itto morita - practical butoh training guide 2011

Practical ButohTraining Guide2011

by ITTO's Butoh DanceMethod

(updated. Jan.5, 2011)

This section is written for the people who are interestedin exploring one's own body-mind mysteries byperforming Butoh, and for performing artists who are inneed of the exploration of body subtlety.

*This section includes some past explanations written in2009, 2010.

Arm standing exercise (Feb.7,2009)Opening a fist for 3 minutesStanding on one foot for several minutesLeaning your head by using its weightTwitching exerciseJaw relaxationSlow walking exercises...

When to start Butoh

Practical Butoh Training Guide 2011 http://www.ne.jp/asahi/butoh/itto/method/butoh_training.htm

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(Jan.31,2009)

I have been teaching Butoh in Sapporo andaround the world for more than 20 years. Ihave at least one thing that I am very proud ofin terms of my teaching method: Each Butohtrainee has developed his/her own dance andmovement style, and their performancesappear very different one another, and verystimulating even to me.

While watching Butoh performance, I tend tobecome disappointed sometimes to find thatButoh dancers move and dance as in thepredictive and/or prescribed way. Althoughthey could be beautiful and successful as apiece of Butoh dance, I don't like suchperformance in most cases because I can notperceive any reality in those movements.

Due to my long Butoh dance life, I think that Iam capable, to some extent, of foreseeingwhat the dancer will do next by watchingpreparatory body movements. It badly spoilsmy interest of watching...

Because I have noticed tremendousdifferences among people in their body-mindsystems, I tend to be attracted by each one'speculiarities. Physical dimensions are not at allthe same, and the way o f thinking andrecognizing things are very much different.

* I will explain later about howpeople perceive the world differentlybecause of the differentpredominant channel of perception.*Please check one of my recent


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papers "New understandings ofButoh Creation and CreativeAutopoietic Butoh- FromSubconscious Hidden Observer toPerturbation of Body-Mind System"(2010).

I strongly believe that everybody has toexplore his/her own way of Butoh dancebecause of those differences in the body-mindsystem, and the prime and ultimate purposeof my Butoh training is to make clear thosedifferences. I simply persuade my trainees toperform in their individualized way after givingthem a kind of seed for body-mind explorationthrough basic Butoh exercises.

My Butoh exercises cover from the simplephysical training , to how to perceive the worldor to how to connect the unconscious worldwith the bodily reactions such as twitches,spasm, etc. But, the key point is to enhanceone's sensibilities to his/her inner world ofbody-mind and to the outside world of light,sound, touch, fragrance, taste, weight, etc.

I have trained a lot of people, in Japan and inother countries. My Butoh dance teaching hasbeen based upon the following three basics:

Need of sensibility of your body-mindand the surroundings.Need of integration of gaps ordiscrepancies among your ownbody-mind and/or surroundings.Desire for your (spiritual) survival.

One Butoh dance boss in my long Butoh life


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worked very hard to earn money for having aButoh performance stage or two in a year, andended up with big debts on him (one of theheritages of Butoh since Hijikata era.) Butohwas not simply a dance for him, butsomething like prayer for his spiritual world... Iam inclined to think that it would be a goodButoh performance if there are seriousspiritual needs or desires of body-mindexploration for integration.Oh, one more thing about the boss: Hestopped eating gradually before a couple ofweeks of the performance, and was starvingbadly before the performance, almost noenergy to think or dance. Then, hisperformance was more than a dance...

I believe that it has almost no meaning rightnow to replicate the traditional Butoh dancemovement patterns of the previous centuryalthough there are still a number of dancersdoing in this way, especially outside Japan. Iam rather skeptical about this status quo, andwould like to see Butoh in terms of thosethree points. If you feel those three needsabove, I believe that it is an authentic time tostart Butoh.

The significance of simple exercises in Butoh(updated Feb.4,2009)

"Arm Standing Exercise" is seemingly verysimple exercise. Some people can get boredvery soon while doing such simple exercisesas "Opening a fist for 3 minutes", "Standing onone foot for several minutes", "Walking


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painfully slow", etc. If you cannot find anyexciting things in these exercises, you shouldquit Butoh training. There are many otherexciting things in the world.

