Anywhere

When I get the chance, I will share a video of the work I'm writing about in this blog entry. This past weekend I performed in the Bare Bones Butoh Presents performance series curated by Bob Webb in San Francisco. Since 2005, I've been participating in this series which gives butoh/performance artists a chance to try stuff out, present works in progress or parts of a bigger piece.

This time I was feeling very adventurous and decided to improv some work. I invited my friend, Deborah of KitsuneButoh to play, as I did with her in her piece. Since my piece was entitled, "Anywhere", I began my dance in the hallway of the building. My intention for the improv was to investigate what happens when another butoh body enters the space/environment as the dance occurs.In a past blog, I shared about dancing in other environments, mostly in the outdoors. But this time was super fun because it's a live-work space so there were people/tenants coming in and out as I moved down the hallways towards the performance space. The only sound I had in the hallway was me, the various generators in the building and the sounds of tenants coming in and out of their space. Of course the audience was there as well. Deborah followed me as a shadow does in different lighting, but with some distance between us. No real contact, but more energetically. It was amazing how I sensed another body's presence even though I couldn't see it. As I viewed the footage, my reactions of this body was interesting because it looked at times as if it was choreographed that way. Since I invited her beforehand, there was no way of knowing when it was going to happen. I experienced this when dancing outdoors in a public space where people got close to me and I felt vulnerable and unsure, but of course, continued with that feeling and the movement to see the manifestation.

As I danced through the audience, I could feel all eyes and energy on me. Then something unexpected occurred at such the right moment. A tenant came out of his apt as I paused in front of it. He froze as I did and as Deborah did too. The reaction was perfect. He continued to lock up and walk down the hallway to leave the building. I don't know what happened. A nonverbal acknowledgment? We continued in the hallway and I went on into the performance stage area to continue.

I'll post the video soon. It was lots of fun!