The Flowers of Ken Mai

It's already the last day of the month, and I've been planning to write down here about my second Butoh workshop experience of my little project for this year and I procrastinated, and I procrastinated like I never procrastinated before... This is such a strong word, uh? - procrastination. But come on, release yourself a bit from the system... why not procrastinate a bit? 

This post is in homage for Ken Mai, a creative Japanese soul who moved to Helsinki in 2006. On the days 06 and 07 of March I went to Turku to take his Butoh workshop. I travelled there with actually no expectation, I was tired from the classes and the huge amount of work back in Helsinki, and thought it was a good idea to get to know this multifaceted Japanese artist based in Finland. I first heard of Ken Mai when I was taking that workshop in Gottingen with Tadashi Endo, there was a sweet Finnish girl who suggested me to google his name as soon as I arrive in Helsinki. That was what I did: googled it, contacted him and got invited for his workshop.

The exchange with those Finnish dancing people was tremendous, I honestly can't express how blessed I am to be part of those two days of workshop. Everyone was present in the exercises, meditations and improvisations. I tried most of the times to be part of it but also to come out of the group and then to have the privileged experience of just observing them dancing. In a demonstration of one of the exercises Ken Mai was dancing with a sunflower, and in the dance the person was supposed to share the flower to one another and so on. I found it really powerful, especially because it was clear that he wasn't manipulating one object (the sunflower), but the flower was leading his dance - maybe a dance to welcome springtime? - That reminded me of Tadashi Endo's Butoh MA - when the dead was leading us to dance. But hey, that flower looked very alive, although it was dead too. Ken Mai once said that how pretty a dead flower is - actually I don't really remember him saying those words, but I guess he said something like that: dead nature is beautiful.

When I stepped back from the rest of the group to observe and take some pictures, I realised that he had led everyone in such a simple way, that they were very engaged to their dance, even though some of the instructions were not very clear to some. There was a moment that I could only see hand, fingers, feet and toes - and that together with the music that was playing was very touching and powerful.

I made some notes on a piece of paper about those 10 hours of workshop + many other hours of talking, walking, having a coffee and taking the train together back to Helsinki, I will be copying the notes down here for the next days. 

That was a happy weekend for me: I met incredibly good and generous people there. Hope to keep in touch you guys somehow. It all seemed that Butoh wasn't the most important issue there, but encounters. Thank you Ken Mai, thank you all the participants, thank you Turku.

It isn't difficult, you simply dance it.

- Daddy, I invented a poem.
- What is it called?
- The sun and I - Then almost at once she recited: 'The chickens in the yard have gobbled two worms but I didn't see them.'
- Really? What do you and the sun have to do with the poetry?
She looked at him for an instant. He had not understood...
- The sun is above my worms, Daddy, and I wrote my poem and didn't see the worms... - Pause. - I can make up another poem this very minute: 'Oh sun, come and play with me.' Here's a longer one:
'I saw a tiny cloud,
poor little worm,
I don't think she saw it.'
- Those are pretty verses, my little one, very pretty. How does one compose such a charming poem?
- It isn't difficult, you simply say it out loud.

from "Near to the wild heart" by Clarice Lispector. (it was just on my night stand today).

Drawings by Juliana Capibaribe. :-)

Energy of Pink, unplugged

Energy of Pink, unplugged - was an exhibition in Ruhrgebiet in 2009, where the German painter Claudia Schmidt shared a bit of her ever-crossing connections between Butoh and Visual Arts. She considers her paintings as extreemly fragile shapes - keeping them together only by energy. This is the point of contact between her dance and her Butoh paintings, this is the agreement.
I had the chance to dance with Claudia in the last Tadashi Endo's workshop in Gottingen (jan 2010), and had access to her work - which made me think about how Butoh is everywhere and definitely not determined to a mean of art, basically because Butoh is, above all, an attitude. I see no harm in appropriating culturally Butoh for visual arts, theatre, films etc, actually this is very interesting in my oppinion. I hope along this year to be able to develop a substantial thesis, part of my MA, and understand more how cultural borrowing or appropriation becomes part of an identity of an artist. Why is Butoh so vunerable? and influencial?
Anyway, feel free to go through Claudia Schmidt's work here and please visit her personal website and her manager's website in Frankfurt.
The first painting is called "Durchlass - Form" #8(Let through-Shape), 2010
50 x 60 cm, Acrylic on canvas. This second picture is from her studio, there you can feel the exact proportions of the paintings, usually large, and of course you can imagine that it requires a total commitment of the whole body when painting them. Colours and shapes are indeed performative, for Claudia: energy. If she paints with the same viceral movements that she dances... I would love to experience seeing her painting... Can you identify Butoh in them? Check how independend white, black, blue and pink behave - for me, these powerful shades remind me of some of my dreams when the world looks blured and I can dance with the shapes making everything that has vertices get round and irregular. I guess this is what both Claudia and I want, in a dream, in a dance, in a painting, in life.

First impressions.

I arrived by mistake at Tadashi Endo’s home, I woke him up ringing the bell, he came to me with a sleepy face, asked me to wait in the living room where two cats and a poster of La Argentina of Kazuo Ohno were, and called a taxi for me to go to the right place – The Butoh Centre. After waiting in the living room he started talking about his last visit to Brazil and plans to go back there to perform and be involved in a film. Last year his film was nominated at the Berlin Festival, he lamented his filme (cherry blossoms) didn’t win anything, who won the big prize was the violent Brazilianfilm ‘Tropa de Elite’. First impressions now at the Butoh Centre, I guess I woke up the other participants too, they are from all over. I am jet lagged and tired, ready for my first day of workshop.

I come from many places.

Have you ever felt the heaviness of the existence? I feel some right now, I’m sure I don’t feel the whole spectrum of it but last weeks have made me think a lot, about death, life, purposes, love etc. One day a priest invited me to leave the church, he said that my sin was too big and that I turn myself in many selves and people will always be uncomfortable with me because they will have difficulties to identify my purposes in life, also that my thoughts are fragmented. I have started and restarted this blog several times, in Fortaleza, Beijing and Amsterdam. Last times I deleted all the posts. Yes, it is difficult to finish something you began, especially for those who enjoy the process so much that don’t want it end or are afraid they end. Perception of myself, the others and the things are the most important issue in my writing here. The other important issue is me making connection to my selves in my own existence, so I am using this blog to dedicate it to Butoh. Throughout the year I will be sharing perceptions, thoughts, information, events, teachings, facts of Butoh. I started this year ill, beside my beautiful S. but still ill – got bacteria that ended up being a virus, which brought me fever, pain, a swollen throat and a mouth full of canker sores. When I started healing my mother died. I come from many places, it has been interesting to deposit a little part of my pain in every single place I have been to since last month. Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Vancouver-Frankfurt-Paris-Fortaleza-Paris-Gottingen, by now, next week Gottingen-Berlin-Helsinki. I am now in Gottingen taking part of my first day of a Butoh workshop facilitated by Tadashi Endo. My personal journey into Butoh is about to start, in a few hours. I am waiting at the train station in a café, waiting that the day begins so I won’t arrive there so early. Edith Piaf is singing, she’s following me everywhere. 45 more minutes and I will leave, I promise.