Butoh Encounters is the artistic practice and production platform of Karolina Bieszczad-Stie, an Oslo-based choreographer and artistic researcher with a PhD in Performing Arts from Brunel University London (2010).
Founded in 2017, Butoh Encounters centres on the creation of contemporary dance productions, while extending choreographic practice into interdisciplinary artistic research, immersive environments and encounters with science and technology. Each project brings together different constellations of dancers, artists, scientists, engineers and technology developers, depending on its particular artistic and research questions.
At the heart of Karolina's practice is a curiosity about the changing human body: how we move, perceive and relate to the world as science and technology transform the conditions of our existence. Her work engages with ideas of transhumanism and posthumanism, exploring possible futures in which biological, technologically augmented, robotic and virtual bodies coexist. Dance offers a space to imagine and experience these futures through movement, physical encounters and shared perception.
Japanese Butoh dance provides an important foundation for her choreographic approach, particularly its engagement with transformation, contradiction, absurdity and the body's capacity to explore unfamiliar forms. Over time, her work has evolved into contemporary dance, while her understanding of choreography has expanded beyond the stage. Through choreographic experimentation and embodied research, she explores how movement, perception and agency might change as the boundaries between human bodies, other forms of life and technological systems become increasingly fluid.
A recurring interest in her recent work is contingency — the unpredictable behaviours, disruptions and unexpected relationships that emerge between bodies and the systems they encounter. These moments of uncertainty open possibilities for examining control and the ways humans negotiate unfamiliar environments and technologies.
Alongside developing her own artistic projects, Karolina contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations, commissioned artistic work, research presentations and artistic mentorship.