STATES: OBSERVATION - a Butoh Dance Trilogy

Rooted in quantum physics, STATES: OBSERVATION examines the idea that reality is probabilistic & undefined until observed. The act of observing a particle’s position, or state, changes the particle IT-Self, altering IT’s momentum & creating uncertainty. 

The trilogy contemplates the uncertain fluidity & trajectory of the Self through the fragmentation of identity & memory drawing from personal & collective queer narratives & symbolism as related but not limited to aloneism, outsiderism, compartmentalization, survivalism, and chameleonism, evoking a multiplicity of I-positions, or states: with dancer observing IT-Self like an audience member in 3rd person, as both subject & object; as a particle, the smallest fundamental state in the humyn body, which pops in & out of existence. 

These states are informed by a series of conditions specific to each state that change the nature of the Self based upon the observed conditions in the present moment. Yet with time as an entity folded upon IT-Self, past/present/future influence each other simultaneously, with dancer seeking to piece together a Self through these observations mirroring IT-Self back to IT-Self.

A key concept is MA, the Japanese aesthetic of negative space, representing the voids between identity states. MA serves as a bridge in between past & future fragments of the Self, aligning with Zen Buddhist notions of emptiness—not as absence, but as a field of infinite possibility.  When the dancer appears to do nothing, IT holds transitional space for IT-Self in between one I-position and the arrival of the next, observing the gap between the conscious & unconscious Self, being led into the next positional state or memory.

I am not a Some Thing because of experience observed. I am because I am IT.

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The essence of the 3 works, Origin, Mutation, & Entropy at Absolute Zero, have been sought in the spaces between ideas rather than seeking form through fixed trialed choreography, manifesting IT-Self with improvisation guided by research, narratives, and somatics. They were originally danced guided by vector analyzed site specific staged positions between 2023 and 2025 in NYC Queer Butoh Festival with Vangeline Theatre, Excavate: An NYC Butoh new works in progress festival curated by Scoop, Amsterdam Butoh Festival, & Performatica in Venice, Italy, simultaneous to the 2024 Biennale curated by Hector Canonge. November 2024 a documentary short of Entropy at Absolute Zero by International Butoh Videographer Shimmyo Shuta, was screened at Mana Contemporary hosted by the Jonas Mekas Archives curated by Chihiro Ito. The performance piece was additionally screened at the International Behavioral Art Festival, in Dehradun, India, May 2025. 

Further in 2025 the piece underwent a developmental residency at 3AM Theatre bringing all three pieces together for the first time before showing at Kamaitachi Museum in Tashiro, Tohoku, Japan, for the 60th anniversary of the collaboration between Butoh founder Hijikata Tatsumi and photographer Hosoe Eikoh. It was seen in Otaru, Hokkaido, through study with Tanaka Haru, and danced in Aomori, Japan, hosted by Noguchi Taiso Master Osanai Mari. September & October 2026 Scoop will tour a new work in Akita, Kyoto, Tokyo, Otaru, and on the outdoor water stage at Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan, with upcoming work in progress presentations in NYC during development. 

Sound is designed by Scoop Slone & Jorge Sanders, with live improvisations and manipulations by Jorge Sanders, with supplemental mixing and sound manipulations by Oscar Suh Rodriguez for Mutation. Garmenting costumes and installation by Scoop Slone. Lighting and Production support by Kyle Driggs, Artistic Director 3AM Theatre. 

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Scoop Slone is an NYC based Butoh performance artist whose creative practice explores individual & collective identity/memory states through the intersection of Butoh, Garmenting, Gender Queer club kid Drag, Installation, & Experimental Music Theatre. Drawing from speculative science fiction, ancient archaeology, folk art, applied science & applied life, Scoop seeks through colloquial avant garde to tangibly transcend spacetime boundaries & realism through altered consciousness & physical states. Performance narrative is set in the primal future past, through Alter Ego, Geometrica 222, an isolated amnesiac being of unknown time & origin questioning, “Who Am I?”. 

Jorge Sanders is an electronic musician and sound artist who creates immersive landscapes through sound using spacial dynamics and atmospheres. In Jorge’s collaborations with Scoop, Jorge manipulates recorded audio into a unique textural experience, creating an interplay between space and rhythm. 

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