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Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Why dance?
We might just as
well ask why the world spins? No reason.
The essence
of the work is that there is nothing to say. There is nothing to be done upon the stage. Truly,
anything goes.
The
genius comes from not focusing on the audience. I figure it is their business what they see and why they
come and if it is worth something or not. Of course it isn’t worth anything from
its own side. We should dance for no reason whatsoever. Only because we must.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
What is Syzygy Butoh?
The
word Syzygy comes from the Greek σύζῠγος (syzygos),
"yoked together." The essence of this word means “not-one-not-two”
or a non-dual way to say no-duality. It is the dance between the particular and the universal where one
becomes the other in an endless play of suchness. The personal is a gateway into the universal.
In fact this may be the point of the personal. How else could we actually come to terms with the
immensity of our universe than through a personal doorway? This our bodies can do. They
are the gateways into vast perception and compassion because through them we can actually experience the infinitude
we call the manifest world. The trillions of cells that live in our bodies have no conception of us.
The thing we call the personal self is such a fragile perception and it is my belief that the true dancer should
learn to move beyond this narrow veneer. This is the goal of Syzygy Butoh.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Class notes
The
offering.
Why do we dance for each other?
Instead of performing we can look at dancing for an audience as an
offering or a gift…. This is a very important part of the
work. This is where we truly take a risk. We can dance all day with the door shut…
However the true transformative power is not realized until we reveal ourselves. In my opinion the
performer is inviting the audience to see, so the performer must be willing to be seen.
There is a type of poverty
that can be very beautiful in dancing. Often it is lost in fancy costumes, big movements and virtuosity.
Butoh, like Zen seeks to show the beauty in the simple…. When we dance it’s as if we
are saying, “here is my body…this is what I have to offer, nothing more.” We give ourselves
in the dance exactly as we are. We start from wherever we are at. Like the cracked bowl,
it is beautiful because of the crack… If we can do this, give ourselves completely in
candor from where we truly stand than we have accomplished something paramount. This
type of understanding is primary to the technique and the scores that we dance in class. - Candor Sincere and open speech, honesty in expression
- impartiality
It is our vulnerability which is our greatest gift. We should dance in poverty,
do less, say less, and be more naked.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Class notes
Tree, Bubble, Antenna,
Skin, Universe Flower.
Today
we work with plant life, specifically the receptivity and reciprocity it embodies. We will explore the relationship
between inside universe and outside universe. A plant, tree or flower maintains such a delicate relationship with the
world. It is always in harmony with its surroundings. Roots, earth, minerals and water; this connection to the
darkness and what happens below the surface is what enables the delicate branching out and interaction with sky, light, wind,
night and day... moon.
We can relate to this sensitivity through our skin (largest
organ of the body). Today we will focus on this organ and the dialogue or reciprocity happening between inside and outside universe. We make our bodies like antennae.
Maybe a flower is antennae through its
petals, a tree through its leaves… A human through our skin?
In
Butoh we use the image of flower all the time.
It is maybe the best template for how we should dance. A flower never hesitates, in whatever stage it is in it exists
fully and completely. A seed sprouting or a blossom withering; it is always beautiful! Have you ever seen a flower
that was not giving enough of itself?
Monday, March 12, 2007
Thoughts.....
You are standing
in the sea. From your eyelash stretches a gossamer thread connected to the body of a small moth.
It is twilight and this moth is in journey across the ocean. You feel its pull on your eyelash
and in this way you begin moving. You are a dead body, an empty body being towed by a moth across
the immense desert of the sea.
(Imagery used to guide students in a basic “Butoh Walk.”)
For now, form follows.
I am seeking a new relationship to space, body… stage. Syzygy Butoh represents this quest;
to find space within form. We should not flee the earth, and so I do not wish
to flee the body. The stage is sacred space where the dancer confronts the void and invites the ten-thousand
faces of his pathos to dance. His neurosis are the material, his fears and wounds, his perversions, his
hopes and desires, his obsessions and longings, his pure loving, all is welcome within this new space. It
is the life situation which forms the basis of technique. The body is seen as a template,
for the universe imprints everything. The body is like a flower, it is beautiful
on its own.
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