You know how when you just wake up and know you have been dreaming but can not quite recall what? This happens to me A LOT. I often miss being able to have & hold the richness of this dream material as enjoyment, insight, material for creative inspiration and contemplation. There are lots of folks that will teach you how to recall night dreams more easily, and what do DO with them when you do. But that is not what happened this past week. Instead, the waking life I experienced became a vivid dreamlike journey of learning and discovery.
I had the pleasure of a series of teachings that relate to this "dream" we are living and dancing daily. The first was from a beloved wild woman Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Lama Lena. Each time I am in her presence she rocks my world in a most appreciated way. This time, she shared teachings about the way humans experience reality; often mentioning that this transitory & spontaneously arising dancing dream of life that we think we are experiencing is utterly empty in the most alive and brilliant way. She pointed to the mistake of dualism in a way that I could glimpse, and it felt both satisfying and disturbing. What are we do DO with this realization? Among the suggestions she offered, what struck me most keenly concerned why we make ART and why we PRACTICE to grow. Of course, this is what I THINK I HEARD HER SAY. Who knows really? She puts forth that there is NO THING to change or make better, to fix or understand. Art is a function and celebration of the spontaneously emerging RICHNESS of a creation that is ever arising from and dissolving into VAST LUMINOUS SPACE. It is delightful to engage in this richness, just as long as you do not try to KEEP it. That is where our suffering will begin. Enlightenment is and always has been and is already always present....and, if you do not see that or are not satisfied with your current experience then some spiritual (or freely fleeting spontaneous dance) practice could be a way to possibly increase that satisfaction. Not much to grasp onto to in all that, eh?
What I gathered is that our SPONTANEOUS DANCING FREELY & Embodied Art PRACTICES with nature (both human and non-human); can be an excellent way to promote being fully awake, engaged and perhaps even satisfied in this fleeting dream dance we call "life." Another way is to just simply NOTICE (and perhaps embody, engage with &/or experience gratitude in) the infinitely rich spontaneously arising dream dance that you are already, always engaged in....right HERE and NOW!! As I type this on computer I look out window and breath and relax my body noticing and appreciating the richness of many sensations. No matter whether you are "PRACTICING" or not. It appears, that our PRACTICES of letting go & dancing spontaneously tend to lead to more ease with dancing freely in every moment.
Next, I went to see a well-done local play about Gertrude Stein (who appears as a ghost throughout most of the play) and Alice B. Toklas (who appears sad and elderly throughout most of play). If not for the days first event with Lama Lena, I would have been very emotionally drawn into the drama of the play and these women's considerable attachments to one another, their reputations, and their formidable collection of art & artists. Instead, I sat watching my patterned reactions of how heart strings are plucked by certain situations like death of a loved one, acts of betrayal, cruelty, injustice, kindness, caring and so on.
Finally, we attended another inspiring/disturbing/hopeful talk by visionary economist Charles Eisenstein referring to his theories on how we got into this cultural & ecological nightmare of an economic crisis. He articulated the need for a GIFT based economy as a way to initiate and live in the world of our best dreams. I was grateful to have attended. It even shifted the way I request donations for Butopia's offerings at this point. It is preparing me to host our first Butopia Film Night at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Clinton, WA... We will show the documentary movie "Living Without Money" about one woman who chose to live without money for over 15 years in Europe. I hope this will help instigate a local conversation about the possibilities and difficulties of a gift economy here. I also hope it will stimulate more participation in a wider range of volunteer gifting of goods & services locally. Life without money could be a dream come true, or it could be a nightmare...what do you think? Come join us on Feb 12 at 2-4pm. Bring something to GIVE AWAY!
Next, on the suggestion of a fellow MomoButoh Dance Co. member Melinda Harrison of Nautre Moves in Boulder, I went to San Diego to attend the Life Force International's first ever DREAM ACADEMY. That is California Dreamin' for sure! There are loads of folks living and wishing they were living their dreams everywhere! There were many people who have made small or large fortunes by referring others to the Life Force products, by enrolling others to become business parters and so on in this Network Marketing company that is now poised to explode with growth under the helm of MLM guru David Colister. having pictures taken with the sports cars and Rolls Royce in the parking lot, others of us gasping in awe at the grand opening of the MASSIVE new facility to hold future Dream Academies. Melinda's dream is that dancers will be healthy and financially independent and well provided for. Hope her dream comes true!
