a crack in the door...

Music: Clair de lune - Claude Debussy

Dance of water wind & ice

sWooshhhh

dance with water, ice, and wind.

swirling, twirling rapids.

smooth, cold slick ice

strong forceful wind pushing shoving calling as the whistle from the train

water flowing

bird wings

im trying to take flight

goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye

dry your eye

move as the water

with your the changing tides

twisted branches mimic my insides

water moving

moving

MOVING

ice gliding

melting

through my body

through my hard frozen shell

melting

to the warm sunshine

smiling

as i give way to swirling and twirling and not knowing where i'm going

but going all the same

elemental

At my last butoh session with Momo we worked with the various elements, earth, air, fire, water, space and wood. I find since I began butoh practice that I am continuously being challenged to see the environment around me in new ways. Concentrating on each of the elements gives me a bit of peripheral vision, so to speak.

Water is a common theme that I dance to and with. It seems very intuitive to me along with air because it is usually in motion and dynamic. Fire is almost always present in the form of the Sun, and Earth underfoot, acknowledging and paying them more attention can only help increase my awareness. Space has always touched a primal nerve with me, when I see a lot of it at once. Concentrating on the space around me, large or small, has better enabled me to see myself in relation to that space. And wood, it is a living element, absorbs a great deal of energy, and even when not alive carries on in strength.

I am still exploring these elements and what their connectivity is in relation to my dance and soul. Some of the concepts are new to me, yet I find myself instinctively accepting them. I am grateful for the opportunity to receive and learn and grow and share. Thank you all and may the new year bring us continued growth, connection, and realization.

In this dance I made an effort to acknowledge each of the elements and beings around me. A lone eagle circled above me bearing silent witness as I approached the river's edge. As is often the case water seemed to me the most obvious element, the one that most wants to express itself through me, yet all of the elements were there around me and today I shared dance with each one.

The Elements Project: Flocking in Wind

SCORES with WIND & SPACE

Like a lifetime friend or family member, like our homes and our body itself; we often take The Elements and the vital role they play in our lives for granted. This past week with the full moon, lunar eclipse, winter solstice and a 4 day retreat with the Grandmothers to practice deepening our connection with AIR; I was reminded of the profound debt I owe to all of The Elements; but especially to AIR. I do not know any being who has given me, and all humans, as much as AIR. Just think that our life itself would not be possible, no atmosphere, no breath, no motion, no sound, no voice. If we lost AIR, even for 15 minutes, nothing as we know it would BE! Grandmother encouraged me to think back upon how air brought me to where and whom I am now. I envisioned the windy storm that brought my Irish ancestors headed for New York off course to New Orleans instead and led them up the Mississippi to begin farming in the mid-west. I remembered that it was "Spirit Wind" that led me to find Butoh when I was painfully forcing myself to complete a Broadway track theater MFA at an acting conservatory in Florida. I honored the relentless and unnerving gales in Port Townsend that blew me back to live on Whidbey Island where so much richness, healing, knowledge, love and balance that is my current life would never have been possible otherwise. I could not have flown through the air on the great metal birds that brought me to Japan, New York, Costa Rica, Hawaii and so on. If it were not for the motion of the AIR all of my travels and transformations would have stagnated.

I owe a great debt to my relation the AIR for sure. Grandmother asked my proposal of how I would take responsibility for that primary relationship. My answer involved daily dance, prayer and meditation practices recognizing and offering to The Elements AND....this project, the YearOfCo11aboration with MomoButoh Dance Company because it is one way I can publicly uphold and celebrate my lifetime commitment to love, honor and cherish The Elements with my words/thoughts/actions, till death do us continue to intermingle.

Last week at Centrum in Port Townsend, I attended the annual 3 day Contact Improvisation Jam. The spaces, events and company to dance with all day and night were so refreshing. After a good long lab session about the techniques of falling with grace in partnership, we scooted out to catch the wind and last rays of dusk on the bluff overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca. This Flocking Score was very spontaneous, totally not rehearsed or even spoken of before hand--as you can see by our actions; that our director Michal Lahav called "Beautiful foolishness." We were certainly influenced by the strong presence of the AIR in our shifting and waving flock going to and fro together as well as this vast venue of unbounded SPACE. The music was added afterwards as the wind sounds on the film were deafening and the dance matched so well with this live jazz.

