Saturday, July 24, 2010

dancing the earth


"Well, there is time left --
fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life, and
not be afraid!

To set one's foot in the door of death, and be overcome
with amazement!

...To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

While the soul, after all, is only a window,

and the opening of the window no more difficult
than the wakening from a little sleep."

Mary Oliver

Today's dance was inspired by the desire to connect deeply to my outer environs in a soulful way, dancing the earth barefooted... I was taken by the silken summer grasses and the warm, wavering breeze as the sun was setting towards the western horizon...

Celebrating the beauty of Mama Earth...


Thank you for viewing this blog - I hope you may feel inspired to dance your dance of connection with the magnificence of our planet ocean where you live,
Lee
Music: Claude Debussey
Filmed by Brooke
Visit my butoh mentor's inspiring blog here: Maureen 'Momo' Freehill



Wednesday, July 21, 2010

sun, moon, pond


That moon which the sky never saw
even in dreams
has risen again

bringing a fire
that no water can drown

See here where the body
has its house
and see here my soul...

the cup of love has made the one
drunk
and the other a ruin...

love turned my blood
to wine
and my heart burned on a spit...

Suddenly when my heart saw
the ocean of love

it leapt away from me calling
Look for me...

... the sun that hearts follow
like clouds

Hafiz

Today's dance was inspired by my last butoh mentorship session with Momo. For the last seven weeks (since I have stopped dancing / filming / blogging daily) I have developed a 'mysterious,' pretty much continuous headache. I have also just transitioned from my sun dasha, to my moon dasha, according to the science of Vedic astrology (from ancient India).

Momo spoke of the idea of embodying the idea of the headache as being stuck energy, and allowing that energy to flow from the sky downward, to feel the infinity of the blue sky within, while connecting to the earth.

She also had me feel from the inside the coolness of the reflective moon and feel how each eyeball was like an individual moon within my head... opening the windows of my soul / consciousness - to dance in honor of this time of my life embracing reflective energy versus the intense active energy of the sun (which I have spent embracing my whole life, it feels, up until this point).

Today on my walk I was drawn to dance spontaneously beside the pond feeling the brilliance of the sun, which felt interestingly too intense. Consequently, I wanted to embrace the coolness of the moon, the quieting of the soul, the slowing down, the coolness of the pond on my feet and legs... seeing the coolness of blue through the silk scarf, shading my moon eyes from the sun's intensity.
Dancing the coolness of the moon and blue...

With That Moon Language

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

Rumi


This was also a dance of gratitude for the beauty of our Planet Ocean...

Thank you for viewing this blog... I hope it may inspire you in some way, perhaps to dance your own dance of connection to our beautiful Earth Mama...
Lee
Music: Chopin
Visit my butoh mentor's blog here: Maureen 'Momo' Freehill

Sunday, July 11, 2010

study in pink / study in forgiveness



Photo: Briana Jones

Photo: Briana Jones

I love you.
Please forgive me.
I am sorry.
Thank you.

Ho'oponopono

Maureen 'Momo' Freehill and the Momobutoh Company were asked to participate in Studies in Forgiveness, created by A.K. Mimi Allin. Many artists were going to be participating in this 12 hour long installation along a 4 mile length of Aurora Avenue in Seattle.

Mimi described her vision as:

"Why Forgiveness? Forgiveness, like art, is a process and not an event. As artists, we pave the way for forgiveness. "Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it," said Mark Twain and Dag Hammarskjöld said, "Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean." The artist sees, but can also make new."

As participants of the dance, we (Momo, Alex Kewitt, singer Jaie Livingstone, her 5 year old son Thomas and myself) didn't have a rehearsal, and were told just a short time ahead of the dance what the different parts of the score were going to be. This was my first time visiting the troll. What transpired was an improvisational, spontaneous dance / ritual.

Because the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico is so much on our minds and energetically in our collective hearts lately, Momo decided that this would be a dance we could fully embrace and embody. How appropriate that the location chosen for us on Aurora Avenue by Mimi was under the Fremont bridge with the Troll (representing our dark sides and our addiction to oil) in the shadows of the bridge AND who is also clasping in one hand a Volkswagen Bug vehicle (another symbol of our addiction to oil).

We began the dance blind-folded in order to tune inward to our experience of connecting to the troll within each of us - specifically, how we are feeling in regards to the situation in the Gulf of Mexico... fear, sadness, anger, whatever our experience was at that moment.

As soon as I connected to the troll (inner shadow) and placed my hands on him, I began to weep... It felt like the troll was pouring it's pain into me...

"What we must do,
I suppose,
is to hope the world keeps its balance;
what we are to do, however,
with our hearts
waiting and watching - truly
I do not know."

Mary Oliver
Photo: Briana Jones
Volkswagen Bug in the trolls hand...

The second part of the dance was accompanied by the beautiful voice of Jaie, and was an opportunity to embody compassion. We took off our blindfolds and danced our inner sweetness with pink peonies and fragrant 'sweet williams' that were handed to us by her son (the future generation)... Until, we were reminded of our addiction to 'sweet crude,' our addiction to oil...

We then embodied that addiction like junkies, looking for their next fix... guzzling the oil into our bodies and beings with reckless abandon... only to succumb to the toxic poison. While in our stages of dying we also became the wildlife that are covered in oil and are suffering from the disaster in the Gulf. This was most moving for me - my eyes were watering profusely, and I could imagine how the wildlife must feel with oil in their eyes and fragile membranes...
Photo: Briana Jones
All below photos: Briana Jones

We were, once again, revived from our hopelessness with the angelic yet powerful voice of Jaie and the offering of flowers by her son (the next generation and all future generations) - an offering of forgiveness for our actions. We joined together and offered a song of love and forgiveness created by Momo (based on Ho' oponopono, as taught originally by Morrnah Simeona), asking the sea and all it's creatures for forgiveness for our actions that contributed to the situation in the Gulf.
Next photos: Briana Jones

I felt so much gratitude to be a part of Momo's vision in this dance study in pink and Mimi's vision of forgiveness along the length of Aurora Avenue... It was deeply moving to embody our collective experience of the tragedy in the Gulf and to embody the power of forgiveness.
Two other members of Momobutoh Company also were a part of our dance today, but danced with their own beauty-filled visions from afar, in spirit and in body - Patricia and Rev.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope it may inspire you in some way,
Lee

Visit my butoh mentor's inspiring blog here: Maureen 'Momo' Freehill

Friday, July 9, 2010

infinitely big


"We must make room in ourselves for the immensity of the Universe."
Native South American saying

I continue to feel overwhelmed by the situation in the Gulf. At my last mentorship session with my butoh mentor, Momo, she suggested the idea of becoming infinitely large in order to be able to hold that which feels overwhelming in our lives...
At a pit-stop on South Whidbey Island I was drawn to do my dance practice barefooted on this sprawling green field. As I began my dance of expansiveness it was a joy to be joined by several swallows swooping around me and into the infinite space - to be able to fly!! Whhheeeee!

I loved discovering in the film later how the insects in the foreground grasses looked almost as big as me in the distance - the illusion of being very small and yet feeling very large on the inside... Today's challenge was one of embodying and being a large container - large enough to hold that which seems so devastating to the spirit.

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.

Hafiz

Thank you for viewing my blog. I hope it may inspire you in some way,
Lee
Music: Philip Glass
View my butoh mentor's inspiring blog here: Maureen 'Momo' Freehill