ABOUT
Asia Butoh Gathering (ABG) is a three-day festival of performances, workshops, film screening, lecture presentations and artists conversations that aims to bring together Butoh artists and practitioners across Asia.
This platform initiative recognizes the powerful legacy of Japanese Butoh while opening space for regional voices where artists can meet each other across borders, share embodied practices, and co-create new meanings from various local contexts. The festival aims to reintroduce Japanese Butoh in the Philippines within an intra-Asian cultural context situating it in dialogue with regional practices, to support the growth of a regional Butoh network that connects diverse cultures, lineages, and generations of artists, and to explore the multiplicity of Butoh as it is reimagined through experimental, interdisciplinary, and context-specific practices. Guided by the artistic and curatorial vision from Kapwa Movement, this year’s iteration of the festival is anchored on four core directions:
Knowledge-sharing
Building an intra-Asian discourse on Butoh that foregrounds cultural diversity, critical reflection, and cross-learning
Artist-centered collaboration
Creating an inclusive environment where artists are empowered to share their agency, processes, and lived experiences
Community-building
Fostering mutual responsibility and kinship through shared movement, dialogue, and exchange between artists and audiences
Archiving and sustainability
Documenting and preserving the festival’s artistic and discursive processes as a living record of Asia Butoh today
The 2026 edition of Asia Butoh Gathering also coincides with the 70th anniversary of Japan–Philippines diplomatic relations, marking a crucial moment for cultural collaboration that honors historical ties while fostering new solidarities across Asia. It seeks to embody the spirit of kapwa– the shared self and interconnectedness as an ethical ground for creating, remembering, and imagining together.
Meet the Team
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Sasa Cabalquinto
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR AND PROGRAM CURATOR
Sasa Cabalquinto is a pioneering Filipina butoh artist based in Manila, Philippines. She is the founder and director of Kapwa Movement, the independent intermediary platform advancing Butoh practice, research, and exchange within the Philippine contemporary performance landscape, and the initiatory director and program curator for the Asia Butoh Gathering. She is an Asian Cultural Council Fellow for Dance, Para Site NoExit Grantee, and Asia Arts and Culture Grantee of Japan Foundation Manila. Among her multiple recognitions in various local and international platforms include Ani ng Dangal for Cinema of National Commission for Culture and Arts (2025), Singapore International Film Festival Best Performance (2024), Alvin Erasga Tolentino Koreograpiya Award (2020), CCP Choreographers’ Series WifiBody New Choreographers Competition 3rd Prize (2018), and PUP Outstanding Achievement Awardee in the Arts in Dance (2014). She has undertaken regional and international residencies such as Performance Ecologies, a Filipino Performance platform, Performance Lab Regional Residency for Asia-Pacific Performance Artists in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and has graduated in Certificate Programme for Critical Practice in Contemporary Performance [CP]3 by Dance Nucleus.
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Angela Sonico
MARKETING DIRECTOR
Angela Sonico is a cultural worker and program curator with nearly a decade of experience in the culture and arts sector. Her work centers on building collaborative platforms that support artists, educators, artivists, and cultural practitioners. Since 2020, she has been with the Goethe-Institut, where she curates and facilitates programs that engage art as a critical tool for dialogue—exploring themes such as identity, memory, decolonization, and social infrastructures. Through exhibitions, workshops, performances, and public forums, she develops inclusive, process-oriented spaces that connect local voices to broader global discourse.
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XUE
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Butoh artist XUE is the founder and facilitator of the Singapore Butoh Collective, a young initiative committed to the cultivation and longevity of butoh culture in Singapore. XUE has performed at The Online New York Butoh Institute Festival (2020), The Online Queer Butoh Festival (2021), and premiered Shadowbloom live in New York at The Brick Theater in 2022 with collaborator Mervin Wong. Regionally, they have danced in Indonesia at Solo Butoh #3, ARTJOG STAGE with Saron Groove, Cermin Air by Agatsuma Emiko, and Jogja Noise Bombing Festival with Sam Kurugu and Agatha Socool. In Singapore, they recently performed an 11-hour butoh work, the centre trembles, at ArtScience Museum. XUE is a student of Vangeline (Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute) and Agatsuma Emiko (AGAXART), and is an associate artist at Dance Nucleus and a graduate of its Certificate Programme for Critical Practice in Contemporary Performance.
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Shania Lee Cuerpo
PROJECT COORDINATOR/ STAGE MANAGER
Shania Lee Cuerpo is a production and stage manager working across theatre, cultural programs, and international events. She is a cum laude graduate of BA Theatre Arts from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Her work spans institutional, independent, and festival-based productions. She has served as stage manager for works by UP Dance Company, Dulaang UP, and UP Dulaang Laboratoryo, as well as productions presented under Virgin Labfest, Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, and The Necessary Theatre. Her experience includes contemporary theatre, dance, puppetry, and interdisciplinary performance.
