9th April, 2019

 A few notes on Butoh:

·         Historical

o   Founded in 1950s Japan coming out of the Hiroshima bomb, surrealism, german expressionism, mime, flamenco and more  

·         Practice

o   Goes from the inside out, having a strong mental image or landscape and your body moving from that

o   You’re in the moment and also transported

·         Aesthetically let’s explore asymmetry and passive movement

A few notes on the practice today:

·         1st part of the block, in which we will look at breath, posture, walking and then internal organs

·         Butoh looks at Bodies of Becoming, and to become we need to first be blank, so today we will explore simple states

·         Trying to come out of the self

Workshop plan: THE BREATH, body like soup 

1.       Transition between outside and inside

2.       Shaking warm up

a.       Luang Por Jarun

3.       Rolling warm up

a.       A big balloon inflating and deflating

4.       Meditation exercise, breathing in the room EDU one of 42 meditation techniques set out in Buddhism

a.       First a scan of the body, especial focus on the air inside of the body

b.       Bringing focus in to the sensations in the nose

c.       Moving that focus down the throat into the lungs

d.       Noticing the expanding in the lungs, switching to noticing the air

e.       Imagining almost like a push pull ribbon of air between the room and inside your lungs

f.        Continue with your meditation focus on the air instead of your body

g.       Questions: do you notice any asymmetry? How much are you controlling and how much is passive movement?

h.       FEEDBACK? – How does it make you feel towards your body to see it’s relationship to the space around it like this?

5.       Passing a breath around the circle, IS IT YOUR OR THE ROOM’S BREATH?  

6.       Release the face exercise: (come out of the self even more)

a.       seeing where your face naturally sits, the tensions in it

                                                               i.      Making face big

                                                             ii.      Making face small

                                                           iii.      Long

                                                           iv.      Short

                                                             v.      Inside out

                                                           vi.      Outside in

b.       Passing a face around the circle exercise 

c.       FEEDBACK – what is your experience of this?

7.       BREAK + ALLOW FOR CONVERSATION: MENTION BOOKS ON TABLE

8.       Butoh space walk

a.      WORDS ON CLEARING MIND

b.      All past, all memory, all self is the surface of your back, and is smoking away

c.       Your focus on a distant horizon; all of space and time

d.      Your body filled with this space

e.      Your body filled with a quiet intensity

f.        Blood coursing through veins as fire

g.      SOME FORM:

                                                              i.      Stand feet together, knees bent, pelvis tucked under

                                                             ii.      Feet glide along the ground ICE FEET

                                                           iii.      Body floating

                                                           iv.      Head on a string

h.      EXPLORE THE WEIGHT SHIFTING,  

i.       EXPLORE THAT CONSTANT MOVEMENT RHYTHM THAT WE EXPERIENCED WITH THE BREATH

                                                               i.      “Once you start you don’t stop ever” - ISHII

                                                             ii.      PART 2: improvise some with the breath

9.       Bag of water partner exercise EDU learned from Norihito Ishii, Sankai Juku, known for their passive and graceful movement, this is one of their warm up exercises.

a.       Partner laying down/in chair: imagine you are deep under the sea, breathing deeply in the water, which is your natural state

b.       Standing person: see your partner as a sealed bag of skin filled with water  

                                                               i.      ASK THEIR MOBILITY REQUIREMENTS

                                                             ii.      Shake them, release all tension

                                                           iii.      Lift arm up then over

                                                           iv.      Use leg to move them back

                                                             v.      Drop limbs

                                                           vi.      All movement to connect you both and release tension

10.   Improvise from chair, exploring the natural rhythms of the air in the room with passive movement 

11.   Summing up what we have done

12.   Feedback and warm down

a.       Ritual exercise, with clapping in circle and body scan rooting and revitalizing body back into the room

13.   Plan for next week: the posture

14.   Write down attendance and feedback

• Use humor and banter to bring people in

• Bring it back to being present

• No right or wrong way

• PLAYFUL 😊

• LET’S EXPLORE TOGETHER