tar sands, pipelines and oil spills

Britannia, B.C.

"...if you're a poor forlorn oil industry feeling unloved and under assault, what do you do?

There's really only one answer: Flash your wad...

The other side -- that is, scientists, Nobelists, and the kind of average people who went to jail in record numbers this summer to block the plan -- doesn't have that kind of money. We've had to figure out other currencies to work in: spirit, passion, creativity... But if money's the only thing that matters, we're done for anyway. So we'll keep using science and art and courage."    Bill McKibben  

Blog catching up - dance /photos from several weeks ago... I have been so deeply moved by the peaceful protests occurring in both Canada and the United States against the Keystone XL Pipeline, the Northern Gateways Pipelines and also, more importantly, the Alberta Tar Sands themselves. I have been feeling that as much as we seem, as a species, to be evolving in very inspiring ways towards a 'unity consciousness,' a sense of being related to not only one-another around the planet, but also to other beings, we are also moving towards a directly opposing, but just as strong trend, towards destroying our mama earth and all that reside upon her, at all costs.

"But it is hard to speak of these things / how the voices of light enter the body / and begin to recite their stories / how the earth holds us painfully against / its breast made of humus and brambles / how we who will soon be gone regard / the entities that continue to return / greener than ever, spring water flowing / through a meadow and the shadows of clouds / passing over the hills and the ground / where we stand in the tremble of thought / taking the vast outside into ourselves."

Billy Collins

When I feel overwhelmed with despair for the destruction of our world, and the wild beings that reside upon her, I dance...  I wrote the following several weeks ago:

i am dancing because i have to... for the bears, the salmon, the caribou, the wolves, the migrating birds  and all the creatures whose lives are being threatened from the increased pollution and habitat destruction...  because i am canadian and it is unconscionable to me that the current government is supporting an oil extraction method that is the dirtiest energy project in the world, one that is devastating to all beings on our precious mama earth...i am dancing in solidarity with the indigenous peoples whose health and lives are being jeopardized by the alberta tar sands upriver of their communities... because human rights are being violated... i am dancing because i have to... because sometimes it feels my heart will explode with pain and anger at the lack of respect some human beings that run corporations have for all life and for future generations... i dance... i dance...

Thank you for viewing this post. I hope it may inspire you in some way. I am grateful for Momo and Company for being able to share our dance offerings here...

Lee

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering, and may our thoughts and actions contribute to that happiness and freedom from suffering for all beings...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q4eLK35yAc

Music: Dean Evenson

Photos: Brooke

Visit Momobutoh collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company

desert weave dance

For a Father

The longer we live,

The more of your presence

We find, laid down

Weave upon weave

Within our lives.

John O'Donohue

In the Yakima Canyon I was inspired to dance spontaneously wearing my recently passed father's hat (circa 1940's), embodying my inner feeling tones amongst the stark surroundings - barren but filled with light. I adore the desert landscapes as it is a place of wide open spaces that allows for such a feeling of connection to that which is greater than ourselves.

Wearing his woven, wool, plaid hat, I was reflecting also on the First Nations story of how Grandmother Spider wove the web of life that interconnects all beings - animate and inanimate.

"When the Universe was still so dark that not even shadows could be seen in the night, Grandmother Spider sat in her web in the Sky World, waiting and watching. No one knows how old Grandmother Spider is, or how long she sat waiting for the Universal Mind to awaken. But, every Creature Being who has ever lived knows her song and dance as the weaver of the Web of Life.

From her web, Grandmother Spider observed the first thoughts as the Universal Mind awakened from the dream... Grandmother Spider took a very deep breath and softly began to sing her weaving song while she danced across the Sky. As she spun her thread, Grandmother Spider envisioned the Web of Life.

Dancing with the colored light, shadows came into being as the darkness took form. More thoughts flowed from the Universal Mind, entered through the Doorway of the Seven Stars, and took their places in the Sky World. These became more stars, suns and planets. Then, many other thoughts entered the Universe, each one taking a specific place according to the universal dream of harmony.

Each thought was a spirit essence who dreamed an individual dream for manifesting life. Grandmother Spider spun her web around each new energy being and the Universal Web of Life shimmered in the reflection of Great Mystery's light."

Told by Susun Weed

Dancing with so much gratitude in my being for the beauty of our Mama Earth / Ocean home...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7sUUqaXgaM

Music: Philip Glass

consciousness stream

...dancing with MomoButoh Dance Company 11 /11 /10

Photo: Susan Elizabeth Cowperthwaite

'stream of consciousness' installation by katherine kerr

Momo and I... 11/11/10

Spontaneous dance exploration of connecting to the infinite cosmos / consciousness in the finite - in urban North Vancouver with Katherine Kerr's stream / bridge / installation... feeling connection to the life cycles of the salmon... and nostalgia and excitement for Momobutoh's upcoming 11/11/11 dance dedicated to the wellness and survival of the salmon at Oyster Creek... and throughout the Pacific Rim....

Momo and I... 11/11/10 Oyster Creek

Momobutoh Company at Oyster Creek 11/11/10

i dream of salmon coho crisis sockeye collapse bear scat food web tear i marvel again rest its time now nowhere deep...

Thank you for viewing... feeling grateful for this connection with you all... here... Thank you Momo for bringing us together in the dance...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg9E_JZ0RfA

Music: Mountain Man

butterfly metamorphosis

During the weeks of my Dad's passing there were so many images of metamorphosis that kept appearing, including the card that was placed on his door by the hospice staff right after he passed - two butterflies in flight.

