Curious Butoh, Dance, Art and
Performance.
Some modern art teaches
people how to see. If people want
to see or if they’re not expecting to see what they want to see and they still
see. It’s something incredible. It’s fun. Otherwise they don’t get it. And they go on. But they’ve still seen. You see?
As an abstract
choreographer/dancer, mostly, I’m showing how creativity works through me.
It’s such an opportunity to
have an audience to inspire and be inspired by. There’s always this fine line
between giving in, give them what they think dance is, and creating a dance
that stops their mind from knowing it all? I’m not proclaiming any earth shattering new form, just the
unfoldment of my own fledgling language.
It comes from everyone else really. Everyone I’ve learned from, good, bad or indifferent. But
the alchemy is this person Mary Power. I may evoke a pause to accept beauty in
something unusual.
A friend says “Oh no, Butoh”
before I can finish the sentence.
Each time I try to tell him about this workshop I’m getting ready to do,
it’s “Oh no Butoh”. Each time he
says it with a chuckle and an ugh combination. And we’ve performed together, he’s a dancer.
Well I do lean in the
direction of Ohno Butoh.
I told my friend my dance is
like a dream. You have dreams
don’t you? Sometimes they’re beautiful dreams, sometimes strange, you don’t
understand them, and they may hold meaning.
Now, I can only do the art
that I can do. Even though I don’t
know exactly what it is. I get to
create to see where I am with it. If I could explain exactly what this dance is, how boring would that be. Might as well read a text book. Or, try to explain the exact location of here.
Someone says, how
presumptuous to make an objet d’art d’innocence. And she, in one stroke, closes the possibility to discover
what it is. She says a door is a
door, yada yada yada. But I say to me it’s La Puerta De La Luna (theme for next 2013 performance by the way). I am creating beauty in a world of
suffering. I am dancing and I am
artist. In alchemy, make gold.
I saw an artist’s work that
was full of light and dimension It
made my eyes see everything through that prism for days.
I was so excited trip over Duchamp’s Suitcase (that’s what I call it). It is here in SF at the Legion of Honor for a time. As it turns out, it was the suitcase that was the important piece of the show. It stamped my spirit with courage. It was so simple and took so much time and
effort of him. He saved art from the war. It’s something that many people would
overlook. It elevated me.
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