First of all, I am a Mensch and a mother of two beautiful humans.

And at the moment, I am a recovering Mensch.

In October 2025 I suffered a catastrophic life changing dance accident, which destroyed my left mid foot. Since then my now christened left foot (I call him Hijikata), has challenged, stretched, confronted and taught me so much, that I am almost grateful. I decided to healing and perform. In Butoh, the damaged body is welcome. I am practicing this every day.

It helps that I try to, everyday, stay present, be authentic in my expression and interactions, and develop art that speaks of what this consciousness experiences in this moment.

And then I make art…

I am also an award winning German and British freelance Performance Artist/ Butoh Practitioner/ Theatre Maker/ Director/ Film Maker/ Poet/ Artist/ Facilitator/ Mentor/ Lecturer, the founder and co-producer of the One Fell Swoop Project Micro Outdoor Shakespeare Festival, founder and producer of AboutFace Theatre Company, and founder and co-producer of the project .butoh//eXr, which brings together Butoh and new technologies. I am also a member of the Authentic Artist Collective, the JAFY collective, Berlin, the WAKEN collective, London, Sho Synergy Collective, Tokyo and a Path Maker.

I started writing in my teenage years, mainly for the stage. They say my work is raw and vulnerable. I focus on trauma, mental health, mothering, love, loneliness, longing, desire, sex, death, dying, grief and survival.  

I trained as a PathMaker in an 18 months intensive professional facilitation program with Dr Kath Burlinson and the Authentic Artist Collective, am a qualified Ayurvedic Yoga Massage and Reiki Master, have over 22 years teaching and facilitating practice in primary, secondary and adult education, trained in acting at the Schülerclub at Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, have an MA in English/ Drama and American Studies (with honours) from the Goethe University Frankfurt/M., Germany, which I earned writing my thesis "Variations of the self - Identity in the poems of the Northern Irish poet Medbh McGuckian”, and a professional development degree in physical theatre from Hope Street Ltd./ John Moores University, Liverpool, both awarded while still living under the name Sabine Hauschild. Two of my poems are published in 'Night Bus to Speakers' Corner: Original Prose and Poetry from Brighton' (available on amazon) while you can find several others, as well as my theatre work and my music videos on my YouTube channel @joannarosenfeld.

I have a great passion for film and make and edit (mostly dance) films. I have been filming and editing multi media performance pieces since school, and bring these skills to my performance practice. From 2019-2021 I collaborated with the singer songwriter Dedi Madden and made four music videos with/for him, working very intimately, and fulfilling the roles of camera woman, director, script writer, dramaturg and editor. 

For the last 8 years I have been deep diving into Butoh, a Japanese originating performance art methodology, which I fold into my art practice. I have performed Butoh based work in New York, London, Vienna, Wales, as part of BIG Butoh, Berlin, Yokohama, Miaoli, Taipei, Saruhashi, and Tokyo.

Among others I have worked with Paul Hunter (told by an idiot), Hailey Carmichael (theatre de complicité), All Greek To Me Theatre Company, Company Festival Shakespeare, Anselm Weber, Gavin Robertson, Dr Kath Burlinson, Cirque du Soleil, Ingrid Wendt, Ella Jaroszewicz, Michael Chase, David Glass, Isso Muira, Daisuke Yoshimoto, Fumihiro Yoshino, Yumino Seki, Marie-Gabrille Rothie, Motoya Kondo, Conan Amok, Tashi Iwaoka, Michiyasu Furutani, Yumiko Yoshioka, Henriette Heinrichs and Yuko Kawamoto.  

In Japan, I studied my beloved Butoh, with many fantastic teachers, dancers and artists, amongst others Saga Kobayashi, Yuko Kawamoto, Motoya Kondo, Seisaku, Dakei, Katsura Kan, Yumiko Yoshioka, Imma Tenko, Taketeru Kudo, Atsushi Takenouchi, Daisuke Yoshimoto and the wonderful Kae Ishimoto gently guiding me at the Hijikata Archives at Keio University.

After 13 months in Japan (my sabbatical in Japan and Taiwan, where I developed ‘Kreise aus Asche’ at OAG, presented several solos, amongst others, ‘Memoria’ at Claft, and ‘Resonant Void’, both with music by Keita Miyano, ‘On not being’, music Yugo Tanaka and ‘Fragments of Silence’, music by Mamoru Hoshi, some available on YouTube) I am back in Eurpoe to bring the work home. I am performing ‘Resonant void’ in the Brighton and the Edinburgh Fringe, and then at the Zen Centre in San Francisco USA. In July I am also offering a beautiful 3 day intensive Butoh workshop in Blackness, Scotland.

Later in the year, I will head back to Tokyo to bring my new piece ‘Anatomy of a fracture’ to the Claft Centre Line Arts Festival. Please look out for various other performances and workshops in the events section.

I am grateful that over the last years I had the opportunity to create the duet ‘After the Eclipse’ with Fumihiro Yoshino, dramaturgy Daisuke Yoshimoto, the wonderful quartet ‘Kreise aus Asche’ with Isso Muira, Megumi Hoshino, Yuki Aseema Ichikawa with the support of and at OAG Tokyo, ‘Luminous Ashes’ with Conan Amok, commissioned by Dance Base Yokohama, the durational performance trio ‘Beyond the Directions of the Wind’ with Tetsuro Yuasa and Ayako Kanisasare, and to extend the performance series ‘Dialogue Without Words’ to East Asia, conversing with (among others) Azu Minami, Memory, Maresuke, Yuki Ichikawa, Megumi Hoshino, Yoshiko Honda, Yukio Suzuki, Fumihiro Yoshino, En Tee, Meecho Su Teal, Hida Manabu, Yuma Takeshita and Farabi Toshiyuki Suzuki, as well as having deep and stimulating conversations with the wonderful 奥原進 and the dearly missed late Shinichi Takeshige. Thank you all.

I am always interested in collaborations. If you fancy working with me, get in touch.

All of the performances are available for bookings, just drop me a line and we can talk.

If you want to support my work, please get in touch.