About Alenka:

Alenka Loesch has been a dance theatre performer/designer for 2 decades.
She co-founded uRo Teatr Koku with Shinichi Iova-Koga which later morphed into inkBoat. She designed the costumes for the URO projects as well as inKboats' Onion and Cockroach. Additionally, she has designed costumes for Yumiko Yoshioka (DA-PPI), Antagon Theatre Aktion, Do Teatr, and all of her own solo work. She has participated in many international festivals,performances and artist residencies in France, Czech Republic, Germany, US, Slovakia, Poland, Italy and Japan.
Loesch became primarily known as a Butoh dancer after 1991 when she began dancing under Hiroko and Koichi Tamano (primary dancers in Tatsumi Hijikata’s company).
Her dance attempts to shatter habits which limit our bodies and the perception of our bodies. She endeavors to reveal her inner world and achieve absolute presence. She attempts to bare the soul and reveal the human being in all it's banality, ugliness and beauty to expose the sufferings and joys of life.
She has collaborated intensively as dancer and designer with Shinichi Iova-Koga/ Inkboat, Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii Art Factory (Germany: 1996-2001), Antagon Aktion Theatre (Germany:1998-1999), Do Theatre (Russia: 1997-2000), Minako Seki (Germany: 1998-2000), Shadowlight Theatre (USA: 1993-1997), Michael Sakamoto and Mizu Desierto (USA:2005-2006)


Alenka's first introduction to Butoh:

I first saw Sankai Juku in 1987 and felt a strong epiphany in those moments. What is this dance and where can I study? At that time no one (in Texas where I was living at the time) knew anything about Butoh. I had to wait until 1990 while living in Prague. I went to see Devrevo, a Russian Butoh inspired group. I felt that same epiphany; like I had finally found a thread of that which I belong. I came to know Derevo and studied briefly with them before deciding I must return to the States to save money to go to Japan and study (which I did later). Within one week of being back in Berkeley, CA by happenstance I met a man, who, it turned out, was a filmaker and had just made a documentary about Tamano-san. The next day he took me to dinner at the Tamanos and I began my journey with Butoh. Why? Because it is clearly my path and my passion in this lifetime and I have no other choice.


Opportunities to study with Alenka:

I teach on-going classes twice a week in Portland Oregon out of my home studio.
I teach Tuesday’s & Thursday’s 11am-12:30pm.
My class is a deep excavation of the hidden drawers of expression inside our psyche. It is a hard push of physical limitations which activate the body on a cellular level and strengthen the inner core. We train our bodies to achieve a superhuman quality of movement while attempting to erase all tension and ego. We are moved, not moving. We become swamp monsters or hungry baby birds or we dance our personal passions, perversions and passages. We channel our anscestors, those that had the same thoughts and prayers. They are all with us/ within us. We open ourselves to the thread that binds us which is also our track of becoming.

Opportunities to see Alenka perform:

I have just finished a tour of my latest collaboration with Mizu Desierto called ePheMere. We continue to perform this piece around the Pacific Northwest through winter and then plan to take it to Europe on tour in the summer, all the while developing a new piece which will premier in the spring. I am also performing improvised solos locally. For information about my work or booking requests please see my tribe home page or my temporary website (new one underconstruction):
www.nexustudio.net where you will find my CV and more extensive bio etc.