http://youtu.be/q3CbcS8z4SMIn a parallel universe in San Diego, I came down with a nasty flu. In the delirium, I lost my glasses so I could no longer see clearly or drive. Along the way, I met an exceptional cast of characters who live and work with butoh, local churches and the erotic dance business. I danced freely on the coastal beach and made the film below inspired by dream-like images in nature that struck me particularly strongly. The shadow of my body on the firm, flat sand, the roar of surf and ripples of waves spreading over the shoreline, a spontaneously knotted strip of kelp, the tiny bird footprints, flecks of gold dust in the sand, sculpture-like seaweeds dried & twisted, the sparkling shells, rhythms of footfalls and fingers dragging in sand.....all felt as reflections of an emerging dream dance life that I could only witness and be moved with gratitude and awe at the GIFT of it all.
Then today, I went out to dance on our local dreamy beach, Double Bluff. I was playing with as stone and seaweed when a private helicopter flew at me and started circling low just over my head, heading back and forth down the beach a ways and then returning to me. I spun and danced while it spun and danced overhead. Very surreal. Very much like a dream and certainly nothing I have ever experienced before. Life is but a dream dancing itself awake!
Thank you for reading, watching, dancing and dreaming. Hope you can come attend an event at Butopia soon. Love, Momo.
"Heart is like the moon. Don't keep sorrows in it. Cast them off in waters deep." Rumi
After spending a few days alone in my childhood home one month to the day after my Dad passed (7/7/11), I could feel his presence as I left. Unexpectedly, the motion detector lights at the far end of the house turned on mysteriously as I was packing up my car. I was reminded of the ritual Dad and I had of him standing at the door, waiting and waving as I backed out of the long driveway after visiting with him
.
Missing him, tears began to flow and I felt inspired to dance my grief, so I threw on a sweater and hat that belonged to him, and just as I set up the camera, a thundercloud overhead began to send rain to the earth - the hugest drops I have seen in a awhile, feeling like they were my tears, washing my spirit's grief...
Driving home, I was inspired to pull off the highway onto a deserted country road to take a photo of the moon, which suddenly appeared through a crack in the clouds. As I pulled to the side of the road, a white barn owl flew across the moon's light and onto a nearby barn roof. Once again I felt insipred to dance, feeling my Dad's presence in the infinite night sky, reminded of the connection I felt with the moon and his passing...
Right after Dad passed in the hospice a visitor in the lobby began to play Debussy's 'Clair de Lune,' a song that I remembered hearing waft through our home as a child. Hearing the song so soon after he passed, felt like Dad was being serenaded into the spirit realm with the sounds of the moonlight...
Connecting to my Dad, the moon, the owl, the cosmos and the mystery...
Grateful for our deepening connection here to one another... dancing our souls... thank you, Momo, for bringing us together in this most meaningful way....
last night's sliver moon was held in the mauve twilight sky above the silhouetted north shore mountains... has time stopped? days have become hours... hours have become minutes... just this... holding my father's hand, stroking his forehead, face to face with impermanence... the challenge of surrendering to the unknown with trust, boundless love, forgiveness, and gratitude.. breathing in, breathing out... just this.
- from notes I took during the weeks of my dad's passing.
Being with my sister, my brother and his son while my Dad passed was such a sacred gift. Because the process was one that extended for 3 weeks, it enabled us to be with him in such profound ways and to be by his side as he took his last breath.
During the weeks prior to his passing we all felt like we were in another plane of reality where time literally stopped, as we were so present with him breath by breath, moment to moment... listening, being, and speaking only that which felt important to say - expressions of forgiveness, gratitude and love.
When we felt like we had opened our hearts fully to one another, and the days continued to pass, we children just kept saying to each other, "Okay, lets go deeper, what else needs to be said to Dad? Let's peel back more layers..." Although Dad's words were very few at the end, he continued to respond with big smiles, sparkly eyes and by squeezing our hands.
In the last five days of his life he was in the hospice where we were able to camp out with him in his room day and night. The last three nights were quite sleepless as it felt like we were getting so close to his last breaths. We sang songs from our childhood camping days for him - so many old campfire songs, accompanied by my brother playing my Dad's old harmonica.
