miniBIG moves through three interconnected phases:

PHASE 0 – MEETING (Days 1-2)

We meet each other dancing.

Night 1: Choreographers’ Presentations
Each of the 6 choreographers shares a brief piece (8-10 minutes) of their work. You witness their universes.

Night 2: Participants’ Introductions
Each participant offers a 1-minute self-introduction through performative movement. No words, just bodies speaking.

It is not about the performing result but a way of recognition—we see each other for the first time, dancing.

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PHASE 1 – TRAINING (Days 1-4)

The community divides into two groups and receives classes from all choreographers.

These are not regular workshops. These are opportunities to delve into each choreographer’s specific focus, their way of questioning the body and the dance. You will train with all 6 teachers, receiving different seeds of understanding.

You will train:
8 hours with each invited choreograpaher.
4 hours with each or 8 hours with both of the following: Camilla Giani and Matilde Javier Ciria.
Total 28 hours of training.

It is aimed to be intense. Your body will be tired. Your body will be awake.

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PHASE 2 – CULTIVATION (Days 4-7)

This is the collaborative creation, heart of miniBIG.

Planting the Seed (Day 4 afternoon)

Each choreographer presents a choreographic seed—a theme, a texture, a fragment, a question, a desire.

Participants choose which seed they want to host within their body, to let it sprout and blossom. You join one of the 6 emerging groups.

Each choreographer has around 2 hours to plant their seed with the participants who chose their proposal to create the framework of this choreography. Then they leave it to grow freely, under the influence of the soil, the weather, and the water it will receive during the next days.

Joint Training

During Cultivating Together, we begin each morning and afternoon together—around 1.5 hours of joint training to warm the individual and collective body, preparing to create.

This training starts every 6 cultivating sessions not counting the Planting the Seed session.

Cultivating Together (Days 5-7)

For the rest of the week, each group carries on grow their seed with the help of all the other choreographers.

You will work on your group’s piece, and all 6 choreographers will support your creation in 1.5-hour sessions. During these sessions, their role is not to control, but to empower—to offer that specific taste that only each choreographer can give.

We suggest each choreographer begins their cultivation session by asking:

• What does this choreography needs?
• How can I help you?

Then the choreographer watches the work already done, and contributes their unique perspective.

Each choreographer works alone in their own way, and the pieces grow without individual control from anybody. Collective chorographing.

Each project will have:
One planting session with the choreogrpaher who proposes that project.
One creative session with each other 5 choreographer.
One creative session with no external choreographer.

Blooming: Final Sharing (Day 7)

On the last day, we share the 6 pieces we have cultivated in an internal presentation. Not open to the public—just for us, to witness what we created together.

NIGHTS: JAMS & RESEARCH

We want to set the focus into the dance itself. Meeting by dancing, discovering while dancing, researching the dance.

Everynight there will be a JAM with a different structure. An opportunity to dive into what you have practiced during the day without a time constraints. To discover new dances that arise from those. To discover the dance of other bodies. To give yourself to the ephemeral creation of improvisation. To forget. To dive into one thousand new bodies.

5. THE CHOREOGRAPHERS

While practicing, we share a unique way of dancing. Each choreographer brings their own understanding, a different experience, and a singular point of view. Through this diverse mix, we learn and deepen our knowledge.

YUMINO SEKI – JAPAN/UK

Yumino Seki is a UK based Japanese Butoh practitioner, dance artist and qualified somatic movement educator who performs, teaches, directs and collaborates to make performances.   She was born in Japan and trained in both classical and contemporary dance.  

Between 1999 and 2009 she extensively performed in Europe predominately with Mamu Dance Theatre/Tadashi Endo, Migration01, Kimera and Admeto (opera); Ten-Pen-Chii/Yumiko Yoshioka, TESTLABOUR and KETSUI; and Ariadone/Carlotta Ikeda, Zarathustra Variation.   From 2007 to 2012 she studied VMI Somatic Practice with Patricia Bardi in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Her artistic interest lies in the authenticity of the temporal body and its complex visceral expression in performance, resulting in works that are often site-responsive, site-specific, and improvised in nature.  Since completing her VMI Somatic Practice training, she has continued to develop her Butoh and somatic work, often incorporates outdoor practice.  Widening perception, rigorously making an enquiry her approach focuses on  embodiment of imagery, concept and sensation in dance.

Her work crosses the boundaries of dance, performance art, installation and ritual.  In collaboration with artists from diverse backgrounds she directs multi-disciplinary ensemble work.  Her work has been supported by Arts Council England.

