In Butoh we usually say that any performance can be built of a series of static images or photographs. In our classes and trainings, we seek to arrive to those postures which condense our emotions and that which we are willing to express, to dance for. Once we have found those pictures, the next step is to connect them, and there's where magic happens! Of course, having arrived to them already implies a deep connection within our bodies and chakras, between Heaven and Earth. Remember that in butoh we channel with our bodies, that is to say: we lend our vessels to these energies or characters, we materialise the ethereal and we discover our emotions through the physical. Whereas in a performance those "photographs" tend to be fixed, like cornerstones, the connection between them is where we allow improvisation in. As I have already mentioned in many of my entries, even if the term "improvisation" has been mis and overused, when I refer to it I mean a conscious improvisation. Just as a painter knows their material, their palette, when performing artists improvise, we know our moments, our body, our feelings and emotions. When we improvise in butoh, after years of training our souls and bodies, we seek for the honesty and truthfulness of our movements, which will reflect what we are willing to express. Having said that, when we improvise and move from one image (or state) to the other, we need to fully submerge ourselves within that transmutation. How do we do that?
Butoh is metamorphosis. From death to life, from life to death. Both at the same time, since to be able to live it means we are dying every day. Butoh is total freedom, since it allows us to express our truest selves: we don't need to look pretty (nor ugly!), we don't express ourselves in terms of or, but of and: we are dead and alive, we are soft and strong, we are spiritual and physical. We always move in and between the opposites, alternatively and at the same time. It transcends the fourth dimension into the fifth and beyond, since it seeks unity and not polarisation (while embracing it when it appears through our human bodies). When we find our images or pictures, we embrace our wholeness, without judging it. By embracing our shadows, we release our identification (without identifying with those shadows either!). We acknowledge them, dance with them, let them express themselves and release them. By holding them tight we get stuck in our movement (both on and off stage). The same when we go from one posture to the next: we ovserve ourselves in that movement. How do we conceive that movement? Do we rush? Or do we enjoy the ride? How does that reflect our approach to life?
As I usually mention in my entries and classes: by observing our bodies move we can observe the way we face life. The universe is a fractal: everything is reflected for us to see, we just need to pay attention. Even if our mind can play us tricks, our bodies are much more reliable: they cannot lie. Therefore, when improvising it is important for us to pay attention to our movements and the way our emotions flow. When we go from one fixed image to other, a tension is created in our way: from past to future, and the now in between. By rushing to the next state, we are not honouring our previous stage, as well as ignoring our current emotions (by standing "in the future"). By staying too comfortable in the past, we fail to move forward, therefore to explore new possibilities in our existence. Butoh offers us to find our zero point, in which all manifestation is possible, and to actively create through it. The zero point, the now, the Aleph (in Borges' words), infinity condensed for us to choose our next steps in dance... and in life!
Butoh is metamorphosis. From death to life, from life to death. Both at the same time, since to be able to live it means we are dying every day. Butoh is total freedom, since it allows us to express our truest selves: we don't need to look pretty (nor ugly!), we don't express ourselves in terms of or, but of and: we are dead and alive, we are soft and strong, we are spiritual and physical. We always move in and between the opposites, alternatively and at the same time. It transcends the fourth dimension into the fifth and beyond, since it seeks unity and not polarisation (while embracing it when it appears through our human bodies). When we find our images or pictures, we embrace our wholeness, without judging it. By embracing our shadows, we release our identification (without identifying with those shadows either!). We acknowledge them, dance with them, let them express themselves and release them. By holding them tight we get stuck in our movement (both on and off stage). The same when we go from one posture to the next: we ovserve ourselves in that movement. How do we conceive that movement? Do we rush? Or do we enjoy the ride? How does that reflect our approach to life?
As I usually mention in my entries and classes: by observing our bodies move we can observe the way we face life. The universe is a fractal: everything is reflected for us to see, we just need to pay attention. Even if our mind can play us tricks, our bodies are much more reliable: they cannot lie. Therefore, when improvising it is important for us to pay attention to our movements and the way our emotions flow. When we go from one fixed image to other, a tension is created in our way: from past to future, and the now in between. By rushing to the next state, we are not honouring our previous stage, as well as ignoring our current emotions (by standing "in the future"). By staying too comfortable in the past, we fail to move forward, therefore to explore new possibilities in our existence. Butoh offers us to find our zero point, in which all manifestation is possible, and to actively create through it. The zero point, the now, the Aleph (in Borges' words), infinity condensed for us to choose our next steps in dance... and in life!