Photo: Suncan Stone

A Cathedral space is explored by an internationally renowned dancer, based in the traditional style of Japanese Butoh, with live improvisational musicians. The group connects with the space and audience using concepts based on rhizomes, a subterranean stem system that grows shoots and roots at serendipitous intervals.

$18 / 60 minutes

Free Limited Parking

Rhizomas is;
Ryuzo Fukuhara, Movement (Japanese Butoh inspired)
Christian Moehring, Percussion
Irman Peck, Processed strings & electronics
Tracy Lisk, Processed strings and vocals
Travis Woodson, Processed strings

Photo: Suncan Stone

RHIZOMAS  Rhizomas is a performance piece conceived by Ryuzo Fukuhara and in collaboration with Philadelphia Improvisation outfit Wormhole Superette, a free improvisational quartet. Ryuzo, who comes from a tradition of Japanese Butoh, visualizes the relationship between the aural and spatial environment and his body as rhizomes, a horizontal subterranean stem system that sends out both roots and shoots from it’s nodes at serendipitous intervals. The imaginary rhizomes penetrate the space and people, becoming the connections between the bodies of the audience, and the body of the dancer. Using this concept, the musicians and Fukuhara make bridges between gaps in every object/human present in the performing field. The rhizomes, conveyed through the body of the dancer, are the conduit to understand, recognize and accept sound in the space. Ryuzo Fukuhara began to dance with two significant Butoh dancers, Semi-Maru of Sankaijuku and Min Tanaka. He obtained his Butoh technique while studying with the two masters. In 2000, Ryuzo started work as a dance/artist in Europe. During his residency in Europe, he was awarded 2nd prize for the solo dance contest in 11MASDANZA, the International Contemporary Dance Festival of Canary Islands, Spain in 2006. Ryuzo was invited as a teacher of a dance master class at directed by Ismael Ivo in La Biennale di Venezia in Italy in 2010. He is currently teaching Butoh as a faculty member in the Art Department of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia since 2013.
Wormhole Superette is a Philadelphia based improvisational unit consisting of four individuals from diverse backgrounds (post-punk, extreme metal, experimental, jazz, visual art). The finished product is unique, flexible and often extremely unpredictable. Members include: Tracy Lisk: MFA, exhibiting visual artist, curator, percussionist. Christian Moehring: BFA drummer, composer, teacher. I (Domino) Peck: electric bassist, self taught writer. Travis Woodson: composer, arranger, improviser, multi-instrumentalist.