Music: Ethiopiques Mulatu Astatque'

After the group flocking, I celebrated and gave thanks to our unseen partner, the WIND, with a short solo/duet just between us. It is strange how much enjoyment and love I feel for the wind on one hand and on the other hand my unsettled feelings with this very same wind that drove me away from living here in Port Townsend. I guess that kind of ambiguity and paradox is the nature of any long term committed relationship, and certainly with this one I have with the WIND.

The Elements Project: WOOD & SPACE

"For a dancer, God is Space." -Yoshito Ohno

I consider SPACE to be the consciousness and awareness that we have of ALL The Elements in life and dance. If it were not for SPACE we would not have the context for our creations. Although MomoButoh Dance practice often occurs outdoors and in all sorts of elemental and day to day locations, the traditional dance studio SPACE with a wonderful WOOD floor remains a most heavenly canvas for creation in our profession. During this moon of The Elements; I see the countless ways that WOOD and SPACE have contributed to my being but, with our dark wet Pacific Northwest winter weather, the simple indoor studio SPACE with a WOOD floor to dance upon with others who wish to share that experience has been the most necessary and precious gem. A dream I intend to realize in 2011 is the creation of a MomoButoh Dance Studio. It is an actual place, build by hand, with a floor made of wood, it is circular or oval, light filled, cozy and spacious; it is set in a beautiful & private natural area with plenty of room for a group to train, retreat, perform, dwell and rest. Please help me hold this image and work to realize it this coming year so that we can begin retreats and training here in 2012!

A couple of weeks ago I attended a workshop with Karen Nelson about Improvisation for Performance. We learned and eventually performed the Tuning Score and Single Image Score originally conceived by Lisa Nelson. The videos below are excerpts from our public showing of the practice that included dancers and witnesses crafting the performance experience they desired by calling directions aloud during the dance. All of the scenes begin with the dancer entering with eyes closed. Mostly we had to sense the SPACE using our perceptions of sound, touch and motion from the response of the WOOD floor and furniture. If you listen carefully, you can hear the distinctive creaks and calls from witnesses. The call "Pause" means just that and "End" means to clear the space altogether. The call "Play" means to continue with the action, "Reverse" means to go backwards from that point; "Report" means to offer a verbal report of one's current experience; and "Replace" means to take the place of another person. Then at some point the vocal call "Open" means that the visual sense is brought into play or "Closed" means it is denied again. I loved how this score heightens dancers skills of perception and imagination by limiting some options such as movement and sight. When re-crafting the live experience into video it was fascinating how the practice seemed even stronger somehow on film given the relationship to the media (video & audio players) that was the origin of the metaphors of "pause," "play," "reverse" that we were exploring.

Sweet Water...

At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled

after a night of rain.

I dip my cupped hands. I drink

a long time. It tastes

like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold

into my body, waking the bones. I hear them

deep inside me, whispering

oh what is that beautiful thing

that just happened?

Mary Oliver

I have been longing to share my most recent dance from a couple of weeks ago, and yet, my life has been pulled in many directions lately...

I thought I would share a few dances from last year until I can do the editing on the recent film. Water was a very regular dance partner for me while I was practicing and I loved feeling so connected to it's various manifestations:

from cleansing waves,

to still ponds and quiet oceans,

to rain and flowing rivers...

... all were such incredible opportunities to be present and be moved by that which was present, moment to moment... as Momo spoke of - the call and response - feeling the call of the water and responding in-body, and embodied by that call... soul connection to other, moved to move...

I feel grateful to be a part of this blogging collaboration - to share our dances, to have the dance muse open to the flow of spontaneity and improvisation... from dancing soul to dancing soul... flowing like water...

Thank you all...