Dad from the 1940s
One of our favorite songs that we sang with our Dad playing harmonica was 'Swing Low' which we sang several times to him in his final hours and at the time of his passing.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Comin' for to carry me home;
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Comin' for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan,
And what did I see,
Comin' for to carry me home,
A band of angels comin' after me,
Comin' for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do,
Comin' for to carry me home,
Tell all my friends I'm comin' too,
Comin' for to carry me home.
My brother took this film of my dance in Vancouver close to the airport after dropping my sister off there a few days after my dad's passing. I am wearing Dad’s hat from when he was a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
When he was in the hospital suffering with pain, he told us at one point after he was given morphine that he was ‘flying’ and that he saw heaven and that it was beautiful... Years ago he had shared that he used to have dreams of flying, too... that it was a place where he felt free.
Inspired to dance this dance of grief at the loss of my Dad and to embody the experience of his passing - the acceptance of his transition into the great mystery, the realm of spirit... out of his body and his suffering and into the realm of light... to embrace the feeling that he has transcended into a higher plane that exists beyond the physical realm, but that connects us all to the great unknown and the cosmos.
This dance also embodied for me the challenge of witnessing his struggle - his relentless holding on... literally, too - to the bed rail, to the catheter tube, to the blanket, when we were not present, and to our hands when we were. His grip was so strong...
Dad as a pilot with his RCAF hat.
Goodbye Dad... I love you.
Mom and Dad... 1940s
Dad pointing the way to their future... Touches me deeply to see this photo now... pointing the way into the heavens and the great mystery...
Thank you for viewing this most personal blog post. I hope it may inspire you in some way.
With gratitude to Momo and all in Momobutoh Company for all your inspirations...
Lee
I was thrilled to find this version of Joan Baez's 'Swing Low' as our family had met her in the late 1960's while we were hiking in Garibaldi Meadows - she was camping in the same meadow - high in the alpine beauty of wide open skies and flowers...
During the time of Dad's passing the symbology of metamorphosis was very predominant... transitioning into a new 'being'... after the above dance I loved seeing these kites flying high into the cosmos... with the image of a butterflies upon each one... being flown by an elder holding the strings...
Our current theme is Plants & Animals so MomoButoh practice partner Patricia and I vowed to engage at least one Significant Plant &/or Animal relative each day in a butoh dance exchange. So far, so good. We have engaged with trees, humans, sticks, roots, snails, flowers, anemones, herons, whales and spiders among others. Each relative has a message, a gift, a challenge to share. Each evokes a unique dance from us. Snail/Slug moved SO slowly and was SO extremely sensitive to my presence and every move. I've been especially interested in how one relative introduces and leads to another. For example, today when I was dancing with a purple Azalea, a black & white spider dangled along and joined us too. Azalea wanted her old dry blossoms scratched off to make more space for the bright fragrant fresh ones. Spider was reminding me of my grandmothers. Then the Rhodie next door wanted to be included as well asking for some root food. This led us to a great action of making an entire new vegetable garden and planting a tree in our yard, all in 24 hours in pouring rain. Those plant relatives sure are strong motivation coaches!
Sometimes these SOs have mysterious synchrony & connections. One day, while dancing with with some seaweed resting on a large stone. I inadvertently sent a Great Blue Heron into flight, which in turn led me to finding a beautiful rock with "1111" unmistakably inscribed on it. I came home to communications from company members and it turns out GBHs are communicating among our MomoButoh members all over the place this week. Carolyn, who is in Florida said they are showing up by her daily, Patricia was stalked by one in Vancouver, BC, Misty Hannah (who is stepping away from the company toward other activities now) sees one regularly in her neighborhood in County Cork, Ireland. One showed up in a student's drawing yesterday, without conscious intention or prompting from me, after her butoh exploration of 4 senses: One-der, Touch, Life & Movement.
We are all relatives, all connected and in this web of dynamic exchange and if we listen, each being has a great deal to share with us. A daily Significant Other butoh practice helps to awaken consciousness & connection with abundant allies and friends each offering unique resources to inspire soulful life/art.
These films are from recent dances with Plant & Animal relatives whale & alder tree roots, lawn grass, anemone, barnacle, cottonwood and cacti....What better way to get acquainted? With other, with self, with all creation...all our relations.
Apologies for the immense backlog of dances & films. I have been scrambling to catch up; processing and posting them in "chunks." Thank you for witnessing and sharing your reflections through your comments below.
