Welcome to our project

Ellen and I decided to embark on a bi-coastal project where we could share our experiences of our "butoh-body meets the world". We both share a desire and passion to interface the butoh-body and the world by removing ourselves from the typical stage space which is fraught with narrow perspectives and geometrically constructed impenetrable boundaries. While the stage or black box can provide a neat laboratory setting, it quickly becomes much too insulated from the rest of the world where much of our inspiration and motivation to move is located. Personally, the space in which I dance is as much a part of the dance as my body, the air, the sounds in and around the space, other beings - all contribute and become the dance. Here, I hesitate to use the word dance as I prefer "movement" however, as I go deeper into my explorations I'll address that hesitation more specifically and directly - in the meantime, I will use both words interchangeably.
My specific interest in this project includes writing from the direct experience of my moving butoh body in/with/around/through the world. This is a phenomenological approach and one that I think we need more of specifically in relation to Butoh. What is the experience of the butoh body? What can be learned from a vulnerable breathing sensitive body as it makes contact with the world? How does the butoh body in public sense and form relationships to nature, other people, other beings, structures, space, time (space-time) and self? Here, Ellen and I hope to open a new and much needed dialogue within the butoh community.