KØBENHAVN, DENMARK: Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute Collaboration with Husets Teater
Company:
Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute
Award-winning, New York-based Butoh artist, choreographer, and educator Vangeline has joined the creative team of a major new theatrical production at Copenhagen’s prestigious Husets Teater. Serving as the project's Butoh Coach, Vangeline brings her internationally recognized expertise in the “dance of darkness” to If Death Has Taken Something From You, Give It Back (Har døden taget noget fra dig så giv det tilbage).
Har døden taget noget fra dig så giv det tilbage (If Death Has Taken Something From You, Give It Back) is the first stage adaptation of Danish writer Naja Marie Aidt’s iconic book of the same title – a work that explores the universal pain of losing a child. The performance will play at Husets Teater in Copenhagen, Denmark this November. Tickets are available at https://teaterbilletter.dk/forestillinger/har-doeden-taget-noget-fra-dig-saa-giv-det-tilbage-146646.
If Death Has Taken Something From You, Give It Back is a choreographic work created by and featuring Royal Danish Ballet dancer and choreographer Oliver Marcus Starpov as the son, and actress Christine Albeck Børge as the mother. Together, they create an intense duet in which movement and text intertwine.
“Naja Marie Aidt’s book deeply affected me the first time I read it, and I have long wanted to explore it on stage. Death, mortality, the supernatural and dance are all states in which we as human beings are at our most emotionally affected and without explanation – both as spectators and participants. This is why I feel such a clear connection between them.”
— Oliver Marcus Starpov
In If Death Has Taken Something From You, Give It Back, dance and theatre meet in an equal interplay that both unites and challenges the two art forms. Through choreography, the physicality of grief takes shape on stage – from the intimate and immediate to the more fragmented and unresolved.
The performance offers an honest yet non-exploitative portrait of grief and the pain that follows. At its core, however, it is also a love story – about the bond between a mother and her child.
To physically manifest the shattering, reality-warping weight of grief detailed in Aidt’s text, the production incorporates the primal methodology of Butoh. Vangeline’s coaching shapes the raw, intense physical vocabulary required to portray the thin line between life, death, and devastating sorrow.
CREATIVE TEAM
Performers: Oliver Marcus Starpov, Christine Albeck Børge
Direction: Amanda Linnea Ginman, in collaboration with Oliver Marcus Starpov
Text: Excerpts from Naja Marie Aidt’s book Har døden taget noget fra dig så giv det tilbage, published by Gyldendal
Text adaptation: Amanda Linnea Ginman, Matilde Böcher
Choreographer: Oliver Marcus Starpov
Set Designer: Oliver Marcus Starpov
Composer & Sound Designer: Matilde Böcher
Lighting Designer: Christian Vest Berntsen
Butoh Choreographic Consultant: Vangeline
Production Manager: Josephine Egebæk Hansen
Vangeline is a New York–based teacher, choreographer, and dancer specializing in Japanese Butoh. As the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute, she is widely recognized for her rigorous, research-driven approach to Butoh and for expanding the form’s relevance in the 21st century. Her work actively champions diversity and inclusion within the field, creating space for historically underrepresented voices. She carries forward the legacy of Butoh while infusing it with contemporary relevance—through activism, research, and performance.
Through her all-female dance company, Vangeline creates socially engaged, innovative choreographic works that unite Butoh with activism. She is the founder of both the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which uplifts the work of women in Butoh, and Queer Butoh, a festival centering LGBTQ+ voices within the form. She is also the visionary behind The Dream a Dream Project, an award-winning program now in its 18th year that brings Butoh to incarcerated individuals in correctional facilities across New York State.
At the heart of Vangeline’s philosophy is the belief that Butoh can be a tool for both personal and collective transformation. Her work reflects a deep commitment to integrating the many dimensions of the human experience—beauty and darkness alike—and reintegrating society’s marginalized voices.
Vangeline’s choreography has been presented internationally in Chile, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, Denmark, the UK, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. She is the recipient of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award for her groundbreaking project The Slowest Wave, which explores the intersection of Butoh and neuroscience. She was also a 2022–2023 Gibney Dance in Process resident artist, a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere, and the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award and the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Her work has been widely acclaimed, both nationally and internationally, with critics praising its power, precision, and emotional resonance. Reviews have appeared in publications including The New York Times (“captivating”) and the Los Angeles Times (“moves with the clockwork deliberation of a practiced Japanese Butoh artist”), to name just a few.
Her work extends to film as well, including a starring role opposite James Franco and Winona Ryder in Jay Anania’s feature film The Letter (Lionsgate, 2012). She has also been commissioned by Grammy Award–winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Skrillex, and David J. (Bauhaus).
Vangeline is the author of the critically acclaimed book Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which delves into the connection between Butoh and neuroscience. She led the first-ever scientific study measuring the effects of Butoh on the brain (The Slowest Wave). Her work has been profiled in CNN’s Great Big Story (“Learning to Dance with Your Demons”), featured on the BBC’s Deeply Human podcast (with host Dessa), and explored in her own podcast, Butoh Musing with Vangeline.
She was recently awarded a prestigious fellowship at Wadham College, University of Oxford, for the 2026–2027 academic year. She looks forward to performing MAN WOMAN at the Schwarzman Center, University of Oxford, in September 2025 and premiering her new solo NAIAD METAL at Lincoln Center in August 2026. www.vangeline.com
VANGELINE THEATER/ NEW YORK BUTOH INSTITUTE aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com
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