Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute Announces Unforgotten: Butoh for 9/11

Vangeline Theater, home of New York Butoh Institute, will present a performance of Unforgotten: Butoh for 9/11, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, on September 11, 2026 at 1PM in Times Square. The event is free to attend. For more information, visit here.

Unforgotten: Butoh for 9/11 is an ensemble work commemorating the victims of 9/11. The 60-minute Butoh dance piece will be choreographed by Vangeline and be performed by an ensemble of several dancers with live musical accompaniment by renowned cellist Katinka Kleijn.

Dancers: Suyi Xu, Zo Roze, Dani Cole, Madelyn Sher, and Eilish Henderson.

Every year for the past two decades, Vangeline Theater has held public 9/11 commemorative performances in New York. For the past ten years, we have performed these offerings in Times Square, with a special dedication for the firefighters, policemen, and women who lost their lives on 9/11. Our annual performances in Times Square on 9/11 hold deep symbolic and cultural significance. The act of performing Butoh—a meditative, expressive dance form—on such a solemn occasion creates a space for collective mourning, remembrance, and healing. Given Times Square’s status as a global landmark and cultural epicenter, the performances serve as a poignant tribute to the victims of 9/11, while also offering an artistic reflection on resilience and loss.

This program is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and the City Council.

Hailed by The New York Times as “a player of formidable expressive gifts,” and “Chicago’s first lady of the cello” by Time Out Magazine, cellist Katinka Kleijn enjoys a genre-defying, interdisciplinary career. Classically trained, she has cultivated an exploratory, interactive practice at the fertile intersection of improvisation, composition, performance art and collaboration. 

Kleijn has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christoph Eschenbach, Richard Goode, Lynn Harrell, Jeremy Denk, Stefan Jackiw, and the Marlboro Music Festival. She has taught at DePaul School of Music, Notre Dame University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and as Artist-in-Residence and Guest Lecturer at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.

Non-classical recordings include collaborations with the progressive rock metal band District 97, the ambient-folk duo Relax Your Ears, singer-song writer David Sylvian, and for the single “Valkyrie” by Asia with John Wetton. She is part of a working duo with guitarist Bill MacKay, and performs regularly on the Chicago free jazz scene. katinkakleijn.com

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.

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 Centre, 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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