This post is dedicated to this dreamy dancing life and some key performances that have arisen from soul, imagination and sensation during the past 5 moons (except Memorial Dance which was a homage to WW II veteran Kazuo Ohno presented on 5/31/10 with live video released publicly on 6/1/11 in memory of sensei's passing 1 year ago).
Memorial Dance was performed at Langley Middle School as part of the poetry of veterans shared for VRC Annual Memorial Day Tribute event.
People Get Ready was an improv performance offering by facilitators Melinda Harrison and Maureen Freehill, to close the Significant Other butoh & LifeArt Mastery workshop at NatureMoves studio in Boulder. Music is Vanilla Fudge's "People Get Ready."
Cottonwood Sunrise was a dancing gift after the Significant Other workshop in Boulder, CO offered by WilderDancer Christine Palafox. A homage to sunrise and the presence of her neighborhood cottonwood tree. David Harrison accompanied, we danced and she directed the score. Camera by John Lorette & Momo. The full piece is included here to get a sense of actual sunrise time/light shifts.
Lady of the Lake on MayDay was an event directed by accordion player Jason Webley for one of his four "death rememberings" on cross-quarter days in 2011; leading to a culminating performance on 11/11/11. Only participants in these events will discover the location of a final performance on 11/11/11. This dance happened on MayDay eve on Boat Street in Seattle from 11:11pm till late into the night during about 11 trips as about 11 passengers headed out on a 100 year old boat to drink and offer healing medicine tea into the lake. Maureen was the "Lady in White" while Rick was "St. Joan's" captain and Lee Atwell filmed.
Hitobashira is a piece that Maureen has been creating since 2001 with imagery from Japanese history stating that human sacrifices/suicides were common when building bridges or castles or when lovers were wanting to be together for eternity. Most commonly the accompaniment is a score composed by sound artist Pamela Z specifically for this piece. This performance was at 11:11 on 3/11/11, the morning of the Japanese tsunami and improvised with dancer Delisa Myles under a bridge in the snow melt in Prescott, AZ. Camera by John Lorette.
Still Moment(s) Rising is a edit mash-up of 3 different performances of the same short piece about a spring shoot rising from the cold ground into the sunlight. One is at Unitarian Universalist in Freeland, Wa; one at Unity Church in Langley, Wa and one at BeBe Theater in Asheville NC for the Fools Butoh Festival there in April.
Thank you all for watching and offering reflections below. The spaces for the Somatic Building Internships are steadily filling. Contact Momo soon if you are interested in joining us sometime this summer. It is so wonderful here....a dream coming true!
i am in love with discovering my significant others.
a tire swing teaches me balance
a blade of grass and breeze preach ease
listening . . .
reveling in every precious moment
i can't help but beam.
i am surprised again and again.
"and i find i know what i already knew"
I had a lovely dance with a rose bush in my grandma's garden.
after asking to be shown my S.O., a hawk flew overhead and my core led me to the pretty pink blooms.
When I got closer, I became more connected with their sturdy trunks and spiky thorns.
What a tough and beautiful flower!
Next my attention was brought to a tipped over cactus flower, growing sideways in the grass.
I danced its sharp thorns, its prickles and horns.
I danced its buds, closed oh so tightly, waiting to BURST!
I danced the in between of blooming soft pink rose petals
and tight closed cactus buds.
Then I thanked the flowers with words and a playful spraying from the hose!
This too became a dance, the water crystals dusting the flowers, dusting me, relieving us both of the bright sun. The water cast rainbows before us both, me and my Significant Others. :)
One of the sweetest parts of the MomoButoh Dance Company is the ongoing creative exchange, mutual inspiration and support we cultivate with one another as a team. I've been lucky to have ongoing check-ins with each member as I coach their butoh and life/art processes individually. In addition, with our group blog, "buddy system" and monthly conference call to check in with every member; we are ALL now able to develop intimate ongoing intermodal arts exchanges and keep current on the latest with one another. This kind of cyclic art dialog is surprisingly supportive and fun. Here is a delightful film by Patriciathat shows innovative use of media to facilitate the process with this type of exchange. Some of Lees recent posts also focus on this "riffing" off of one another's inspiration.
Last moon Patricia told me a dream she had wherein she was watching me lovingly emerge in and out of a pool of water. We gazed into one another's eyes as I surfaced and submerged. When I was on the red rocks in Sedona, AZ recently I wanted to dance this dream image. The film below is that dance.
