butoh poems by bronwyn preece: julie becton gillum’s five-day workshop
Bronwyn Preece took Julie Gillum’s workshop in Merida and used her words in both english and spanish. They will be included in a new publication, The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance
january 2017
1.
i am
the eyes
beyond
the room :
open
in the
bursting
water
bag of the
cuerpo :
the tension
of flexible
wires in
joints, the
hinges of
barred
windows,
the peel
of the
paint,
the vocabulario
of stillness
in speed,
the music of
plantas,
insects,
animals :
the impulse
of clay, the
improvisation
of contact,
the sculptor
as/of group
membrane
in interchange :
moved
by an outside/
[inside] force
other than my/
our will.
we are
the introductory
translation of
the músculo
of butoh
2.
i am
the mad
puppeteer
stringing
tail to
estrella,
through
wind
and wave,
the marioneta
of the
splintered
floor –
grounding
the sagittal
bounce
of noguchi :
a gymnastics
of smoke &
shadow :
the aire
intimo
of creating
hijikata’s
form with
the soul
following,
ohno’s
corazón,
wherein
form reveals
itself :
becoming
the presence
of presence
becoming :
exploring the
edges of our
lives and
life at and
on the
edge
3.
i am
infinity :
a símbolo
ridden through
history : a
body bag
of currents,
elements :
extreme,
shocking :
never neutral :
big, vulnerable
in an ocean
full of
contaminants,
in a sea of
happy fish,
i am the
hermaphroditic
polluted
pescado,
swimming
upstream :
butoh my
política :
mirroring
through our/
my mask the
[emotional]
exaggeration
4.
i am
the butoh
of
transformation
in these days
and dances
of darkness,
we are both
life and
death, in a
mundo
where time
can move
both forward
and back,
i discover the
world with
fresh ojos,
taking baby
steps, into
the mud of our
cultura, i
crawl towards
flowers – the
desiccation and
the blossoms,
through resistance
and partnership, i/
we find the
semilla of our
humanity…
shared
5.
I am
the fuera
in my
belly,
stamping
the whole
ground
with my body –
one that
will never
be trumped…
as i, along
with these
‘strange little
ladies and
gentlemen’
smell the
mexican
flowers on
our chests —
our hearts –
as we
dance
through the
inauguration ,
we gender –
bend, and
transgress
the dualities,
our imposed
fronteras ,
our walls :
We become
The anti-
stamp, in
our quiet
revolt, we
are earth ,
who never
need(s) to
show the
Soles of
(his/her)
connected feet …
© 2017 bronwyn preece
Dancer, choreographer, teacher Mari Osanai has performed and taught in Japan, Canada, USA, Greece and Germany. Her workshops focus on Noguchi Taiso combined with the influences of her early training in Tai Chi, western dance methods, traditional folk dance in Aomori, Japan (her birthplace), and the connection between one’s thoughts and sensation of weight. Osanai’s approach to movement research and exploration begins with a heightened awareness of gravity’s influence on the body and the body’s connection with the center of the earth.
“To translate the invisible wind through the water it sculpts in passing”. (Robert Bresson)
