butoh“Butoh is an avant-garde contemporary dance from Japan. Upon graduation from the university in Madrid, I entered the world of Butoh coordinating a tour in Latin America for Bufons theater-dance company. Years later in New York, saw Sankai Juku at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and attended a workshop by Atsushi Takenouchi.” — PV
Madrid Bufons theater-dance I Mexico City National Center for the Arts I New York art/tech project.
“Butoh lies in its radical embrace of the body as a bridge for memory, transformation, and the unseen. As a filmmaker, Valiente connects with its raw silence and its radical power. It taught him to trust gesture, to find meaning in breath and slowness. It continues inspiring his visual storytelling, blurring lines between imagined life and life as it is.”
Listening to Silence
“Pedro Valiente’s connection to Butoh reveals itself as a form shaping his vision as a filmmaker and visual artist. Drawn to Butoh’s meditative intensity —a living landscape where time, memory, and silence collide— his works breathe with a similar force found in this Japanese art form.
MADRID | Valiente’s early training was marked by an encounter with the legacy of Kazuo Ōhno, whose spirit of poetic embodiment left an imprint on his creative language. Immersing himself in research, performance, and collaboration with Bufons theater-dance company, he learned to embrace vulnerability, absurdity, and the unseen layers of human emotion. These experiences marked a path toward wider views of performance.
NEW YORK | Later on, Valiente trained with Atsushi Takenouchi, whose teachings emphasized the elemental forces of Butoh through organic, site-specific performance. In New York, he was immersed in a vibrant arts scene where practice and creative research intertwined. His work evolved into an interdisciplinary language, weaving together influences from different art forms, all inspired by Butoh’s philosophy.
MEXICO CITY | This groundwork culminated in Flying Fish Over Mexico, a project mixing Butoh, film, and poetry into an epic visual journey. Featuring Mexican cultures, the project involved dancers, artists, and students to create a performance where the body became a base for the earth’s own myths.
Valiente’s ongoing projects look at new modes of presence where the human body interacts with virtual architectures, and the maps between reality and imagination blur. Storytelling is reimagined through new technologies.” Site I EXTERNAL REVIEW
Photo: PV I © Kazuo Ōhno Dance Studio
FFOM I Tilmun Teatro I Early Work I Training