Dani Cole: dancing the in-between
dancer, Butoh artist, poet, tree steward, therapist
matsu is a Butoh piece. I’ve been studying Butoh since 2020; my studies were initially attempts to explore culturally relatable and experimental ways of moving where I could practice listening and responding to my body+spirit rather than hurting myself or causing a chronic illness flare.
As the exploration has grown, I’ve caught what one of my teachers calls the “Butoh virus.” Rather than being a virus that makes me fall ill, it’s made me fall in love with movement arts again -- the possibilities movement can create, particularly when movement facilitates simultaneously conscious and altered states. In these states, cells and spirit connect feelings across time, place, and person (including more-than-human persons!).
—Dani Cole
matsu is an emergent Butoh dialogue between ancestor and place. matsu draws from the gaps between migration stories of my grandmother Mariko, known colloquially as Yukie, as well as my annual visitations to Yukie’s former home site, steadily being reclaimed by forest, in Southern U.S. tobacco country. I imagine my body as a conduit for a politically and ecologically-rich unearthing of global familiarity and difference – ritual and change entangling across generations and lands. The music for matsu will be created by Christian Tan-lin Li; the costume designed and sewn by Anna Hazen.
—Dani Cole
VIDEO INTERVIEW (58:07)
Dani Cole (they/them) is an experimental dance artist, poet, and tree steward, as well as a Licensed Creative Arts Psychotherapist working in public health. All of their work is heavily informed by ecology, recognizing the impacts of the wider circles — familial, cultural, societal, environmental — that reveal our impact on and inseparability from one another. Cole’s experiences of chronic illness and work with disabled community in the overlapping spaces of the arts, the medical system, and political organizing shapes their aesthetics and prioritization of accessibility.
Cole’s choreography has been shared in New York at the 2026 Queer Butoh Festival at The Brick, as well as the Mark O’Donnell Theater, Emelin Theatre, and Bridge for Dance. Cole was selected as a part of the 92nd Street Y’s Dance Up! next generation of young choreographers and was a 2019 choreographic resident at Mana Contemporary.
As a dance artist, they frequently collaborate with jill sigman/thinkdance on projects related to social justice and performed in Deep Blue Sea with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. They study Butoh with Vangeline at the New York Butoh Institute, and have also trained with Eiko Otake and Dai Matsuoka.
As a Creative Arts Psychotherapist, Cole lectures annually on Dance/Movement Therapy at NYU Gallatin. They presented on their work in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at NYC Health + Hospitals’ 2026 Creative Arts Therapy Conference and at Queens Hospital’s Grand Rounds, affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Cole’s interdisciplinary practice extends into writing and environmental stewardship. Their debut poetry collection, Between Heart and Sap, was published in 2025. As a certified tree steward, Cole founded and facilitates annual Tree Time workshops that explore embodied practice as a means of relationship-building between people and trees, and provide education on the relevance of trees to cultural histories and environmental justice.
Dani Cole at ecologicalbodiesbeing.com and on Instagram @s.danicole
Learn more about the concept and development of Butoh and view video samples here: Evangeline, February 27, 2020.
New York Butoh Institute’s Queer Butoh Festival 2026
And here Vangeline offers a lesson on centering yourself—body, mind, and spirit—and channeling the power of stillness (8:10):
Read an in-depth interview with Vangeline by Catherine Tharin of Interlocutor Magazine.
Dani Cole on the Web at ecologicalbodiesbeing.com and on Instagram @s.danicole
1:1 sessions with me are available now!
I’m here to help you develop a capacity to live your human life as your Spirit Self. I draw from a spectrum of colors: primarily, intuitive listening, Tarot, animistic Spiritwork, and energy work. I guide, witness, and champion your development, and I look forward to sharing my work with you soon.
Message to learn how you can book a session:
Join my beautiful community of celebrants for our monthly
Our Summer gatherings will be held on the following Saturdays:
July 25 & August 29—1pm-3pm EDT
FREE
[donations gratefully accepted—message for details]
Message to RSVP for the Zoom link or get on our email list.
Thank you so much, Eva. A gift to chat with you. :) Something I forgot to mention in our interview that feels important to share alongside our video dialogue -- One of the reasons I practice Butoh is because Butoh emerged around the same time my grandmother came of age in Japan. I am not sure if she knew about Butoh or how she engaged with experimental arts at large, but being with Butoh allows me to feel into a larger political and embodied context she was experiencing in her own ways. Hence, Butoh is a conduit for feeling into some of the unknown aspects of her experience, alongside providing a gateway for altered states that help facilitate spiritual connection to her and beyond.
What a beautiful and thought provoking interview covering so much space and time! Thank you, Eva! Thank you, Dani! Two beautiful souls engaged in meaningful conversation!