Patricia also sent me a fantastic little hand illustrated graphic storybook (see photo above). Today, I wanted to dance with that as my Significant Other...it is an imaginary journey with an imaginary insect. The other film below shows that aesthetic response.
This moon Patricia and I are butoh "buddies." We both want support and accountability for our daily Significant Other practice with plants and animals so we are partnering up to exchange in this way with one another. We will be reporting to one another and on the blog about how it is coming along. Yesterday was our first S.O. plant dance for the month. Coincidentally we both had just gathered "sticks:" hers, two echinacea stalks topped with dried flowers that looked like huge insect antennae; mine a sensual piece of driftwood I'd gathered some years ago on a remote Pacific Ocean beach. We entered S.O. practiceand shedanced with my stick and I with hers. It reminded us that the intention and usual result of this practice is awakened attention and deepened connection with others in relationship. After we danced today, we checked in and her response to her own SO practice was: "the little and the big, parallel lines twig, last year's growth, this year's promise of seeds. tightly packed and all is promise, all is future....in a seed pod." http://youtu.be/nxCF41LtDmY
Thank you for watching our films, for your comments and for following our blog. If you like this work, please like us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter for most current info!
"The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened." Unknown Author
My art of Patricia's dream (above)...
Patricia and I shared our dreams once again via 'skype' - drawing each other's dreams as they were being shared...
One of the images I drew of Patricia's dream was of two columns... with a whirlwind (nourishment - a green blender drink :~) swirling in the middle... books and furniture being moved... In another, there was also a strong concrete column supporting an overhang...
Patricia's art of my dream below... a dream of concern - once I made it to the top of the slippery snow covered mountain, how would I descend?
The undercurrent of the dream (and both of our dreams), however, was one of trust and letting go, and in that process, 'all would be well.'
At my last mentoring session with Momo she spoke of 'Hitobashira' - that which creates a framework, bridge, or pillar. When one dances 'Hitobashira' you gracefully enter or touch the space around you to begin, then establish your axis between poles of opposites - such as above and below, life and death, etc... From this place, you can open gateways of exchange with other beings around you (animate and inanimate) and then explore the poles of opposites... and in the uncertainty, shaking and imbalance might ensue... with the potential of eventually finding balance...
There is a also an element of stepping off into the unknown through this practice... a surrendering into the flow and / or an acceptance of a burden...
Momo's dance performance is incredibly moving, danced post the earthquake in Japan, a dance evoking the unstable earth beneath us and feelings within us....
In a friend's garden, with her outdoor furniture strewn about (aka Patricia's dream of furniture moving), I had an opportunity to dance Patricia's dream combined with elements of mine... the 'columns' becoming unstable, the desire to climb up, while being challenged by the slippery 'slope' and the final surrender into the flow...
Feeling grateful for this practice of connection and this means in which to embody the literal challenges of finding balance in life... heart-full thank you Patricia, and Momo...
Patricia and I continued to share and dance our dreams via 'Skype'... I shared a dream I had of a woman who was dressed in a black raincoat who was stumbling underneath a street light... she then transformed into a pink blossom and was joined by other blossom-women in a dance...
Patricia shared her dream...
Patricia drew my dream... I drew her dream... with her dream woven in... with her previous dream also woven in... our dreams... dreams within dreams...
My art above...
Patricia's art below...
While walking in the arboretum on this unseasonably cold April day, I was moved to dance my dream / interpretation of my dream / Patricia's art of my dream, my art of my dream, and my art of her dream...
The petals are falling! The petals are falling!... Today, mixed with thunder, lightening, rainbows and hail-pebbles, spring's sweet snowfall...
Love this dance practice of connection... to one another and to the natural world... grateful for the beauty of mama earth that abounds...
Thank you for viewing... I hope this dance practice may inspire you to dance with the blossoms near you, before they fall like snow to the earth...
"Significant Other" (S.O.) is one of the MomoButoh training practices. It is a way of revealing the soul through the flesh and spontaneously devising meaningful improvisational dance & choreography. It intentionally enhances relationships with a11 beings through active artful engagement and conscious exchange of energy. These Others could be living human beings; any beings in the natural world; or (seemingly) "inanimate" objects who each have an essence that moves you in some way to an aesthetic response.
S.O.s can be in physical or imaginal form....such as drawings, dream images or characters.
You can go out looking for an S.O. to dance with OR....when you happen to MEET an Other that feels Significant or meaningful for you in some way.....