‘My work starts from trust; trusting that the body has its own intelligence & experience.  Not moving but being moved.  Raw yet subtle, meditative yet self-destructive, stark yet sensual. Conflict and harmony co-exist in an ambiguous way.  I explore and reflect the inner self where the body becomes mere ‘being’ and where a point of transformation occurs’.  Yumino. 

www.yuminoseki.com

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MICHIYASU FURUTANI – JAPAN/GERMANY

A Berlin-based dance and interdisciplinary live performance artist, Michiyasu Furutani’s work grows from Butoh’s technique and practice. Through continual research, he has developed a somatic vocabulary that merges improvisation with diverse kinetic techniques, articulating necessity, possibility, and contingency.

After graduating with a B.A. in Theater from Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo, he worked with Butoh pioneers Akiko Motofuji, Maro Akaji and Yukio Waguri while collaborating with musicians such as Shibusa-shirazu Orchestra, Sun Ra Arkestra, and GuruGuru at music events including the Moers Jazz Festival and Fuji Rock Festival. After completing the “Solo/Dance/Authorship” Master’s program at the Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz Berlin (HZT), he has performed and shared his experiences at venues across Europe, including Akademie der Künste, Bauhaus Dessau, Benaki Museum, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Columbia Global Centers | Paris, Sophiensæle, and The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU).

His current research centers on how bodies and objects adapt to space and, through an exploration of gravity, conjure destabilized spaces—understood not only as a force acting on the moving body, but also on the static body—as a bonding medium through which he examines otherness, empathy, and solidarity.

www.7y2.net

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TASHI IWAOKA – JAPAN/FINLAND

Tashi Iwaoka is a performance artist/mover/Butoh practitioner based in Turku, Finland.
After his first experiences with Butoh in 1997 with Kazuo Ohno and Kim Itoh in Japan, Iwaoka had been practicing Butoh-based bodywork for over 10 years. In 2020, he began to extensively search for what his Butoh is, and has been asking himself what Butoh means to him.

Since 1997, he has participated in workshops and seminars by Butoh artists such as Tadashi Endo, Carlotta Ikeda, Masaki Iwana, Sankai Juku, Seisaku and Yuri Nagaoka, Natsu Nakajima, Atsushi Takenouchi, Yumiko Yoshioka and others.

He founded the Why Butoh festival in Turku in 2025 together with Minja Mertanen and Hanna Ikonen.
He believes that Butoh can be culturally specific, namely an individual culture, and the deeper we go, the more universal it may become. Iwaoka wants to provide tools for each participant to deepen their bodily experience, often guided by the power of imagery, hoping that can be the key to their own journey towards, or support to deepen, their own Butoh.

www.tashiwaoka.org

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CAMILLA GIANI – ITALY

Camilla Giani is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and butoh practitioner. Her work explores the intersection of contemporary dance techniques and butoh philosophy, creating performances that investigate the body as a site of transformation. She has been deeply involved in the international butoh community for over a decade and is co-director of BIG (Butoh International Gathering).

www.camillagiani.com

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MATILDE JAVIER CIRIA – SPAIN

Matilde Javier Ciria is a multidisciplinary stage artist and butoh lover. Her work spans from directing and choreography to lighting, sound, and scenography. Originally trained in computer programming, she discovered clowning and circus before finding her path in butoh. Her practice is based on three pillars: Wild Respect, Intuitive Trust, and Adequate Challenge. She is the artistic director of BIG and believes in organizing as choreography—creating temporary communities where structure allows madness to flourish.

www.matildecorp.com

A DAY IN miniBIG

A reliable and stable structure helps us dive deeper into the ocean of the unknown.
During the whole process we will maintain the same schedule, we will evolve the contents of each session during the week.

Main schedule

• 08:00 – 09:00 → Breakfast
• 09:00 – 09:20 → Morning Ceremony
• 09:30 – 13:30 → Morning Session
• 13:30 – 15:30 → Lunch Break
• 15:30 – 19:30 → Afternoon Session
• 19:30 – 21:00 → Dinner Break
• 21:00 – 23:00 → Night Session

The structure varies depending on the phase, but the rhythm remains: practice, cultivate, rest, repeat

Our philosophy does not stop at the edge of the practice. miniBIG is organized with the same principles we dance with.

Our main foundation to achieve this community is wild respect and deep care.

Wild respect means that this respect follows no dogma nor law—it could even be against them. It means a deep listening to the situation without judging it, finding the answers that life suggests before understanding. It is not repeatable; what was respectful in a certain moment might not be so in the next. In miniBIG, everybody does what has to be done. The needs are before the desires. The body knows what is needed, the instinct knows what is needed. And everyone does what is needed.

