Instructor Spotlight: Jordan & Yokko

Jordan Rosin and Yokko have been performing & teaching together since 2012.  Their diverse backgrounds and overlapping passion for both butoh and physical theatre make their classes a rich experience for all who attend.  This season, you can catch them teaching...

• 12-Week Physical Theatre Course, Sept. 15 - Dec. 8
• 12-Week Physical Theatre Course, Jan. 26 - April 19
• Butoh Intensive with Yokko, Feb. 20 - March 12
• select Open Training sessions TBD

Read on to learn more about these two incredible teachers!

Yokko

Yokko is an actress, movement artist, and Butoh performer from Nagoya, Japan. She has acted in, devised and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, having won several awards, including “Best One-Woman Show” for her Butoh Medea (United Solo 2014 at Theatre Row). Other theatre credits include BALDY (Center of Remembering & Sharing; United Solo 2013; Hollywood Fringe 2013; FringeNYC 2012; Dorothy Strelsin Theatre), Butoh Electra (Irondale Center; FringeNYC 2011), The Woolgatherer (ASDS Repertory Season), Odyssey (The Wings Theatre) and many others. Dance credits include Isis Variations (Fringe NYC 2014); Facet (Hollywood Fringe 2013; Wave Rising Series); Autumn Leaves (Kraine Theatre) and Kizuna: Connection (NICODA). Yokko also acted in several of local and international films, one of which was the first runner up in the 2014 72-hour Shootout at the Asian American Film Lab (Himitus). She is a proud member of The Ume Group and Void Theatre Company as well as the founder and artistic director of Ren Gyo Soh in NYC. 

Awards: Winner of Best One-Woman Show (Butoh Medea, United Solo 2014); Winner of Best Choreography (Butoh Medea, United Solo 2014); Nominee for Best International Performance (BALDY, Hollywood Fringe 2013). Education: Attended University of Oregon (Theatre Arts), University at Albany (BA in Theatre); Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University (MFA in Acting). 

"Butoh awakens my soul; Butoh guides me
to what I am." 
- Yokko

This season, Yokko is also teaching...

• Yoga with Yokko
• Vocal Warmup

Jordan Rosin

Jordan Rosin is physical theatre artist, teacher, and movement coach. Based primarily in butoh, he also draws on yoga, clowning, gymnastics, and martial arts to create choreography and movement with profound and universal resonance. He received his BFA in Drama from Syracuse University and has trained with numerous independent teachers of butoh, including Ko Murobushi, Tetsuro Fukahara, Katsura Kan, Diego Pinon, Vangeline, and more.

In 2011, after moving to New York City, he and friends from college founded The Ume Group as a vehicle to produce their flagship martial arts / butoh dance epic Butoh Electra. 

For The Ume Group, credits include writer/producer of Butoh Electra (The Irondale Center, FringeNYC, Syracuse University), performer/co-creator of Facet (Hollywood Fringe Festival, Wave Rising Series), performer/co-creator of Isis Variations (FringeNYC, CoolNY Dance Festival) and director/choreographer of Dream Dances. He is also winner of the award for Best Choreography for Butoh Medea at the 2014 United Solo Festival and recipient of a Josephine Abady Award for Excellence in Directing.

He was born (and began his butoh studies) in rainy Seattle, WA and now lives with his wife in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

“I move as much as I can (even in perfect stillness) because for a decade growing up I think I forgot how to move entirely. I perform and choreograph mysterious, but deeply heartfelt rituals of the body. 

With the help of an ensemble, a little postmodern acrobatics and the “dance-of-utter-darkness” I also unapologetically enfranchise even the most neglected lumps of flesh (toes in particular) to demand a place in the conversations of our age.”
- Jordan Rosin