...dancing with MomoButoh Dance Company 11 /11 /10
Photo: Susan Elizabeth Cowperthwaite
'stream of consciousness' installation
Momo and I... 11/11/10
Spontaneous dance exploration of connecting to the infinite cosmos / consciousness in the finite - in urban North Vancouver with Katherine Kerr's stream / bridge / installation... feeling connection to the life cycles of the salmon... and nostalgia and excitement for Momobutoh's upcoming 11/11/11 dance dedicated to the wellness of the salmon at Oyster Creek... and throughout the Pacific Rim....
Momo and I... 11/11/10 Oyster Creek
Momobutoh Company at Oyster Creek 11/11/10
i dream of salmon coho crisis sockeye collapse bear scat food web tear i marvel again rest its time now nowhere deep...
Thank you for viewing this dance blog of exploring inner and outer environments of my soul... I hope you may feel inspired in some way to dance your own dance, to express from the soul in whatever way may resonate with your being...
A few months ago I found it difficult to read three news articles while in Vancouver at my childhood home.
The first was the news about the starving bears and eagles in the early spring in B.C. - both starving due to the lack of pink and chum salmon returning to their spawning grounds last fall. Young starving bear cubs ended up in wildlife rehab centers and hundreds of eagles at a time were scrounging for food from a garbage landfill site near Vancouver, B.C.
I was also saddened and maddened by the second news I read of the proposed tanker route off the westcoast of B.C. that would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands. The tar sands and projected pipelines are enough in themselves to be environmentally disastrous for our planet, however, the projected route would take the tankers into the head of Douglas Bay - a pristine land and habitat to abundant wildlife including the black bear and the rare kermode or white spirit bears where a potential oil spill would be catastrophic.
An oil spill in this region could wipe out wildlife in the area both directly and indirectly - directly by destroying salmon runs, and indirectly by starving the ecosystems that rely on salmon for food - including bears, eagles, wolves, sea lions, orca and humpback whales... An online petition is available to sign: here.
I highly recommend the following film, describing the plans to try and save this unique ecosystem:
To top it off, the third news I read was about bear trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest, located along Canada's Pacific coast, spanning 21 million acres of some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. As one of the largest temperate rainforests on Earth, it's stunning mountains, forests, fjords, and waterways are home to thousands of species of birds, plants and animals – including grizzlies, black bears and also the white spirit bear. Although the spirit bears are protected, they are born from black bear mothers - it is a particular recessive gene that makes them white. Reducing the population of black bears in general could potentially wipe out the population of white spirit bears whose total number is less than 200. A petition is available to sign here: stop trophy bear hunting in British Columbia.
I have loved bears for as long as I can remember and feel a deep spiritual connection to them. When I lived in Whistler B.C. many years ago I had many close encounters with them while hiking in the wilds. Unfortunately, many bears began to rely more and more on garbage from the landfill site as their habitat was being developed into an all season resort. As a result, the bears were also coming more frequently into neighborhoods for 'garbage-food' where they were inevitably destroyed.
The more recent news of the bears and their habitat being threatened broke my heart. When it feels like I am carrying a lot of grief for the suffering of our world's wild habitats due to our actions, I feel like there is a mini time-bomb inside that is ready to explode... and it is what often is my inspiration to dance - to dance my grief, my prayers, my hopes, and my optimism...
When I met wonderful and talented Rex for a photo / dance session (see one of his sessions with Momo here: 'Tough Love in the Gravel'), he had no idea I had a dance of grief in mind, nor that I was prepared with a bag full of costumes and props! I was grateful for his willingness to capture this dance of connection to the suffering of the bears in film and to be my witness.
Spring
Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring
down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring
I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue
like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is only one question:
how to love this world.
I think of her
rising
like a black and leafy ledge
to sharpen her claws against
the silence
of the trees.
Whatever else
my life is
with its poems
and its music
and its glass cities,
it is also this dazzling darkness
coming
down the mountain,
breathing and tasting;
all day I think of her -
her white teeth,
her wordlessness,
her perfect love.
Mary Oliver
Thank you for viewing my blog... I hope you may find some inspiration within it - to dance your own dance of grief, eco-activism, protest, connection, optimism...
Heart-full thank you, Rex, for taking the photos and for your open mind and heart!
Grateful for this dance practice as taught by my butoh mentor, Momo and the other members of Momobutoh who inspire so lusciously. See our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Company.
(The above photos of bears are from the internet and I am sorry there were no credits to the photographers that I can share here).
I was feeling claustrophobic in both my car and within my being, in that 'URGHH!!!' kind of way, after being stuck in a slow moving train of cars heading north from Seattle. It took me three hours to drive a distance that usually takes an hour. I realized the irony that most of the traffic congestion was due to the fact that city folk, including myself, were trying to escape to the country to visit the spectacle of the tulips in full bloom during the weekend's "Tulip Festival" in the Skagit Valley.
Not bearing to drive any further in traffic, I pulled off the highway to find my own personal space to dance freely within. I was stunned by the beauty of this wildlife sanctuary I stumbled upon at the edge of the sea at the end of a dead-end street.