Deep care means we all take care of each other, ourselves, the little details, the ordinary and the special equally. If everybody follows this path, you will have dozens of people taking care of you. You will have the opportunity of taking care and loving, and every aspect of our short-time community will work flawlessly.

Living Together
We share rooms, meals, and daily life. We are not tourists visiting a festival—we are a temporary community building our home together.

Degendered Spaces
Most rooms and bathrooms are degendered. In butoh essence, there are only bodies. At the same time, we maintain specific gendered spaces for those who need them. We observe the reality rather than following a rigid dogma.

Food as Dance
We offer simple vegetarian food, as it is the most inclusive way to nourish the largest number of bodies while respecting the environment we inhabit.

Happy Helping Teams
Once or twice during the week, you will join the Ritual of Basic Care. This is a part of the practice. Through humble work, we shed unnecessary layers of the “self.”

To help this, we group into happy teams to share the joy of caring. The teams take care of the basics for our home to run—cooking, cleaning. It is not a great effort, as you share it with others. During your caring service, you can dance and sing, or be silent and quiet. Through humble work, we shed unnecessary layers of the “self.”

Be Aware
This event can be overwhelming in some moments. Don’t hesitate to take your time when you need it. If you don’t know if you need it, stop what you are doing and take your time to breathe, listen, and realize if you need it. There is no hurry. Be happy when you are, be sad when you are, get a rest when you need it, a hug when you need it. Stop and restart as many times as you need.

Conflict as Practice
When conflict arises—and it always does—we don’t rush to cover it or try to fix it. We inhabit it. We let the collective body feel the tension without naming roles or causes. We stay with what is emerging, trusting the intelligence of the body. We become dance, as dancing is already a solution.

And dance it—dance in bed, at breakfast, in the shower, in the field, in the studio. Just dance it.

Dates
August 17–24, 2026

Arrival
August 16 (afternoon) or August 17 (before lunch)

Departure
August 24 (after internal sharing)

Location
Schloss Bröllin, Germany
Bröllin 3, 17309 Fahrenwalde
[How to get here – link]

Capacity
30-40 participants

What’s Included

• Full accommodation and board (according to your accommodation choice)
• All training sessions with 6 choreographers
• Access to all Jams and research nights
• Meals (vegetarian/vegan)
• Participation in Happy Helping Teams

What to Bring
Please check https://www.bigbutoh.com/useful-informations/

Language
English (classes and daily communication).

Level
miniBIG is open to all participants, regardless of dance experience, who are prepared for intensive practice.
Experience is not required, but presence and commitment are essential.
Be honest with yourself.
Adjust, adapt.
Make it possible.

Important Notes

• There is wifi available at Schloss Bröllin
• The nearest shop is 15 kilometers away—bring what you need
• There is a bar at Schloss Bröllin
• This is a private research gathering—no public performances

The price to attend this event is 900,00€ in shared room accommodation.

_{We would love to offer different prices according to the economic status of each participant. Unfortunately, on this occasion we cannot make it possible.
If you are fortunate enough to enjoy a higher financial status, we would appreciate a donation line for scholarships.}

THE PACKAGE INCLUDES:

• event activities
• breakfast, lunch and dinner, primarily vegetarian with some vegan alternatives, spanning from dinner on August 17th to breakfast on August 25th
• basic accommodation on shared rooms,
  (you can upgrade your accommodation for an extra price as you can see below )
  
  All prices are for the full event, and partial attendance is not possible.

Participation Fee

The fee varies according to the accommodation chosen.

• Camping: 875,00€
• 4/3 PAX no bath 900,00€
• 4 PAX with bath 1.000,00€
• Double Room no bath: 1.200,00€
• Single Room no bath: 1.350,00€

Registration deadline: May 31st, 2026
If we don’t reach the minimum number of participants (30) by this date, the event will be canceled and all fees refunded.

Inscription Fee
You will need to pay it with your registration to ensure your place in miniBIG.
Until we receive this fee your registration will not be completed.
It is 30% of the total fee for your chosen accommodation.

The remaining payment needs to be done before July.

*Please, keep in mind that there is a limited number of spots in all accommodation type. The spots will be assigned by registration mail order. If the accommodation of your choice is not available anymore we will offer you other possibilities available.

Our team will take some days to answer, don’t worry if we don’t answer immediately, that means that we are, probably, fully immersed in another beautiful project like this and we will be back to you as soon as possible!