So many times I reflected on how in life we have to surrender to the natural cycles of life, no matter how desperately we may may want things to be a certain way... life, and death, unfolds in a way that ultimately, we have no control over.

Since then, I had been wanting to honor his passing with a dance of metamorphosis... of honoring his transition from this realm into the realm of spirit... and the courage required to enter through the doorway into the greatest mystery of all...

After dancing spontaneously in this Mazama field while hiking amongst butterflies, I found this poem recently from Mary Oliver, and once again, as she often does, felt so moved by her sentiments... providing such inspiration for my imagination and nourishment for my soul...

One or Two Things ~ Mary Oliver

1

Don’t bother me.

I’ve just

been born.

2

The butterfly’s loping flight

carries it through the country of the leaves

delicately, and well enough to get it

where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping

here and there to fuzzle the damp throats

of flowers and the black mud; up

and down it swings, frenzied and aimless, and sometimes

for long delicious moments it is perfectly

lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk

of some ordinary flower.

3

The god of dirt

came up to me many times and said

so many wise and delectable things, I lay

on the grass listening

to his dog voice,

crow voice,

frog voice, now,

he said, and now,

and never once mentioned forever,

4

which has nevertheless always been,

like a sharp iron hoof,

at the center of my mind.

5

One or two things are all you need

to travel over the blue pond, over the deep

roughage of the trees and through the stiff

flowers of lightening—some deep

memory of pleasure, some cutting

knowledge of pain.

6

But to lift the hoof!

For that you need

an idea.

7

For years and years I struggled

just to love my life. And then

the butterfly

rose, weightless, in the wind.

“Don’t love your life

too much,” it said,

and vanished

into the world.

Mary Oliver

Feeling grateful for this practice of dance / embodiment as taught by Momo and for our connections here. I hope this dance of metamorphosis may inspire you in some way...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggn-rJIdJjY

Music: Stefano Bataglia

Photos of dance by Brooke / photos of nature and edits by me :~)

frogs, seaweed, birds, shells

After completing a water ceremony at the delta of Oyster Creek just before the sun set, the frogs were croaking loudly in the nearby pond.

The sun had such an incredible golden glow, that I wanted to capture the inner feeling tone of interconnection to this magical place and it's inhabitants with a dance practice.

Connecting here to the earth, the seaweed, the shells, the sun, the birds... with the symphony of frogs to move my spirit into movement of body....

Toad

I was walking by. He was sitting there.

It was full morning, so the heat was heavy on his sand-colored

head and his webbed feet. I squatted beside him, at the edge

of the path. He didn’t move.

I began to talk. I talked about summer, and about time. The

pleasures of eating, the terrors of the night. About this cup

we call a life. About happiness. And how good it feels, the

heat of the sun between the shoulder blades.

He looked neither up nor down, which didn’t necessarily

mean he was either afraid or asleep. I felt his energy, stored

under his tongue perhaps, and behind his bulging eyes.

I talked about how the world seems to me, five feet tall, the

blue sky all around my head. I said, I wondered how it seemed

to him, down there, intimate with the dust.

He might have been Buddha— did not move, blink, or frown,

not a tear fell from those gold-rimmed eyes as the refined

anguish of language passed over him.

Mary Oliver

Grateful for this practice of deep connection to significant others... and for all the inspiration from Momo and Company <3

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmVuK3NBnFA

Music: Mountain Man

See our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company

don't fence me in

I was feeling claustrophobic in both my car and within my being, in that 'URGHH!!!' kind of way, after being stuck in a slow moving train of cars heading north from Seattle. It took me three hours to drive a distance that usually takes an hour. I realized the irony that most of the traffic congestion was due to the fact that city folk, including myself, were trying to escape to the country to visit the spectacle of the tulips in full bloom during the weekend's "Tulip Festival" in the Skagit Valley.

Not bearing to drive any further in traffic, I pulled off the highway to find my own personal space to dance freely within. I was stunned by the beauty of this wildlife sanctuary I stumbled upon at the edge of the sea at the end of a dead-end street.

While editing later that evening, I remembered Joni Takanikos' version of Cole Porter's song from her album "Love In a Mist, Devil in a Bush.” She is a beautiful soul who I met at a retreat, and also who I shared MomoButoh workshops with in the past.

The lyrics speak so much of what I was feeling earlier that day - my soul's desire to dance freely into the expansive space of sky while at the same time feeling an earthward, grounding connection. After feeling so 'soul-repressed' from the bumper to bumper commute, I felt so grateful to receive so much energy from our Mama Earth that had a balancing effect inwardly - releasing the stress of the traffic-filled commute.

Don't Fence Me In

Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above

Don't fence me in

Let me ride thru the wide-open country that I love

Don't fence me in

Let me ride my cayuse where the west commences,

Gaze at the moon until I lose my senses

Can't stand hobbles and I can't stand fences

Don't fence me in.

Just let me sit by myself in the evening breeze

Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees

Send me away, forever, if you please

Just don't fence me in

Don't fence me in...

This moon-time, Momobutoh Company is dancing with significant others in the forms of plants and animals... here, the connection was more with the significant other elements of earth (grounding) and sky (freedom).

Grateful for our ever evolving Momobutoh connections! Thank you Momo - greatly inspired!

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGaOrYrfkBY&feature=player_embedded

Music: Joni Takanikos

Visit our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company

dreaming of balance

"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...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPB1vj3q5xM

Music: Yungchen Lhamo

Filmed by Momo

sakura - blossoming dreams

on the old plum tree

blossom by blossom

the spring thaw is born

Ransetsu

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...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ga_bkEMH0

Music: Phillip Glass

Filmed by Brooke