

9-11 OCT 2026
Dance is our mean to celebrate life in all its aspects and in all its forms, a mean to transform our emotions, to understand and accept them, to understand and accept what happens to us and around us, a form of appreciation and gratitude.
In ancient times dance was a prayer, a ritual, an act of devotion to nature, a celebration of life. Dance as an expression of the universe, where body and spirit merge; a sacred space that allows us to enter into contact with the “subtle worlds”.
In contemporary society, the sense of ritual seems to have been lost, and with it the ability to read what unfolds around us. Dance then becomes a calling, a necessity to rediscover the profound meaning of life.
In this workshop, we will search for this original form of dance, reconnecting with ancient rituals and working with the circular, cyclical dimension of nature: life as a cycle of birth and death, the turning of the seasons, the movement of waves, the rhythm of the breath.
In this moment of the year are already entering into the dark part, autumn-winter, a time of pause, cold, contemplation, spirituality. We realign with the circular and cyclical dimension of nature. Life as a cycle of life and death, cycle of season, movement of waves, cycle of breathing.
Embrace, recognize and appreciate the beauty of sunset, of dusk, of nightfall, of getting weak, getting old, of offering, giving life, returning to the ground, going inside as preparation for new cycle, changing color as gift for next generations and appreciation of life.
Celebrate twilight, the moment of passage to the night, to the darkness, to the silent time.
To recognize and gently honor what the passing year has brought, and to release what no longer belongs, is to complete the passage. As energies slowly turn inward, a cycle quietly closes, and another begins to unfold.
This workshop offers a space to research in movement, in physical and emotional level, a space to research and develop our own Butoh dance.
We start with a body training intended to release tension in our body and allow the energy to circulate inside the body, in order to find more fluid and organic movement, without useless effort. This will help us to activate the energy and power that we can put in our dance.
We will focus on breathing work, movement connected to the breathing, and how to move the energy inside the body and around it. Connecting inside with outside. Working on the state of presence. Practicing dance improvisation with imagery guidance, continuously researching new possibilities of expression, breaking old patterns and find new surprising way to move.
It’s open to professional dancers, actors, movers and all people interested in movement, with any kind of artistic and life experience.

Maruska Ronchi is a dancer, choreographer, performer and teacher.
Graduated in Contemporary Dance at CIMD in Milan, she met Butoh in 2009 with Atsushi Takenouchi, working with him and becoming his assistant in the Butoh School in Italy.
Along her path she had the chance to meet other important butoh master as Yoshito Ohno, Yumiko Yoshioka, Minako Seki, Seisaku, Carlotta Ikeda, Natsu Nakajima, Masaki Iwana, among others.
She present her solo works all over the world in the theatre, unconventional places, and festival as Hokkaido Butoh Festival (Sapporo, Japan), Ee chair et en sons (Paris, France), Butohresque Festival (Vienna, Austria), Ex..it (Broellin, Germany), Butohpolis (Warsaw, Poland), Kulturelle Landpartie (Hitzaker, Germany), Singing our Place (Aarus, Denmark), Moving Bodies (Torino, Italy). She regularly guides butoh workshops around the world.

BODY WORKOUT
9-11 October 2026
€250
Berkenrijs
Lodewijk Mortelmansstraat 13
2610 Wilrijk (Antwerpen)
Vrijdag / Friday
18:00 – 21:00 → Workshop (3u / 3h)
Zaterdag & Zondag / Saturday & Sunday
10:00 – 13:00 → Ochtendsessie / Morning Session
13:00 – 14:15 → Lunchpauze / Break
14:15 – 17:15 → Middagsessie / Afternoon Session

BUTOH WORKSHOP
an intensive three-day Butoh workshop exploring the body as an expressive landscape
through movement, stillness, and transformation