She previously worked with the Cultural Center of the Philippines Office of the President, where she was part of the stage management team for outreach programs and touring performances featuring groups such as The Madrigal Singers, the Bayanihan Dance Company, and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. These programs toured multiple regions across the Philippines, bringing cultural performances to communities nationwide.
In addition to her work in the performing arts, Shania has handled events and programs under government and international institutions including the Department of Tourism, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA), and ASEAN-related initiatives. She has also been involved in international cultural events such as Japan Expo, supporting large-scale programming and event coordination.
Beyond production and stage management, Shania also works as a scriptwriter and provides technical theatre support.
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Arby Hamiya
FINANCE MANAGER
Arby is a graphic designer who has evolved into multidisciplinary practices; she champions in collaborative and community-rooted artistic initiatives.
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Eya Beldia
PR CONSULTANT & STRATEGIST
Eya Beldia taught at the Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines in Diliman, where she also presently studies Art History.
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Tola Say
ARTIST MANAGER
Say Tola is a writer and researcher of arts. She worked for Khmer Times from 2017 to 2019 during which she wrote about the arts scene in Cambodia. She has also produced and worked as the core organizing team for a number of arts festivals. Her keen interest in arts and culture research saw her playing a significant role as a research coordinator in many research projects including, “Her Sounds, 2019”, ‘“Cambodian Mouth Harp, 2020”, “Dey Krahom, 2021”, “ Civic Participation Through the Arts, 2022 – 2023”, and “Mapping Human Resources and Socio-Economic Condition of Cambodia’s CCI, 2023”. Tola has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Paññāsāstra University, Cambodia. Currently, Tola co-coordinates a collective space called ‘tiSamjort’ and works as a grants coordinator at Cambodian Living Arts.
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Eyn Matorres
INTERN COORDINATOR/ STAGE MANAGER
Eyn Matorres is a freelance theatre/film actor and dancer. She graduated with an Associate in Arts-Theatre in UP Diliman and is now taking a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Major in Performance. Eyn has expanded her theatre experience through numerous productions under Dulaang UP and Dulaang Laboratoryo as an actor, production manager, assistant stage manager, costume associate, and sound board operator. As an artist, her interest is to explore inclusive devised/movement-based theatre making. She draws inspiration from real stories, memory work, and lived experiences, believing that the body holds narratives words cannot always express. Her practice is collaborative and community-driven, grounded in the belief that theatre can be a space for reflection and healing.
ORGANIZERS
THE JAPAN FOUNDATION
The Japan Foundation is the only institution dedicated to carrying out Japan’s comprehensive international cultural exchange programs throughout the world.
With the objective of cultivating friendship and ties between Japan and the world, through culture, language and dialogue, the Japan Foundation creates global opportunities to foster friendship, trust and mutual understanding.
The Japan Foundation was established in October 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2003, it was reorganized as an independent administrative institution. As the 18th overseas office, the Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM), which was founded in 1996, is active in three areas: Arts and Cultural Exchange, Japanese-Language Education and Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange.
The Japan Foundation has a global network consisting of its Tokyo headquarters, the Kyoto office, two Japanese-language institutes (the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Urawa; and the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai) and 24 overseas offices in 23 countries, including two Asia Center liaison offices.
KAPWA MOVEMENT
Kapwa Movement is an independent intermediary platform for reintroducing Butoh to the Philippine arts community. A recipient of the Asia Arts and Culture Exchange Grant by the Japan Foundation Manila, Kapwa Movement hosts workshops and events that cater to the enrichment of transcultural dance diversity in different local and international communities.
In 2021, Kapwa Movement organized the Philippine Online Butoh Workshop Series inviting 6 international Butoh artists with Sasa Cabalquinto, who facilitated Butoh workshops locally and internationally grounded in the Filipino core value and indigenous philosophy of kapwa. Other community collaborations include Kapwa Butoh Camp in Tanay, Rizal in 2022 with Ground1 Arts Space and the recently concluded Punla at Binhi: Butoh Workshop Series, a nation-wide capacity building and community mapping project for Butoh Network in several venues including Tacloban, Calbayog, and Davao last November to December 2025.
ABOUT BUTOH
Butoh is an avant-garde Japanese art form that emerged in 1950/1960s post-war Japan. Butoh dance was founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, who sought to pioneer a radical new aesthetic, challenging the limitations of the body and the conventions of western dance. Through the lineages of the two founders, butoh has branched into a global phenomenon and has many forms of embodiment in the form of improvised movement and imagistic choreographies. Although the dance itself rejects formalization, over the years, it has come to consist of a range of methodologies and techniques enriched by the proliferation of butoh practitioners, companies and butoh communities from Japan and across the globe.
Butoh is for anyone who is interested in:
Deepening their relationship to their body and movement practice
Delving into the subconscious and inner world
Learning more about the history of butoh and its rich lineage
Finding new movement pathways and ideas to enrich a performance practice
Good for theatre practitioners, artists, dancers and non-dancers
NO MOVEMENT EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED! ANYONE OF ALL AGES AND BODY TYPES ARE WELCOME.
Source: Singapore Butoh Collective