adam koan

I am a butoh artist based in Florida, USA who has been performing and guiding Butoh in Europe, USA, Mexico, and India since 2013. I am known for the Shadowbody YouTube channel (⁦youtube.com/shadowbody⁩), the Shadowbody Butoh Manual (⁦butohmanual.com⁩), and the Butoh Directory (⁦butohdirectory.com⁩) which has archived over 1000 butoh artists throughout the world and continues to grow.

Adam has studied under 45 butoh/butoh-related guides since 2013, though he studied most extensively with Rhizome Lee (India) and Julie Becton Gillum (USA).

More info:

I am a half Colombian half Venezuelan-American born in Caracas, Venezuela but raised in the small town of Belleview, Florida. I have toured the world performing, teaching, and writing about butoh. I am a former facilitator at Himalaya Subbody Butoh (’17 thru ’19) and was the curator for the 2-week Sesalac Butoh Retreat 2019 which took place in Serbia.

But who I really am is somebody who is grateful to be alive, and I express this gratitude by dancing and encouraging others to dance too. I am drawn to increasing the accessibility of butoh to the marginalized or less privileged in our society and world. Very important to me also is bringing the butoh community closer as well as collaborating with other butoh artists. Let’s choose integration over segregation. Let’s choose collaboration over competition.

I was classically trained in Ballet and Modern Dance at Hillsborough Community College (2010 – 2012) and University of South Florida (2012 – 2013) and studied Butoh at the Indian Himalayas at the Subbody Butoh School (Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Summer & Fall 2017, Summer & Fall 2018, Spring 2019).

In ’21 and ’22, I worked a total of 6 butoh retreats at Stoa, Center for Body Arts & Studies (formerly called Tiyatro Medresesi) in Sirince, Turkey, a theatre retreat facility that has been becoming an international butoh hub.

From September 10th till the rest of 2025, I will be in Thailand and Cambodia.

Julie Becton Gillum (NC, USA) is my butoh and Noguchi taiso mentor and one of my touring partners.

“I live to dance, and I dance to live.”

Julie Becton Gillum

I wholeheartedly follow her quote above. I also not only dance the light, but the shadows. In this way, much depth is brought to my world but hopefully also to those around me.

See the below links for the history I have with this fascinating world of butoh.