The 7-step practice works like this:
1. Sensually pay attention to the Other in a way that feels honorable & comfortable. This could be as simple as witnessing with eyes or more deeply engaged like touching or sharing breath.
2. Receive something tangible from the Other through your senses and imagination.
3. Offer something tangible to the Other with your body and voice.
4. Allow a free conversation and/or dance of exchange to emerge between you spontaneously.
5. Thank the other for sharing this experience with you.
6. Continue on; carrying some "jewels" & "seeds" in the form of gifts and/or challenges from the exchange.
7. Freely draw, dance, write, speak, sing, sculpt, make a film, etc... about these "jewels" & "seeds" to re-cycle & re-member. Continue to embody & share this experience as an offering to your greater community.
Please try this and let us know how it goes with a comment below!!
This coming May moon our MomoButoh Company theme will be Plants & Animals. I am encouraging all of us to regularly, even daily, dance with at least one Significant Other plant &/or animal. Then to develop a special intimacy over time with ONE plant and ONE animal that holds particular meaning for you.
This dance in film below happened when arriving to prepare for the "Significant Other" 3-day workshop I co-led with Melinda Harrison in Boulder this past February. I was very "wound up" and ungrounded after a long car/plane/bus trip from Seattle that day. This dance allowed me opportunity to intimately engage with the Significant Others (sky, stones, mountains, plants) of this new environment, ground myself here and unwind some of the tension from the journey.
Hope you enjoy! Feel free to contact me if you want to explore these practices further AND leave any comments about your impressions below. Thank you.
(NOTE: This POST began as a personal email letter to our MomoButoh Company Members only but then I thought--why not share it on our BLOG to reveal more of our inner workings to everyone who cares to witness--or maybe join us.)
Dear MomoButoh Dream Clan,
We have a date eh?
There is SO much to share!
A dream date….a date and time to share our dances, dreams, feelings, ideas, actions, intentions…..
Please come if you can to SKYPE together for our once moony conference conversation call at 10 AM PST, 11AM MST, 12 noon EST on Saturday April 23….all together now & then!
The subject will again be our dreams and visions as they relate to our butoh dance paths.
This has been a trippy time to say the least, especially with mercury retrograde….Have you been noticing an unusually high number of quirky mis-communications and techno or directional glitches? Carolyn and I certainly have as we made our way along through the maze of the southeast USA highway/byway and university academia systems. Thank goodness that April 23 is supposedly the last day of that adventure.
I feel a new wave of members about to join us….perhaps. We met and made very strong connections with a great deal of enthusiastic dancers in Florida & N. Carolina.
I think that Patricia is the only one who (sadly :-( ) can not make it for the call this time round. I will be calling folks so if you will NOT be available or will need to join us late, please let me know asap. THANKS!
Otherwise, lets arrange for our various one to one session times by Skype or in person soon. Please let me know what day/time would suit you. Now that I am back from the tour, my time is a bit more open and flexible. I will (with Lee as well) be in "moon time" from April 16-19 so that is not avail.
This moon….
Im holding prayers especially for Meha/David and their Daughter's family as she prepares to birth any day now….for Carolyn as she continues on to her not yet known living/working/life arrangement…..for John and I as we break ground and start building the FLOOR of the new MomoButoh Dance & Retreat Center…..for our non-human relations as they grapple with human created toxic stresses…..for all of us as we do our best to mitigate the effects of radiation and other poisons as well as set our sights on UNITY and BALANCE and LOVE among all beings on this planet and beyond.
TODAY (as i write) 4/12/11 is called a VICTORY DAY in the Vedic Calendar. Today is also Carolyn's Birthday….It was an honor and pleasure to share this time with her culminating in her solar return radiance today. Please remember her in your wishes. AND since it is a VICTORY DAY it is an especially good day to START NEW PROJECTS OR SET GOALS/WISHES FOR THIS YEAR. Carolyn and I stated new intentions over a birthday lunch. All you need to do is write or say the thing you want to begin today and it will be blessed and given extra added juice for fruition! neat!!
I spoke the following (among a couple other things) and thank you for bearing witness:
I Maureen Momo C Pemesal Freehill declare that:
1. The MomoButoh Dance & Retreat Center building project will be beautiful & OPEN for practice by 11/11/11.
2. At which time MomoButoh & all us "11s" will CELEBRATE the great success of co-creating in love, unity and balance a Year of Co11aboration & dancing with ALL our relations….in the space AND at Mile 11 AND at 2K seat Theater in Seattle.
