12 -15 February 2010

Butoh body movement workshop
Conducted by Atsushi Takenouchi and accompanied by Hiroko Komiya

Venue: Chandralekha's Spaces, 1 Elliot's Beach Rd, Besant Nagar, Chennai

This intensive 3 ½ day workshop is meant for dancers, actors, performing artists, healers, body work practitioners and others active in related fields. It will be conducted by internationally renowned Butoh dancer and choreographer Atsushi Takenouchi with live percussion music by Hiroko Komiya.

The instructors invite the participants to experience an inner journey through different states of consciousness, feelings and sensations and explore unity with others and in resonance with nature.

Participants will work in indoor as well as outdoor locations for about 6 hours every day. There will also be a public solo performance by the instructors on the 15th evening at Chandra's Mandala.

For more details about philosophy, previous workshops, works of instructors, please see: http://jinen-butoh.com

For information and registration, please email: prakritifoundation@gmail.com
In your email please mention your age, your performance experience if any, and your contact telephone number. First priority will be given to performers, especially dancers.


Response
The Cathartic Effect Of A Butoh Performance

Atsushi Takenouchi unwinds slowly
like a robot keyed up
letting loose on a spring.

I count the ribs outside his ribcage.
One could draw a skeletal diagram.
I hear blood
course up and down his spine,
the contraction of muscles,
in his chest - the ribs
almost the gills of a netted fish...
like a kavadi carrier poking spears
in his jaw and belly.
I hold my breath as Takenouchi
steps down from the stage
and clings to a tree. I name
all the animals I have seen thus far.

Now I can go home,
say I found my God in a dance:
he moved between the branches
of a tree and walked like Moses,
( where Chandralekha might have sipped tea.)

- Sivakami Velliangiri