Iván-Daniel Espinosa

 

As a choreographer and performance studies scholar, Iván-Daniel writes about and creates work engaged with ecology, mushrooms and fungi, Japanese Butoh, Eco-dramaturgy, Bioperformativity, and interspecies performance.  Iván-Daniel’s PhD dissertation research examines interspecies relationships between human beings and mycelium fungi through the lenses of choreography and performance.  This interdisciplinary research highlights how ‘fungal choreographies’ create ecological and cultural meaning in diverse human and non-human environments, including in the context of theatrical performances that engage with fungi.  

 

Iván-Daniel's recent multimedia dance installations integrating mycelium fungi networks, mycelial bioacoustics and bio-sonification are highlighted in a chapter-length discussion of his work titled “Mycelium in Motion: Choreographing Care in Iván-Daniel Espinosa’s Messengers Divinos” that was published in a 2024 Routledge monograph titled Choreographing Dirt: Movement, Performance, and Ecology in the Anthropocene.  He has presented his ecology-themed and mycology-themed performances nationwide at venues such as La Mama Experimental Theatre in NYC, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), The Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, Seattle International Butoh Festival, Seattle ARTS IN NATURE Festival, Portland Butoh Festival, Houston Fringe Festival, and at numerous academic conferences.  In October 2025, Iván-Daniel was invited overseas to perform his choreography BOWELS OF THE EARTH for its international premiere at the 2025 Vienna Butoh Festival in Vienna, Austria.

 

Iván-Daniel's approaches to performance and choreography are highly influenced by his extensive studies of Japanese Butoh (舞踏, Butō), a contemporary form of dance-theatre that originated in the avant-garde art scene of 1960’s Tokyo at the height of the Japanese Counterculture Movement.  For over a decade, Iván-Daniel has studied and trained with renowned Butoh artists and master teachers from Japan including Natsu Nakajima, Saga Kobayashi, Koichi Tamano and Hiroko Tamano, Moe Yamamoto of Kanazawa Butoh-Kan, and with Dai Matsuoka of the world-renowned Japanese Butoh dance troupe SANKAI JUKU.  Iván-Daniel began his formative Butoh training in Seattle with Northwest Butoh pioneer Joan Laage, who continues to serve as his artistic mentor and teacher to this day.  Iván-Daniel is the Founder and Executive Producer of the SALISH SEA BUTOH FESTIVAL, an annual artistic convergence on the Olympic Peninsula that brings together hundreds of artists from around the world to deepen the study Butoh.

 

Recent Courses Taught:

Spring 2026 — THTR 1009: Theatre and Society

Fall 2025 — CMDP 3310: Performance Media Cultures

Fall 2025 — THTR 1009: Theatre and Society

Spring 2025 — THTR 1009: Theatre and Society

Fall 2024 — THTR 1009: Theatre and Society

Spring 2024 — DNCE 1027: Dance in Culture

Spring 2024 — THTR 1009: Theatre and Society