asia. Bound by different lands and cultural histories, participating artists reflect on lineage, transmission, and transformation, honoring Butoh’s origins while celebrating how it has rooted, grown, and continues to move through diverse communities.
Curatorial Frame: Butoh in the Time of Ecological Crisis
ABG 2026 unfolds within the curatorial frame Butoh in the Time of Ecological Crisis, responding to a world shaped by environmental collapse and renewal. At the center of the festival is the performance program Falling Earth, Moving Sky, a reflection on the earth as home—undergoing cycles of descent and regeneration.
The program begins with Falling Earth, evoking gestures of extinction, grief, and collapse, and culminates in Moving Sky, where bodies search for new forms of flight, kinship, and repair. Suspended at the heart of the stage is the image of a floating, uprooted tree—both wounded and alive—serving as a shared symbolic space that holds the tension between loss and persistence, decay and resilience.
Butoh practitioners participating at the Asia Butoh Gathering include Tenko Ima, Yuko Kawamoto, Kae Ishimoto from Japan, Sineenadh Ketprapai from Thailand, Vinci Mok from Hong Kong, Xue from Singapore, Lee Swee Keong from Malaysia, Ramoo Hong from South Korea, Hu Chia from Taiwan, Ari Rudenko and Sofyan Joyo Utomo from Indonesia, and Sasa Cabalquinto from the Philippines.
Festival Highlights
February 6, 2026
Opening Program: Moving Roots, Moving Cultures
1:00–5:00 PM Roundtable Conversations on Butoh in Asia
WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | Hybrid | FREE
Speakers from Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines
Moderator: Katrina Stuart Santiago
Opening Keynote: Anton Juan
7:00–9:30 PM Butoh Workshop by Yuko Kawamoto
WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | On-site | FREE (limited slots)
February 7, 2026
Film Screening and Documenting Archives: Japanese Butoh to Asia
1:00-2:30 PM The Utter Darkness Version of Princess Kaguya
3:00- 3:40 PM History of Butoh in Japan and Tatsumi Hijikata Archives
3:45-4:25 PM Lecture Presentation: Byakko Sha's Southeast Asian Tour
4:30-5:00 PM Asia Butoh Tree Project
WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | On-site | FREE
Lecture-presentations by Kae Ishimoto, Tenko Ima, and Yuko Kawamoto
Moderator: Rina Corpus
7:00–9:00 PM Butoh Fu Online Lecture by Kae Ishimoto
WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati Hybrid | FREE
February 8, 2026
6:00–10:00 PM Closing Program: Falling Earth, Moving Sky
Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC | On-site | Ticketed
Moderator: Jaya Jacobo
Ticketing Information
Early Bird (until Jan 31, 2026): ₱800
General Admission: ₱1,000
Student / PWD: ₱800
Student / PWD: ₱600 (with Early Bird)
Register and purchase tickets here: https://forms.gle/maRWpuuWsfk9ZvRs5
Asia Butoh Gathering 2026 is presented by Kapwa Movement and the Japan Foundation, Manila.
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