journey of 11/11

11/11

eleveneleven

1111

THANKYOU SALMON and salmon souls

struggling

bumping

pushing

pulsing

flesh falling

tearing off in huge chunks and tiny bits

eyes wide

swimmingGGGGggGGGGGGGggGGG

a fellow salmon glides by

smooth in flow with stream

whoooooshhhhhhhhhh!

her energy a strong calm whispering embrace across the choppy waters...

and i am released

as we're called onward towards destiny, towards home.

pink

and orange

and

flowers and children's kimonos!

HEheheHEHEHEhEHHEHEHEHEHheheheheheheheheheh ~```~~

give up your childhood

wake up

pay attention

im sorry

i love you

im sorry

a vow over charred earth. . .

flashy fish of redorange

reborn

transformed

MomoButoh Sessions; YearOfCo11aboration + MORE Films of 11/11

Today we welcome a new member to our MomoButoh Dance Company inner circle. Her name is Misty Hannah and she currently hails from Cork, Ireland. I am very happy about her joining us, please take a momomoment to greet her as soon as you can.

Today also came a new clarity about the MomoButoh YearOfCo11aboration that will span 13 moons and was initiated on 11/11 this year. Each month on a double digit day (12/12, 1/1 and so on); I will initiate a new "project" for that moon. The first one was our Salmon Restoration Project at Mile 11. The next two will be The Elements Project (12/12) and then The Styles Project (1/1). The specific scores, practices, performances and aesthetic responses for these projects will mainly arise out of the monthly individual practice sessions that each member shares with Momo (and one another if desired). In the past 3 days, during sessions with Art/Rev, Me Ha and Misty; 3 new scores for DailyDance practice with The Elements have emerged. They each will be exploring these scores daily and posting results, we then can in turn respond through our own investigations and postings. What fun!

Today in the session with Me Ha I simply asked her to take a few minutes to investigate her unique relationship with The Elements. Her reply came in the form of a Talking Dance. I wrote some of the wise poetry she spoke while dancing and post that here for your further investigation & inspiration.

"Water is VITAL!...Water is VITAL, so much a part of LIFE!!

I AM Earth--it grounds me.

The Earth is my roots.

I root into the Earth.

(she shows me a stone sculpture and will post a photo of it here soon)

Like this.

I have worked with The Elements SO MUCH!

Catastrophe and Restoration was all about the elements.

Wind at the top of mountains is so important for diversity.

Forest Fires are important for forest to be healthy.

Buffalo trampling and stirring up the Earth....is important.

The importance of Flooding!!

Fire is scarier than Earth or Water.

It is in my astrological chart; my Aries Moon.

I have danced with fire and love it.

Air is furthest away for me ---wind/tornado/100 mph winds here.

I can use Air/Breath in lungs and bring it into my dance.

It is essential.

When I focus on my breath--I enter into my body.

It is essential!

Space-- I long for it.

The Space.

As Yoshito says, 'For a dancer, God is Space.'

Wood --

Did I show you the sculpture we made from the wood you gave us?

It is perfectly balanced in the 'relationship' area of our house as a primary focal point.

(she shows me a wood sculpture and will post a photo of it here soon)

Wood is the strongest BEING in nature for me-- it calls me again and again to dance with it.

Trees, roots....."

Wood is the strongest BEING in nature for me-- it calls me again and again to dance with it.

Trees, roots....."

wood "core" sculpture found by momo and offered at david's birthday at Me Ha's place

11/11 Mountain Stream Prostration (Part 3)

11/11 Gambaru (Part 4)

Becoming Salmon I am

"Becoming Salmon I am"

is my Self Portrait I drew before the dance. I had been eating salmon everyday the week before as I was traveling thru France. Every bite was so delicious, and then I remembered I was dancing them and felt bad, wrong. I shared this with my daughter and she said, "Well Mom, you are what you eat!" It was perfect to hear that. It became a way of honoring salmon.

Now some words in response to the drawing after I drew it:

I have a tail, a tale to tell, I have teeth like a Kokanee Salmon in Colorado. I see light running thru my body being channeled. I have arms and legs, I walk on the earth, I swim down, I swim up the current of life. Spreading out and reaching toward I walk into the shadows!

MeHa/ Melinda/ Dances with Salmon Spawning 11/11

Returning home; after Salmon Spawning having immediately many days of travel to Truckee to see grandson Sage, to Costa Rica to be with grandson Antuan; my life is filled with family and taking time for my dance, my integration is a balancing act, ritual needed.

I will post my favorite drawings from 11/11 "Becoming Salmon" was my Self Portrait before the enactment/score.

I am home now, taking Time and Space and using Elements to integrate (a very close word to integrity which means whole & complete) this amazing, nurturing, grounding, watery, ritual for the health of the Salmon on Hwy 11.

Element: Water

As I was shivering wet from the cold swim in the wind, at the end of our long-dance not sure if I could swim or move another inch ... they surrounded me, the silvery skin of the salmon dancers, huddling, supporting and warming me and I surrendered to them. I became one with these beautiful transformed bodies of warm colors of reds; this collective group of collaborating artists who performed this elaborate "dance of peace", a site specific score in an environment so perfect for the movement of the swimming upstream, crashing against the rocks, each other ... water was the strongest element.

