white spirit bear

A few months ago I found it difficult to read three news articles while in Vancouver at my childhood home.

The first was the news about the starving bears and eagles in the early spring in B.C. - both starving due to the lack of pink and chum salmon returning to their spawning grounds last fall. Young starving bear cubs ended up in wildlife rehab centers and hundreds of eagles at a time were scrounging for food from a garbage landfill site near Vancouver, B.C.

I was also saddened and maddened by the second news I read of the proposed tanker route off the westcoast of B.C. that would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands. The projected route would take the tankers into the head of Douglas Bay - a pristine land and habitat to abundant wildlife including the black bear and the rare kermode or white spirit bears.

A disastrous oil spill in this region could wipe out wildlife in the area both directly and indirectly - indirectly, by destroying salmon runs, a spill would starve the ecosystems that rely on salmon for food - including bears, eagles, wolves, sea lions, orca and humpback whales... An online petition is available to sign: here.

I highly recommend the following film, describing the plans to try and save this unique ecosystem:

To top it off, the third news I read was about bear trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest, located along Canada's Pacific coast, spanning 21 million acres of some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. As one of the largest temperate rainforests on Earth, it's stunning mountains, forests, fjords, and waterways are home to thousands of species of birds, plants and animals – including grizzlies, black bears and also the white spirit bear. Although the spirit bears are protected, they are born from black bear mothers - it is a particular recessive gene that makes them white. Reducing the population of black bears in general could potentially wipe out the population of white spirit bears whose total number is less than 200. A petition is available to sign here: stop trophy bear hunting in British Columbia.

I have loved bears for as long as I can remember and feel a deep spiritual connection to them. When I lived in Whistler B.C. many years ago I had many close encounters with them while hiking in the wilds. Unfortunately, many bears began to rely more and more on garbage from the landfill site as their habitat was being developed into an all season resort. As a result, the bears were also coming more frequently into neighborhoods for 'garbage-food' where they were inevitably destroyed.

The more recent news of the bears and their habitat being threatened broke my heart. When it feels like I am carrying a lot of grief for the suffering of our world's wild habitats due to our actions, I feel like there is a mini time-bomb inside that is ready to explode... and it is what often is my inspiration to dance - to dance my grief, my prayers, my hopes, and my optimism...

When I met wonderful and talented Rex for a photo / dance session (see one of his sessions with Momo here: 'Tough Love in the Gravel'), he had no idea I had a dance of grief in mind, nor that I was prepared with a bag full of costumes and props! I was grateful for his willingness to capture this dance of connection to the suffering of the bears in film and to be my witness.

Spring

Somewhere

a black bear

has just risen from sleep

and is staring

down the mountain.

All night

in the brisk and shallow restlessness

of early spring

I think of her,

her four black fists

flicking the gravel,

her tongue

like a red fire

touching the grass,

the cold water.

There is only one question:

how to love this world.

I think of her

rising

like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against

the silence

of the trees.

Whatever else

my life is

with its poems

and its music

and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness

coming

down the mountain,

breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her -

her white teeth,

her wordlessness,

her perfect love.

Mary Oliver

Thank you for viewing this post... I hope you may find some inspiration within it - to dance your own dance of grief, connection, optimism... Love receiving comments :~)

Heart-full thank you, Rex, for taking the photos and for your open mind and heart!

Grateful for this dance practice - thank you Momo, and the all of you who inspire so lusciously with your dances here...

(The above photos of bears are from the internet and I am sorry there were no credits to the photographers that I can share here).

"In Search of Sacred Bliss"

"Salmon Coming Home in Search of Sacred Bliss." (excerpts)

Weaving the waves together, the salmon

Dance in small, joyful jumps

Scales shine a bright silver.

Riding the rhythm of the breaking waves...

As salmon go home to their mother, the river,

The river goes home to its mother, the mountain

And in the home mountains

Reside the wisdom and teachings of the ancestors.

The rivers that flow there,

The mother's milk of mother earth,

Take from the mountain dwelling ancients

Full measure of nurture

To nourish the salmon.

The single act of love

Risks all.

The salmon die

Ahh, so tenderly.

So fiercely flames their passion,

they love each other to death...

Mieko Chikappu

I first met Momo 2 years ago on November 11th after feeling the call of her invite to dance with the salmon at Oyster Creek. I was new to both dance and butoh, and was so deeply moved to be able to join her and Evan in an expression of so much wild and soulful expression, while honoring the salmon and the life-cycles of all living beings. I was hooked by the dance as I was so moved by Momo's ability to inspire such meaningful, soulful, dance expression.

While dancing and filming daily for 'Year of Butoh' in 2009 (created by Momo), honoring Kazuo Ohno and 50 years of butoh, I appreciated so much the daily connections with other. The majority of my dances were human-solo, which gave me the opportunity to dance with other-beings - the wind, trees, the earth, the waves, eagles, sea otters, rivers, mountains...

Never have I felt more connected to 'other' in such a soulful way than when I was dancing and exploring the idea of separation and connection between self and other... and in these exchanges, I would also long to be as nature, to tune more deeply into the inner instinctual self and be more in sync with the natural rhythms of nature...

Momo's sensei, Kazuo Ohno wrote, in regards to butoh, "not thinking, only soul," and that is what I too, longed for in my dances in and with nature... Inspired by not only the animals that live moment to moment, but also, plants, trees, flowers - growing, blossoming, fading...

I love how the poet Mary Oliver speaks of how the other kingdoms of life, unlike the human species, have "an infallible sense of what their lives are meant to be. Thus, the world grows rich, grows wild, and you too, grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too were born to be."

Several years ago, my 99 year old yoga therapist said that one should live their life like a fish swimming in water, in peace and harmony with all that that surrounds, flowing with nature's rhythm and allowing life to unfold with the most ease as possible... In my yoga practice, and within many spiritual traditions, there are beautiful ways of describing our interconnectedness with other beings that we share Mama Earth with. However, what I appreciate so much about butoh, as Momo teaches it, is the opportunity to feel that connection with other by embodying the spirit of other.

photo: Susan Elizabeth Cowperthwaite

In this practice, it also feels like there is a direct experience of the instinctual self as well as the potential of an expression of not only my own soul, but that of others as well. Appreciating so much the idea of not having the dance look like anything in particular, letting go of the idea of 'good' or 'bad' is very freeing...

"You do not have to be good... You only have to let the soft animal of your body loves what it loves..." Mary Oliver

Dancing with Momo and company on 11 11 this year was so powerful as I loved the opportunity to connect with the human-other (dancers and musicians) that arrived from all around the country and Canada, with a common aim - of honoring and celebrating the life of the salmon and all other beings. Feeling grateful that we, like the salmon, have come together from near and far to this sacred spot, to be reminded of the cycles of life that we and all living beings share - the fragility and preciousness of life..... Honored to be a part of this dance ritual - a prayer dance for the continued well-being of the salmon in this creek and also beyond - throughout the Pacific North West.

Particularly moving to me was witnessing the varying stages of end of life of the salmon - so amazing to me that after the salmon release their eggs, they begin to decay. It is so stirring to the soul to witness these cycles amongst so many salmon side by side - the healthy looking salmon on their way up the river passing partially and fully decomposed and dead bodies of others all around them... the beginning of new life and the end of life so near to one another... When we witness the end of life in other beings, how can it not fill us with such an appreciation for the exquisite and preciousness of life?

Grateful to to all that shared this dance and for Momo's creative vision and generous heart to create a dance to ensure the well-being of the salmon...

Photos by Brooke