Butoh is in my bones.
It is my blood,
my heart and soul.
If Butoh was a religion, I’d be a Butoh-ist. And if I had to choose between being Buddhist and doing Butoh, I would choose Butoh. (luckily I’ve been getting away with both for 22 years!)
My last private Butoh performance was in 2010 at a Buddhist temple when I was a nun. It was a beautiful collaboration with a Japanese-American gentleman named Soen who played shakuhachi (traditional Japanese Bamboo flute) and came out of our conversations about the different ways we experience the concept of “MA” or the space between things. Our collaboration explored how we experience distance is ultimately subjective, and available for artistic manipulation.
My life in a nutshell since giving back my monastic vows and leaving the retreat center:
Jobless, met a homeless guy busking downtown, started a band, got a job, homeless, pregnant, domestic violence, alcoholism, pregnant again, homeless again, and finally – FINALLY – started creating safety and stability for myself and my family.
In the interim, I did teach Butoh workshops and meditation off and on, but instead of studying Butoh from the sterile halls of academia or in a clean dance studio, I was living it to the fullest. Butoh is running full-speed and headlong into self-destruct, daring the universe to test you to your limits, to deconstruct you completely, to chew you up and spit you out.
That pretty much sums up the last 10 years of my life.
I wasn’t exactly looking for an opportunity to get back into Butoh when I met Lisa. A fellow Butoh-ist hiding out in the mountains (not exactly the place you’d expect to run into a fellow super-niched artist!). Turns out, Lisa and I have similar training, backgrounds, and interests in the Butoh world. Plus we both have beautiful dreadlocks, so of course we had to start collaborating.
There’s a lot of behind the scenes prep and rehearsal for this show, and then I’ll be traveling for Spring Break so FYI there will not be any livestreams in March!
You’re invited!
You are cordially invited to join me for my first Butoh performance since 2010 (omg…even writing that is wild, has it really been 15 years?!?) at Helios Public Art House in Longmont THIS FRIDAY March 14! Support avant garde and grassroots protest art and come to this interactive, multi-media performance with live music, ritual, prayer, poetry, video and Butoh theater!
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