Now that this great wave of touring is subsiding, i have strong wish & intention to POST the past months dances, images, stories, lessons on our BLOG. I apologize that it has taken so long and thank those of you who have continued to post when you can ….YOU make it possible to keep the flow and mutual support of our company alive! Great bow of BIG gratitude! If feels right to be moving out of being main focal point of sharing work and revealing the fu11 CIRCLE of a11 our mutual creativity, support and leadership. I want this to be the way more teams and companies function everywhere. Each of us has a vital part of the WHOLE intelligence to contribute.
Also I will be sending out a general invitation to all who have expressed interest in residential butoh training/internships and/or the building project. We will be accepting 6 "interns" over a total of NNE work party weekends over a 6 month period from late MAY- mid OCTOBER. People who want to join will reply to these questions:
What dates do you want to join us?
Open Work/Dance Party Weekends are as follows:
May 28-29.... June 4-5 & 25-26....July 9-10....August 27-28.....Sept 3-4 & 24-25.....Oct 1-2 & 8-9
Why do you want to join us for this project?
What dance movement and/or building/construction experience do you have? (none needed)
Do you have any special needs or limitations for accommodation, food, physical activity that will help us to support your participation in this project?
I invite all of our members to answer these questions too…..soon please if you want to be included as one of "the 6."
our 11/11/11 time will include an OPENING BLESSING and FIRST DANCE ceremony in the space. (It might be the day before/after depending on the actual 11/11/11 time schedule availability)
OK, I think that is enough said for now. Thank you for reading, keeping in touch and dancing freely. MOre soON….Love to you a11, mOMo….
PHOTOS & Video FROM MOMOBUTOH SOUTHEAST USA TOUR 2011
with HUGE gratitude to A11 who we encountered along the way.....Domo Arigato Gozaimasu...O Tsukare Sama Deshita!
by momo & carolyn:
Our Charriot: "Coro11a Masa" with Siesta Key Parking Fairy.
Delicious Movement..."Touch/One-Der/Water" on Siesta Key beach.
"DailyDance: A Life of Butoh" workshop at Asheville, NC BeBe Theater April Fool's Butoh Festival 2011. Below MomoButoh's "Spring Tryptic" at Festival Closing. Momo performs "Still Mo-ment Rising" at April Fool's Butoh Festival closing night.
Momo performs "Hitobashira" at April Fool's Butoh Festival closing. Video below. Carolyn Boucher, Sheri Brown, Bob Lyness & Momo perform "Flower Child."
"Touch/One-der/Water" MomoButoh Workshop in Greenville, NC at Jnana's Home Movement Studio. "Hitobashira" Choreography Workshop with MomoButoh in the "ARK" with Duke U. dance dept. students and Keval K. Khalsa. Close encounter with dear GBH at Duke's botanical gardens pond.
"Hitobashira" sound score by Pamela Z . Camera: Carolyn Boucher.
You know how when you just wake up and know you have been dreaming but can not quite recall what? This happens to me A LOT. I often miss being able to have & hold the richness of this dream material as enjoyment, insight, material for creative inspiration and contemplation. There are lots of folks that will teach you how to recall night dreams more easily, and what do DO with them when you do. But that is not what happened this past week. Instead, the waking life I experienced became a vivid dreamlike journey of learning and discovery.
I had the pleasure of a series of teachings that relate to this "dream" we are living and dancing daily. The first was from a beloved wild woman Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Lama Lena. Each time I am in her presence she rocks my world in a most appreciated way. This time, she shared teachings about the way humans experience reality; often mentioning that this transitory & spontaneously arising dancing dream of life that we think we are experiencing is utterly empty in the most alive and brilliant way. She pointed to the mistake of dualism in a way that I could glimpse, and it felt both satisfying and disturbing. What are we do DO with this realization? Among the suggestions she offered, what struck me most keenly concerned why we make ART and why we PRACTICE to grow. Of course, this is what I THINK I HEARD HER SAY. Who knows really? She puts forth that there is NO THING to change or make better, to fix or understand. Art is a function and celebration of the spontaneously emerging RICHNESS of a creation that is ever arising from and dissolving into VAST LUMINOUS SPACE. It is delightful to engage in this richness, just as long as you do not try to KEEP it. That is where our suffering will begin. Enlightenment is and always has been and is already always present....and, if you do not see that or are not satisfied with your current experience then some spiritual (or freely fleeting spontaneous dance) practice could be a way to possibly increase that satisfaction. Not much to grasp onto to in all that, eh?
