Bodhisattva Beer Run

Overview

Bodhisattva Beer Run is an evening-length dance work that contemplates the commodification of Buddhism and the performance of gender in the context of an Asian-American culture transition. Building on evan and Glenns body of work as butoh dance-makers and their interest in Shingon Buddhism, the piece conflates the iterative nature of binge drinking and the mind-altering aspects of drunken euphoria with esoteric Buddhist practices like mantra recitation and mandala envisionment as a form of unfulfilled diasporic meaning-making. Bodhisattva Beer Run is loosely based on Glenn and evans experiences growing up in Asian-American enclaves on the West Coast, and uses home video reenactments, audio and projection feedback loops, and beer-fueled butoh as a form of autobiography. Through a sometimes irresponsible use of source material, Bodhisattva Beer Run underscores the parallels between Asian-American identity and the strangeness of the American absorption of Buddhism into the greater cultural conversation.

NOTE: the 9/22 performance of this show has been canceled.

About the Artist

Glenn Potter-Takata and evan ray suzuki met while studying at Sarah Lawrence College and have been collaborating since 2018, while also maintaining individual choreographic practices. Evan and Glenn create body-centered performance works, sometimes with integrated multimedia design, sometimes with only their corporeal selves. Both rigorous and playful in their process, Glenn and Evan create works that critique a globalized Japanese consumer culture in post-Internment America, and sometimes perform wearing giant Pikachu costumes. Both studied butoh under Kota Yamazaki and Mina Nishimura, and have developed their own improvisational practice in the butoh genre. They have developed work through a CUNY Dance Initiative Residency at Lehman College, and have performed at Center for Performance Research, WestFest Dance Festival, Trotter&Scholer, Mizuma & Kips, Not Your Mothers Pan-Asian Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, and Amanda+James Summer Happenings Series, among other places. Glenn is the recipient of the MAP Fund Award and has been an artist-in-residence with Movement Research, Gibney Dance Center, and Rogers Art Loft. He is currently a teacher of sound and video design for live performance at Sarah Lawrence College and the curator of Butoh What. evan is currently a resident artist at Ars Nova, a member of La MaMas Obie Award-winning Great Jones Repertory Company, and a movement director for music video and film.