dancing earth's rhythms

Heron Rises From The Dark, Summer Pond

So heavy

is the long-necked, long-bodied heron,

always it is a surprise

when her smoke-colored wings

open

and she turns

from the thick water,

from the black sticks

of the summer pond,

and slowly

rises into the air

and is gone.

Then, not for the first or the last time,

I take the deep breath

of happiness, and I think

how unlikely it is

that death is a hole in the ground,

how improbable

that ascension is not possible,

though everything seems so inert, so nailed

back into itself--

the muskrat and his lumpy lodge,

the turtle,

the fallen gate.

And especially it is wonderful

that the summers are long

and the ponds so dark and so many,

and therefore it isn't a miracle

but the common thing,

this decision,

this trailing of the long legs in the water,

this opening up of the heavy body

into a new life: see how the sudden

gray-blue sheets of her wings

strive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing

takes her in.

Mary Oliver

Catching up from April... ;~)

After being stuck in very slow moving traffic on the highway, I was relieved to find this wildlife sanctuary at the end of a dead-end street in the scenic Skagit Valley.

After hours in the car feeling rattled and unnerved by the journey, I was grateful to drop into my body and connect to earth's rhythms - initially the stick and log percussions, and then, ending with what felt like the rhythms of the earth herself, feeling so much sweet energy of grounding and connection.

Partway through the exploration of dance and rhythms, a great blue heron flew overhead, in an awkward prehistoric, flapping kind of way... which felt perfect, as this dance felt quite awkward, too, and reminded me that many of nature's rhythms are discordant, and there is so much beauty in the disharmony of it all.

Feeling grateful for this dance of connection to significant others... thank you all for your dances... thank you, momo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL6UCTgQnLs

Music: Mountain Man (Thank you, Patricia, for introducing me to them) XO

Visit our Momobutoh collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company

Quest Within and Without

Great Spirit sent me out West

because I was still asleep and clue less

(hiding from me

and my destiny)

I ran thru trails of every kind

floating on rivers and fighting the tide

inside of caves and outside of them too

saw Lions trapped in a las vegas zoo

burned thru the rubber in the soles of my shoes

my heart set ablaze as

I danced with the Winds of the West

What was shown to me?

Creatures of every kind- skunk, roadrunner, mockingbird, swallow, vulture, hawk, owl, bat, lizard and moth were there! (to name a few) so were circus freaks, ravers, hidden cameras, spirit of john, george, ringo, & paul, street performers and life transformers!

I bore witness to a desert scorched by wildfires.

My Aunt was my travel companion on this portion of my journey across country, and she took me to Carlsbad Caverns.

We wanted to watch the flight of the bats.

After a long and late day of driving we finally arrived at our destination. As I drove our beat up volvo up the curvy terrain we saw nothing but black scorched earth, charred cacti, and barren land. Signs every few feet reminded us of the EXTREME FIRE DANGER!

After parking, we made our way to the outdoor theatre to watch the mysterious bats exit their famous cave. The crowd whispered in anticipation as it grew darker, the bats' sonar clicks grew louder, and the feeding time approached.

"the bats! the bats! I see one! mamma a bat! Look! the bats!"

Slowly, but surely, the bats began to take flight out of their cave.

Just as quickly as the anticipation had built among us, it began to die.

Instead of thinking "Where are the bats?"

The collective thought seemed to be "Is that IT?"

People grew restless and bored, sure they had been drawn to another tourist trap and got up to leave.

But I had seen pictures of the bats in flight and knew this was not the norm.

The entire museum, in fact, had been shut down two days prior to our arrival.

We found out that many of the bats had left Carlsbad- and left for good. There was little to no food to be found, and the park rangers doubted if they would ever return.

This was all due to the monstrous wildfire that had overtaken the land. What started the fire? Surely it was Mother Nature herself. . . but no.

I learned that the cause of this particular fire was indeed a human.

Someone had thrown a cigarette butt out of their window, despite the warnings, and had in turn damaged an entire eco system in the blink of an eye.

This story, to me, represents our carelessness as Humans here on our ONE earth.

I began my dance the next day in the desert wearing a bright sundress, a bit dolled up and carrying my straw hat that reminds me of Momo.

I wanted some beautiful dance pictures in the expansive desert.

Shortly after exchanging with my Significant Others, I realized it was not going to be that kind of dance.