Element: Earth

In the fallen-log forest, covered with ferns, bodies falling on foliage, I felt the mating happening right there in the river next to us, falling in love with these bodies falling with and on me. I became the dyeing/death happening right there next to us, piling up in an eddy of release on top of one another. The earth grounded me down deeply.

Element: Air

The breath of life inspiring the play, the jumps, leaps, lightness of youth as we grew up ...

Element: Fire & Wood

The fire! the cabin was burned down! I walked out into the coal crumbling floor to lay healing hands and kimonos as my foot broke thru to the ground I sat and wept for the fires around my own house in Boulder. Then later, the sauna became the fire which warmed my soul, my soles, my salmon-skin as we sang and chanted and shared the heat ... The next day took us to the driftwood beach where we completed our self portrait drawings; as we danced them for each other.

Retreat:

I am seeing a possibility of a retreat, a work session, a gathering where we all live in one house a few days before and a few days after 11/11: Nov 7-12? Creating the score, designing the costumes & just being on the beach together as we celebrate the life of the salmon and our own.

11/11 Photo Journey Two

Photos of 11/11 Ritual Butoh Dance Pilgrimage to Mile 11 at Oyster Creek by brooke.

Dancers: Lee Atwell, Carolyn Boucher, Evan Foster, Maureen "momo" Freehill, Melinda Harrison, Patricia Kambitsch, Kaoru Okumura & Art-Rev.

Musician/Singers: Deborah Koff-Chapin, Lorarine Bayes

Photos of 11/11 Ritual Butoh Dance Pilgrimage to Mile 11 at Oyster Creek by Mile 11 host Susan Elizabeth.

11/11 Fish Magic; Brian Eno & WAVE of "Scenius" (rhymes with genius)

After many years of pressing onward as a "unique" individual performing artist and instructor; I have come to realize that what the world needs now is GROUP mind...."Let's do it TOGETHER." Although each of our personal contributions --(sending powerful ripples in the great ocean of consciousness) are absolutely critical; truly great & powerful REVOLUTIONS in art, spirituality and culture are NOT going to happen from a single human being. This is why we have formed the MomoButoh Dance Company Collaborative Projects & Performances. We hope you will explore, engage and perhaps join our collaborative circle. AND, most importantly, we are not just collaborating with HUMAN BEINGS....but ALL BEINGS in our projects--like the leaping salmon, swooping eagles on 11/11 and this cloud image that appeared above a daily dance.

In this vein I have an exciting 11/11 related FISH story from awesome stone artist Krista Guss (of the Illumination Project) to tell and a powerful & inspiring quote from the awesome sound artist Brian Eno to share.

From the latest outpouring of EnlightenNext Magazine comes this to ponder:

Throughout his forty-year career, British musician and record producer Brian Eno has collaborated with some of the most innovative rock musicians of our time, from David Bowie and U2 to Paul Simon and the Talking Heads. And he's learned a lot about "genius" in the process. To Eno, genius is as much a product of the vibrant culture surrounding individuals as it is of the individuals themselves. In a speech he gave at the 2009 Luminous Festival in Sydney, Australia, he discussed his new term, "scenius," which he defines as "the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene":

[When] I was an art student . . . I was encouraged to believe that there were a few great figures like Picasso and Kandinsky . . . who sort-of appeared out of nowhere and produced artistic revolution. As I looked at art more and more, I discovered that that wasn't really a true picture. What really happened was that there [were] sometimes very fertile scenes involving . . . all sorts of people who created a kind of ecology of talent. . .So I came up with this word "scenius." . . . And I think that's a more useful way to think about culture. . . . Let's forget the idea of "genius" for a little while. Let's think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new thoughts and good new work. And the 11:11 FISH story from Krista Guss: So, I'm doing two sculptures, an electromagentic duet, if you will. One is called "PLOP!" and is a large sandstone bas relief (somewhere in between 2d etching on stone and 3d sculpture) depicting a young autistic girl feeding fish and the word she is articulating (the first one she ever spoke) is plop. It will be placed above/next to a koi and goldfish pond near my 11:11 cave/studio where she loves to feed fish. The second piece is a white marble coil (I guess you could call it) that is entitled "catch!" It represents the moment when a spark catches. It is a fountain and will be placed many miles (at least 11 :) ) from the other piece at a confluence of springs. The property will be used to start a facility that explores/fosters heaing of autism, magic, and spirituality. Weeeeeell, here's the exciting part. Obviously, the location of PLOP! already has fish. The most electric magic part is that the spring confluence, which has never had fish in it before...has goldfish that have appeared out of nowhere (and this is some really remote landscape). The pieces aren't even in place yet, in fact I just finished catch yesterday (started 5.5 years ago) and still have another 100+ hours of work on PLOP! Yet, nature is ready to reveal and relish the connection. Feeling miraculously blessed indeed. So, how bout dem beans? GO FISHIE MAGIC GO!!!

11 11 photo reflections

Photo reflections of MomoButoh Dance Company 11 11, 2010 by Brooke...

View more photos here on PhotoBucket: 11 11 Dance Honoring the Salmon