@burntbonez :
The body painting was intimate. At that point in my life I’d never taken my clothes off in front of a group of people, so it was quite a vulnerable feeling. At the same time, because all the performers were helping each other spread body paint on each other, there was a sense of camaraderie. This is a performance after a summer long residency in this farmhouse in Germany, so I’d spent all summer with these people dancing and making sculptures.
What attracted me to butoh? That’s a much longer question. I’m not sure—I think it’s how the movement comes from the imagination and imagery, as opposed to many other dance forms, where it’s outside-in.
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As for life-modeling; a lot of energy goes into keeping still, so I go into a sort of heightened state of being. It’s a very focused state—I try to spot something in space, and then like yoga when you are told to hold a pose, you keep the structure but you keep relaxing into the form. Usually it’s for about 20 minutes before you take a break; and then return to the same pose.
I’ve been to studios where the artists chat—I remember being in one where the artists were all retired people, and were expression political viewpoints very different from my own. So that was interesting to me, because emotionally it feels different to hear stuff when you’re naked and your sense are all aware.