I changed into my shirt that reads: GIVE ME SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT and stripped down to shorts and bare feet.

I handed the camera to my aunt, and allowed her to become a part of my dance as the photographer.

This was another first for me, sharing my dance with my family in such an intimate way. It brought us closer together and i am so thankful for our deepened connection.

So. That is the story of this particular dance in words. I would like to let the images speak now. Please feel free to let me know what you see!

a special deep thank you to my buddy Art/Rev, and of course our Dear Momo

your eyes are my eyes

Highlights from the May 28 phone conference of the MomoButoh Dance Company in one minute forty-eight seconds.
http://youtu.be/fd2hEBxaP50

RelfectionConnectionDirection

Hi there.

I wanna talk to you.

Yeah, You !

I wanna speak with you in a language without words. . .

I long to look inside of your eyes,

witness the gateways open across time and space,

and play with that inner child waiting.

mine says:

Hi!

Hi there!

Wanna be friends?

Wanna Dance?

Wanna plaaaaay?

its getting kind of lonely here

talking in this screen to screen way

Today I'll hold our spirit sticks and send a call to you,

my salmon brother and sister souls

remember how we gave birth and died together?

mated, rose again and tied ourselves willingly to the crimson cord;

laughing, giggling, suckling all the way. . .

I dance for you.

I dance for us.

I dance for creation, destruction and all that is in between.

I dance for the days that I don't want to dance,

when I feel like I can't

when excuses are more rampant than inspiration or self truth.

I dance for healing, for transformation

I long to dance for social justice and Mamma Earth too.

Yeah I have dreams

dreams I can speak of, thanks to you.

Today I'll find my nature friends

special significant others

whispering sweetly

When I myself am quiet.

I hope to meet you there

eyes, heart, and palms wide open

in the soft heart of dawn calling

Open Letter to MomoButoh Company with SE USA Tour News/Photos/Video

(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.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kJXcuVLmUk

before abrupt awakening. . .

dance prayer for japan

"Each of the rain drops has a tale to tell

about the sorrows of people

about the hardships living things go through

about the arrival of sparrows."

Yamamura Bocho (XXth Century)

I was feeling overwhelmed with the news of the 9.0 earthquake, then tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster. The pain and feeling of inner helplessness for the suffering that so many beings went through seemed to course through my being. I have used dance in the past as a way of expressing, through body, that which is being felt within the depths of the soul and am grateful for this practice as taught by Momo.

On the night before the earthquake we had a kirtan at our studio (musicians and participants who sing chants from the yoga tradition and various other cultures as well). One of the chants that resonated so strongly for me was one to the Buddha of compassion, Amitaba. The day after the earthquake, it poured with rain and I was feeling moved to dance in the intense downpour, but, just as I began, the sun broke through the clouds in the corner of our garden where the Japonica (Japanese quince) is budding. We recently had cold weather and snow and the Japonica buds remain unharmed. They are renowned for their tenacity and ability to survive in challenging conditions.

At my childhood home there is a Japonica growing and I always loved how my Mom would bring in bare looking branches and once inside, they would bloom in the warmth of the house in a few days, bringing an early spring indoors.

Without prior planning of the dance, I knew I had to connect with the Japonica and the stone birdbath. As I danced, what carried me through was the continual repetition of the Amitaba mantra recited out-loud and inside... using song as a means of inspiring movement is one of our themes this month while we work with dreams and the imaginal realms. Because the camera didn't pick up my voice, I added a beautiful, but different, chant to the film.

I had set the camera up on a tripod and didn't know how the light behind me was affecting the dance and I had to cut much of it out as the film was filmed with nothing but light with my feet underneath it :~) A short while later, the rain had returned and on our walk I felt compelled to finish the dance in an underpass in the nearby park... protected from the rain, but still grasping the budding Japonica branch.

At one point, I felt inspired to grasp the branch and 'plant it' in the soil, with the feeling that it really could be strong enough to 'grow again' from the barren soil in the cement, manmade, underground structure.

A mantra I repeat regularly (and join together with our students at our yoga studio) is:

Lokaha 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...

May all beings in Japan feel the love that so many of us from around the world are sending in their thoughts and prayers... may all love surround them...

May all beings be free from suffering...

I found the above photo of the full blooming Japonica... returning after enduring many hardships....

Grateful to be sharing the dance with this collaboration and heart-full thank you, Momo, for all you inspire...

Filmed by Brooke