THE ORIGIN OF CONEY ISLAND RITUAL CABARET, an annual performing arts festival spanning eight year, is informed by dancer/ choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata who co-originated butoh in 1960s Japan in an effort to defy and subvert authority, including conventional notions of dance, thereby seeking transformation — on the personal, societal and human level. Hijikata embraced the zeitgeist of Tokyo’s underground and the Europe-influenced avant-garde arts scene comprised of neo-Dadaism, Fluxus, German Expressionism, Surrealism, and Existentialism. During the day, he trained his dancers by inventing body rituals towards a revolutionary dance form. At night the group then experimented with bringing their exploration into the competitive marketplace of cabaret/burlesque. Inspired by this historical reference, in 2016 ICL founded a butoh-, theatre- and performing-arts festival at Coney Island USA. After three years of directing ensemble workshops and performances for the Festival, Mexico-based Diego Piñón (of Body Ritual Movement) coined the term Ritual Cabaret for work that sought to marry ritualistic physical theater with cabaret, burlesque and sideshow on the CIUSA stage.