Butoh Curious Chi

Battles#3: Spoils & Return

By

Sara D Zalek

—

1–2 minutes

To read

Saturday, April 292016revival-holly-chernobyl
Japanese Culture Center
1016 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago
Doors open 7pm
Donations kindly accepted
RSVP here: https://battle3.eventbrite.com/

Featuring:
Ken Mai
Holly Chernobyl
Kiam Marcelo Junio
Allen Turner

“The spoils of war have included the defeated populations, which were often enslaved, and the women and children absorbed into the victorious country’s population.”

“The Spoils of war have included the defeated populations, which were often enslaved, and the women and children absorbed into the victorious country’s population.”  (Wikipedia) A time where loot and lives were taken and often worn in the name of some country, some warlord, some king, still exists in us.  We deeply know violence and oppression, it lives and breathes in our bodies. Is it possible to transform our trauma, for our pain to become our teacher?

To reframe our Return, what victory do we celebrate? Do we not still embody old paradigms of winners and losers, the oppressors and the oppressed? For these suspended moments, we might release this tension, to find any small space for empathy to rise.

Do we know how to live without war? Without claiming our own lives more important than the lives of others? We accept the truth of our answer.

This night, we attempt to embrace both Ourselves and the Other, our shadow and our light. In preparation for the next.

Hiroko Tamano

This 1 minute excerpt gives a taste of Butoh legend Hiroko Tamano’s teaching, philosophies, and movement. In the “Dance of Life: a Prayer in 4 Directions”, Hiroko has built upon this Indigenous practice learned from Txi Wizz (Canadian Buffoon) over 40 years ago.

She has imbued it with her own movements and philosophy as a gift of healing and empowerment to an anxious world. In her words, “this dance form gives ‘presentness’,” and awareness of the directions “gives ‘no confusion’ to the prayer.”

Dance of Life