While editing later that evening, I remembered dear Joni Takanikos' version of Cole Porter's song from her album "Love In a Mist, Devil in a Bush.” She is a beautiful soul who I met at a retreat, and also who I shared MomoButoh workshops with in the past.
The lyrics speak so much of what I was feeling earlier that day - my soul's desire to dance freely into the expansive space of sky while at the same time feeling an earthward, grounding connection. After feeling so 'soul-repressed' from the bumper to bumper commute, I felt so grateful to receive so much energy from our Mama Earth that had a balancing effect inwardly - releasing the stress of the traffic-filled commute.
Don't Fence Me In
Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride thru the wide-open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Let me ride my cayuse where the west commences,
Gaze at the moon until I lose my senses
Can't stand hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in.
Just let me sit by myself in the evening breeze
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me away, forever, if you please
Just don't fence me in
Don't fence me in...
This moon-time, Momobutoh Company is dancing with significant others in the forms of plants and animals... here, the connection was more with the elements of earth (grounding) and sky (freedom).
Thank you for viewing my blog. I would love to hear from you, if you would care to leave a comment.
"The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened." Unknown Author
My art of Patricia's dream (above)...
Patricia and I shared our dreams once again via 'skype' - drawing each other's dreams as they were being shared...
One of the images I drew of Patricia's dream was of two columns... with a whirlwind (nourishment - a green blender drink :~) swirling in the middle... books and furniture being moved... In another, there was also a strong concrete column supporting an overhang...
Patricia's art of my dream below... a dream of concern - once I made it to the top of the slippery snow covered mountain, how would I descend?
The undercurrent of the dream, however, was one of trust and letting go, and in that process, 'all would be well.'
At my last mentoring session with Momo she spoke of 'Hitobashira' - that which creates a framework, bridge, or pillar. When one dances 'Hitobashira' you gracefully enter or touch the space around you to begin, then establish your axis between poles of opposites - such as above and below, life and death, etc... From this place, you can open gateways of exchange with other beings around you (animate and inanimate) and then explore the poles of opposites... and in the uncertainty, shaking and imbalance might ensue... with the potential of eventually finding balance...
There is a also an element of stepping off into the unknown through this practice... a surrendering into the flow and / or an acceptance of a burden...
Momo's dance performance is incredibly moving, danced just post the earthquake in Japan, a dance of the unstable earth beneath us....
In a friend's garden, with her outdoor furniture strewn about (aka Patricia's dream of furniture moving), I had an opportunity to dance Patricia's dream combined with elements of mine... the 'columns' becoming unstable, the desire to climb up, while being challenged by the slippery 'slope' and the final surrender into the flow...
Feeling grateful for this practice of connection and this means in which to embody the literal challenges of finding balance in life... heart-full thank you Patricia, and Momo...
Thank you for viewing my blog. I hope it may inspire you in some way...
"Anyway, what's the purpose of our being here? Ultimately, aren't we here to link hearts?"
Kazuo Ohno - Maureen Freehill's sensei
One of the many things I learned from dancing daily for YearOfButoh in 2009, was that the dances that were most meaningful for me were the ones in which I was able to express something that I felt strongly about. On the days I was not inspired to dance, I danced anyway - not caring so much about what my dances looked like as I was committed to my daily practice, regardless. The intention was to dance as freely and spontaneously as I could wherever I found myself in life.
Although the experience of this most recent dance practice held much emotional depth for me, the film itself didn't feel like it reflected my inner feelings... part of this had to do with the awareness that, at any moment, one of the nurses might enter into my Mom's room in the nursing home unexpectedly :~) Not to mention how on the film I am cutoff at the neck for most of it, too... oh well... i am trying to let go of (and am greatly challenged by) my need to create things that have a certain aesthetic... :~)
When I first arrived to my Mom's room, I couldn't help but notice the pink paper heart that was taped to her closet above her head as we were chatting. It was probably put there by her grand-daughter months ago. As the theme for MomoButoh Company to explore this month is "Love and Family" it felt appropriate to dance with the feelings I was experiencing in her room.
I was initially drawn to the teddy bear collection on her dresser. She wasn't sure where they came from, although I knew that friends and family had given them to her as gifts over the years that she has resided there.
I was remembering how bear cubs are born within the darkness of a den in the depths of winter where they are nursed and nourished by their Mommas and then when spring comes, they exit. I was also remembering how Momma bears are one of the most ferocious mammals when it comes to protecting their cubs...
Feeling much love, as well as melancholy, for my Mom on this visit (I never know if it will be the last time that I will see her), I was inspired to take my inner feeling tone of connection to her as well as what Momma bears symbolize, and dance spontaneously...
My Mom asked at one point where the turquoise hat on the end of her bed came from. I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't a hat at all, but, a folded blanket... and so I danced it as 'hat.'
Today, dancing with the bears, my Mom's purple straw hat (that was her favorite sun hat that she hasn't worn in years as she rarely leaves her nursing home due to her disabilities), the blanket, and the love I feel for her.
Thank you for viewing this blog... I hope it may inspire you in some way to dance your own dance...
