MAN WOMAN Will Premiere at Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at Oxford University

Vangeline announced today that she will bring MAN WOMAN, a new duet set to premiere in New York City in Spring 2026, to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at Oxford University on September 5, 2026 at 19:00. For more information on the show, please visit here.

Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute has partnered with ELF and the legendary New York artist Machine Dazzle to create MAN WOMAN, a collaboration between Butoh dancers Akihito Ichihara (Sankai Juku) and Vangeline.

Ichihara and Vangeline have developed MAN WOMAN during New York residencies at the New York Butoh Institute, Chelsea Factory, Monira Foundation, and Mercury Store in 2024.

Machine Dazzle has created original costumes for this 60-minute piece and Ray Barragan Sweeten has composed the music.

MAN WOMAN is a 60-minute interdisciplinary Butoh duet about the search for intimacy and the complexities of human connection. Choreographed and performed by acclaimed Butoh artists Akihito Ichihara (Japan) and Vangeline (U.S.), the work draws inspiration from the seminal 1960 photo book Man and Woman by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, which featured Tatsumi Hijikata—the founder of Butoh—and his wife, Motofuji.

Ichihara and Vangeline each come from different Butoh backgrounds; Ichihara from Sankai Juku, or what could be considered “classical” Butoh, while Vangeline’s 20 years of Butoh expertise was informed by her prior experience as a jazz and burlesque dancer. The artists imagine this encounter as cultural cross-pollination: the creation of something new and original choreographically, challenging aesthetic expectations and carrying Butoh into the 21st century.

VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com Vangeline Theater programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. www.vangeline.com

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre, a new world-class centre for the Arts and Humanities will open to the academic community on 13 October 2025 and the public cultural programme will begin in April 2026. https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/

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