we will begin another round of intensive exploration here in Portland this April.  for four sundays we will train for 3 hours.  drop-ins are welcome.  check out the workshops page for more information.....

there will also be an audition in the first week of may for this summer's Water in the Desert Festival.  We will be doing a butoh adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".....contact mizu for more information. 

   As adults, is it possible to recover the softness, innocence and unconditional expressivity of the child?  When we are children, our emotions pass through the body in a constant, ever-morphing stream.  As if we have our head pressed to the water, which pours into the heart and passes through the hand...the child’s wonder trickles into surprise…anger washes over sweetness which become sheer outbursts of joy and later, wailing cries.  Nothing is held for too long while the world, and our responses to it, seamlessly pass through the body, unlabeled by the conditions of society or the judgements of the adult mind.

  In Butoh, we strive to strip away all of our social conditioning and habits in order to make a pathway for us to rediscover the soft side of our humanity. We practice so that we might honestly observe ourselves, and the world around us, in order to be more in touch with the REALITY of our human circumstances.  In our training, we utilize completely all of the material we arrive with today.  Our anger.  Our despair.  Our craziness.  Our addictions.  And through the process of opening and reveling in our complexities and beauties, our cultural idiosyncrasies and our darkest secrets, we begin to transform ourselves.  Slowly, we begin to arrive at our essence.

  In January, I will be offering an intensive workshop which approaches the heart of the child.  How can we support each other to rediscover ourselves in the imagination of our childhood, before the formation of the adult?  Through the work of the butoh-ritual lineage (from Kazuo Ohno and Diego Pinon) as well as the butoh imagery of the Hijikata lineage (as shared with me through the Tamanos), our goal is touch the multiple universes and primitive realities of the child, dancing again the primal wound, in order to recover a fresh perspective for our contemporary lives and creations.  For more information please visit my Workshop page.

It has been a crazy few months.  Water in the Desert was sensational.  For the many that offered your time, resources, and creative actions....we are deeply grateful.  We are already planning the next event.

Currently I am in Colorado, participating in the Boulder International Fringe Festival with collaborators Delisa Myles & Syzygy Butoh.  If you are in the region, come check out one of our shows.  This work is a constantly evolving exploration of our desires, fears, repressions, role-models & perversities....in the mixed genre of butoh-burlesque.

Huge gratitude for what feels like unending support from so many mysterious forces.

SHaBaAm! 

As part of the Water in the Desert Festival, we are offering an exceptional workshop series in Butoh.  The classes are open to all levels of dance/movement experience and are certain to offer a profound look for everyone at the relationship between the body and the imagination.  This is a rare opportunity to study with the Tamanos of Harupin-Ha Butoh Theatre.  The Tamanos are globally recognized Masters of Butoh and were in the first Butoh company of Tatsumi Hijikata (Creator of the form).  We are also bringing Nathan Montgomery of Syzygy Butoh from Colorado.  Nathan is an impeccable 3rd generation artist of Butoh, integrating over 10 years of study with Butoh-Ritual-Mexicano master, Diego Pinon, and his own explorations of Tibetan Heart Yoga and Elemental Dance.  Those who participate in the entire series may be included in the evening's ritual performance on the water for this years festival.

The Illumination of Escarabajo (Soriah + Mizu Desierto)

A post-apocalyptic reverie of one shaman's encounter with the cockroach...Integrating throat-singing, Butoh, & shadow....
 
June 13 at The Steve Allen Theater; Los Angeles (4773 Hollywood Blvd)
June 16 Tsunami on the Square Festival of Performing Arts; Prescott, AZ
June 22 at FrogBelly Farm; Boulder, CO with Syzygy Butoh & Delisa Myles


Workshops June 23 & 24 at FrogBelly Farm

The Psychic Dance Body: Butoh-Ritual Dance Workshop with Mizu Desierto
June 23;  12-4
Dance and Improvisation with Delisa Myles
June 24; 12-4         

$40 for one day/$55 for both