What I gathered is that our SPONTANEOUS DANCING FREELY & Embodied Art PRACTICES with nature (both human and non-human); can be an excellent way to promote being fully awake, engaged and perhaps even satisfied in this fleeting dream dance we call "life." Another way is to just simply NOTICE (and perhaps embody, engage with &/or experience gratitude in) the infinitely rich spontaneously arising dream dance that you are already, always engaged in....right HERE and NOW!! As I type this on computer I look out window and breath and relax my body noticing and appreciating the richness of many sensations. No matter whether you are "PRACTICING" or not. It appears, that our PRACTICES of letting go & dancing spontaneously tend to lead to more ease with dancing freely in every moment.
Next, I went to see a well-done local play about Gertrude Stein (who appears as a ghost throughout most of the play) and Alice B. Toklas (who appears sad and elderly throughout most of play). If not for the days first event with Lama Lena, I would have been very emotionally drawn into the drama of the play and these women's considerable attachments to one another, their reputations, and their formidable collection of art & artists. Instead, I sat watching my patterned reactions of how heart strings are plucked by certain situations like death of a loved one, acts of betrayal, cruelty, injustice, kindness, caring and so on.
Finally, we attended another inspiring/disturbing/hopeful talk by visionary economist Charles Eisenstein referring to his theories on how we got into this cultural & ecological nightmare of an economic crisis. He articulated the need for a GIFT based economy as a way to initiate and live in the world of our best dreams. I was grateful to have attended. It even shifted the way I request donations for Butopia's offerings at this point. It is preparing me to host our first Butopia Film Night at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Clinton, WA... We will show the documentary movie "Living Without Money" about one woman who chose to live without money for over 15 years in Europe. I hope this will help instigate a local conversation about the possibilities and difficulties of a gift economy here. I also hope it will stimulate more participation in a wider range of volunteer gifting of goods & services locally. Life without money could be a dream come true, or it could be a nightmare...what do you think? Come join us on Feb 12 at 2-4pm. Bring something to GIVE AWAY!
Next, on the suggestion of a fellow MomoButoh Dance Co. member Melinda Harrison of Nautre Moves in Boulder, I went to San Diego to attend the Life Force International's first ever DREAM ACADEMY. That is California Dreamin' for sure! There are loads of folks living and wishing they were living their dreams everywhere! There were many people who have made small or large fortunes by referring others to the Life Force products, by enrolling others to become business parters and so on in this Network Marketing company that is now poised to explode with growth under the helm of MLM guru David Colister. having pictures taken with the sports cars and Rolls Royce in the parking lot, others of us gasping in awe at the grand opening of the MASSIVE new facility to hold future Dream Academies. Melinda's dream is that dancers will be healthy and financially independent and well provided for. Hope her dream comes true!
http://youtu.be/q3CbcS8z4SM
In a parallel universe in San Diego, I came down with a nasty flu. In the delirium, I lost my glasses so I could no longer see clearly or drive. Along the way, I met an exceptional cast of characters who live and work with butoh, local churches and the erotic dance business. I danced freely on the coastal beach and made the film below inspired by dream-like images in nature that struck me particularly strongly. The shadow of my body on the firm, flat sand, the roar of surf and ripples of waves spreading over the shoreline, a spontaneously knotted strip of kelp, the tiny bird footprints, flecks of gold dust in the sand, sculpture-like seaweeds dried & twisted, the sparkling shells, rhythms of footfalls and fingers dragging in sand.....all felt as reflections of an emerging dream dance life that I could only witness and be moved with gratitude and awe at the GIFT of it all.
Then today, I went out to dance on our local dreamy beach, Double Bluff. I was playing with as stone and seaweed when a private helicopter flew at me
and started circling low just over my head, heading back and forth down the beach a ways and then returning to me. I spun and danced while it spun and danced overhead. Very surreal. Very much like a dream and certainly nothing I have ever experienced before. Life is but a dream dancing itself awake!
Thank you for reading, watching, dancing and dreaming. Hope you can come attend an event at Butopia soon. Love, Momo.
