in my renewal i reach for ekstasis:
a butoh showcase
8 pm Friday, May 30
7 pm Saturday, May31
2 pm on Sunday, June 1 (matinee)
To renew is to shed, fracture, and bloom in the absence of certainty. Ekstasis—a state of being outside oneself—emerges in the space between transformation and surrender. In this evening of solo Butoh performances, artists traverse the landscapes of body and memory, unearthing the unseen forces that shape our becoming. Each piece is a dialogue between stillness and eruption, exploring what it means to reach beyond the self in search of something ancient and fleeting.
Join us as we move through the liminal, where renewal is not an endpoint but a perpetual unfolding.
General Admission: $18
Members, Students, Seniors, Artists: $15
About Neoma Collective
Neoma is a collective of interdisciplinary artists. We are a diverse group of artists practicing in the fields of dance, photography, sound, sculpture, visual arts, and healing arts. Most came together in the search for practicum and community-based mindfulness. Neoma was formed from butoh workshops facilitated by josie j at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, CA.
About the Members
Arden Stern is a scholar, labor activist, and artist who conducts creative experiments in the unceded ancestral lands of the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash people.
josie j (divinebrick) is a self iconoclast search for the sacred primordial being. divinebrick name is a placeholder for an idea that the self is a divine phenomenon holding and care taking the grander whole. Decolonizing the self is the remembering of the soil the self is made of. The name “josie j” is the further erasure of the colonized self accepted for autonomy.
Expanding their practice from the visual arts, in 2010 josie j began studies in dance with Koichi and Hiroko Tamano. The Tamano’s are Berkeley based Butoh Masters, once students of Tatsumi Hijikata.
While in San Francisco working with the Tamanos josie j worked with performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, who works in a Psycho Magic style.
josie j has also studied movement with Oguri In Venice, Ca. Oguri being a greatly influential dancer in josie j’s style.
Gung Fu and Tai Chi practice is also influential in josie j’s corporeal explorations. Studying these Chinese ancient medicines with James Ibrao, from 2013 till his passing in 2020. Sifu James Ibrao was a martial arts legend living in Pasadena, CA.
Visual, sound, video, woodworking and craft arts are mediums often found in josie j’s work.
Mica is a Brazilian migrant artist whose practice navigates the intersections of body, land, memory, and resistance. Guided by questions and influenced by intergenerational wisdom, their work explores how we shape the world—and how, in turn, the world shapes us. Their practice continually returns to the body as a space of connection, transformation, and possibility.
Monica Moreno is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice integrates performance, sound, and sculpture to explore the nuances of human emotion and connection. With a background in jewelry-making and mixed media, she constructs immersive sound collages and experimental audio compositions that intertwine with movement-based performances and tactile forms. By distorting anatomy, layering textures, and manipulating sonic elements, her work transforms intangible sensations into visceral experiences, inviting contemplation on the complexity of feeling, perception, and shared human vulnerability.
Echo is an intermediary to the spirits engaged with planetary suffering.
SooHoo is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist specializing in animation, live projected visuals, miniature diorama, fine art painting, and film production painting. He offers classes and workshops online and at various colleges.
Ufoofu is a vocals, electronics, bass, and drums improvisational trio gesturing towards the edges of organized chaos. Comprised of Raquel Bell, Kane Abolafia, and Jared Marshall, they exist somewhere between metal, jazz, and noise. Through a minimal approach, the three work synchronously to create massive walls of groove-based sound.
Adrian Kim Estrada is a professional bodyworker and platonic touch practitioner (also known as a "cuddler"). A graduate of Mount Saint Mary’s University with an MFA in Creative Writing, Adrian’s work spans the realms of the physical and the poetic. Fascinated with what it means to be in the body and alive, he is currently training to become an end-of-life doula with the University of Vermont. After over four decades of dancing alone, Adrian has recently begun to collaborate with others, exploring free-form movement and contact improvisation. He has performed in site-specific experimental dance films with filmmaker/choreographer Mary Trunk. Now, Adrian is deepening his practice by exploring Butoh and clown, using both as methods of experiencing and expressing the ineffable.