Butoh Body

topic posted Sat, May 12, 2007 - 11:47 AM by  Ledoh
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As a butoh performer, how do you view your body in relation to your mind???
posted by:
Ledoh
San Francisco
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  • Re: Butoh Body

    Sat, May 12, 2007 - 7:43 PM
    *eyes open wide* *jaw drops slightly and lips part* *brow furrows* *leaning forward*

    There's a relation?
    • Re: Butoh Body

      Sat, May 12, 2007 - 8:08 PM
      :lips press together, turning bloodless: :eyes turn to inverted-grin-type slits: :cheeks draw up into wrinkly continents of concatenated curvature: :leaning backward and sidewise:

      A blood-relation!
      • Re: Butoh Body

        Sun, May 13, 2007 - 1:04 PM
        The mind-body duality is a construct, a model. Sometimes it is useful and sometimes not. It is as much as it is not. The mind is connected to the body by the peripheral nerves, every movement kinesthetically telegraphed through the more primitive brain structures which are also intimately tied to the limbic system and, in turn, to memory and emotion.

        Personally my method is meditative, forgetting, empty consciousness. Maybe in this way the deep memories and processes can make a pattern on the flesh.

        However each temperament, each root of pleasure, each body, is different.
        • Re: Butoh Body

          Mon, May 14, 2007 - 9:39 AM
          I always work on getting my mind to be passive and not racing with thoughts or chatter. Breathing usually helps. I agree with Call on the method being <meditative, forgetting, empty consciousness...> it's just the body. Being present and moving through each action and movement is how it's different for me. If I think about what I'm doing too much it loses its meaning and purpose. It takes time and sometimes when I do an improv, I may not be there 100% because there's always something going on in the body/mind. But when I break away from that it's so liberating and true.
        • Re: Butoh Body

          Mon, May 14, 2007 - 11:36 AM
          I understand it's a construct, a model. Maybe it is over simplifying it for the purpose of dialogue, but what I witness in the west or modern culture is its inability to let go of the body while utilizing the mind, which is still a lot of MEness in it. More so after the dot.com crash.

          As for deep memories I feel this culture here tends to draw from the mind and the imagery of it. So therefore, only showing the pattern of the flesh, but nothing deep is convey from the body true emptiness.

          My question always to myself is when my body dies so does the mind and the construction of Ledoh (persona). This is where the origin of movement begins. At the same time, it is only through this body which can lead us to emptiness.