MycoMorphosis: Dancing with Fungi | Jan. 23-25

TICKETS

MycoMorphosis: Dancing with Fungi is a multimedia stage performance directed by choreographer Iván-Daniel Espinosa. Inspired by the underground networks of mycelium that connect the roots of thousands of plants and trees, this performance incorporates mycology and sculpture with live electroacoustic soundscapes and Japanese Butoh dance to bring to life the fascinating world of fungi in an immersive theatrical setting. For this performance, Espinosa and his collaborators have designed a maze-like sculpture incorporating fungal colonies with fruiting mushrooms of different species. Musical soundscapes are created in real time by hooking up the fungi to bio-sensor and bio-sonification devices that convert the mycelium’s electrical and textural activity into Live sounds. The installation is further activated by dancers performing a choreography in the style of Japanese Butoh (舞踏, Butō) inspired by the vibrant ecosystems of fungi and their shapeshifting movement through space and time. MycoMorphosis: Dancing with Fungi creates a multi-sensory and mind-bending experience that demonstrates a deeply intimate relationship to nature, where the distinctions between human and non-human worlds dissolve in slow and attentive bodily practice.

DANCERS:
Stefan Bach
Corin Wiggins
Kenji Hirose
Arlo Sage King

LIVE MUSIC composed and performed by Christopher Bryant Arnett.
SCULPTURE designed by Arlo Sage King.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER:
Iván-Daniel Espinosa is a Latino dance choreographer that creates interdisciplinary artwork engaged with ecology, mushrooms and fungi, climate change, and interspecies performance. His recent multimedia performances integrating mushroom colonies with live dance, fungal bioacoustics and fungal bio-sonification have been presented at numerous venues nationwide such as La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York City, Seattle International Butoh Festival, Seattle ARTS IN NATURE Festival, Houston Fringe Festival, and Roman Susan Art Foundation in Chicago. Iván-Daniel’s performances involving fungi and mushrooms are highlighted in a chapter-length discussion of his artwork that was published in a 2024 Routledge book titled Choreographing Dirt: Movement, Performance, and Ecology in the Anthropocene.

As a scholar and artist, Iván-Daniel specializes in Butoh (舞踏, Butō), an avant-garde form of dance-theater that was originated by Tatsumi Hijikata in 1960’s Tokyo. Iván-Daniel began his Butoh training in 2014 and has studied with many renowned Japanese master teachers from the lineage of Hijikata including Natsu Nakajima, Saga Kobayashi, Hiroko and Koichi Tamano, Semimaru and Dai Matsuoka of SANKAI JUKU, and Moe Yamamoto of Kanazawa Butoh-Kan. Iván-Daniel’s formative training began with Seattle Butoh pioneer Joan Laage, who continues to serve as his foremost teacher to this day. Iván-Daniel is the co-founder of the Salish Sea Butoh Festival, an annual dance convergence that takes place on the Olympic Peninsula to deepen the study of Japanese Butoh with artists from all over the world.
Iván-Daniel is a current PhD Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder and he also holds a Master of Arts in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Iván-Daniel’s PhD dissertation research at CU-Boulder examines the intersections of performance and fungal mycology, focusing on the relationships between human bodies and mycelium fungi networks through the lenses of choreography and dance performance.

** MycoMorphosis: Dancing with Fungi is funded in part by a Community Project Grant from the Boulder Arts Commission, an agency of the Boulder City Council. This project is also supported by additional grant funding from the CU-Boulder Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship and the Nature, Environment, Science & Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts. **