Talking about the musculo-skeletal system ofour body, the round edge of a bone isconnected to another round edge of a bonesuch as fingers, knees, etc. It is not easy tostand an egg on the floor by placing it on itssharp edge. (Egg standing exercise used bepopular in Butoh training.) Our joints are notsquare, and the slightest change of thedirection of a bone may affect the whole bodybalance. Mika Takeuchi and other Butohdancers in our group sometimes changeslightly their body alignment while talking orsitting: They are learning their own body bychanging alignments of bones, muscles,viscera, tendons, together with their qualitysuch as stiffness, flexibility, extendedness, etc.Body Learning Therapy is one of our Butohtraining fields, and claims that we need tolearn more about our body. Like a infant whopours water into a cup and leans it to make itempty while perceiving their fingers, hand,wrist, elbow, shoulder, etc, plus, the weight ofthe cup, water, the coldness, etc...

In Noguchi Taiso (Noguchi's physical exerciseor gymnastics), gravity is the key concept inmoving our own body, trying to move in themost effective or economical way. MichizoNoguchi abandoned the common idea of themusculoskeletal movement by showing thathuman body is not solid but rather liquid, bygiving us a metaphor of "flexible leather bag"


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in which bones, muscles, viscera or brain areall floating. Once you have this unique andnon-anatomical idea and feelings about yourbody and movement, your body starts movingwith totally different quality."Ne-Nyo-Ro" is one of those Noguchi exercisesas some of the readers may have experienced.

*Most western dance are based upon theanatomical idea about the body, so-calledmusculo-skeletal system. There is a clear-cutdifference between them and Butoh in thispoint.

A young office lady complained to me that shecould not serve tea smoothly. Her arms,hands, shoulders moved very awkwardly like atin-made old robot. It seemed that she oncefailed to do such a chore in the natural way,and logically re-created the whole movementsequence for tea serving like a motionprogram for a robot. But, any motion programis merely a blueprint of the movement andlacks something: Adustment within the systemand outside the system.

Whey you walk or move your arm, you have tolisten to your muscle tone and joints'"squeaks" in order to make delicateadjustments while moving. You also have topay much attention to the outer world: Thecup has a certain weight and its own peculiarsurface that can be very slippery, etc. Youhave to take these as-yet-unrecognizedfactors into consideration continuously.This idea has been proposed by apsychologist, J.J. Gibson, and was named


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"affordance": The outer world greatly dictatesour movements according to the qualities andphysical dimensions of each object. In a sense,we are always communicating with thesurrounding objects while relating to theoutside world in touching, walking, carrying,etc...We should not forget that we are alwaystalking to the edge of a bone by using theedge of the adjoining bone. Hence, theterminology "Body Learning" comes out.

*Please check one of my recent papers "Newunderstandings of Butoh Creation andCreative Autopoietic Butoh- FromSubconscious Hidden Observer toPerturbation of Body-Mind System" (2010)about affordance.

Body-Learning is essential to avoidunnecessary collision with the

unconscious.

Without enhancing the body-mind awareness,it can be very dangerous to go deep into theunconscious world filled with suppressed orforlorn emotions. Basically, we all haveundergone unhappy pasts in one's own waybecause we could not avoind certainaccidents and diseases or we could notchoose our parents, the birth place or time ofbirth, etc. Almost everything has been givenas "gifts" whether happy or not.

When we dare to explore our unconsciousinner world, we are always forced toencounter with our physical/mental limitations.


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Determination to dare to try is very muchcritical for what will happen. We must besensitive enough to tell subtle differences inour body-mind so as not to encouterunnecessary implosion or panic when we arenot ready.

Finding new things in your body-mindis essential for Butoh.

(Jan.31,200)

Butoh trainees often ask me how to movetheir arms, hands, shoulders, trunk, legs, head,pelvis, foot, etc., when I show a simplemovement and/or body alignment, etc. Isometimes come to feel there is amisunderstanding among trainees about myButoh training, and would give someexplanations concerning my Butoh lesson:

The movement or movement sequence isa kind of starting point althoug it lookslike a kind of choreography. I don't intendto choreograph, and I simply gaveinstruction as a seed to explore Butohbody-mind through movement patternsin Butoh.Self-exploratory attitude towardbody-mind reactions is necessarybecause I usually don't give any detailedinstructions. Without being instructedfully, you are put in an anxious state. But,it is the very state where you can andhave to discover something fresh andnew to you for yourself. Such Eureka orAha experience intrigues you more toperceive yourself deep. Creativity is


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nurtured only by discovering by yourself.

It is not rare that well-trained professionaldancers find it very difficult to be the masterof his/her movement in a creative way, mainlybecause they have been so trained for yearsas to follow and actualize his/herchoreographer's instructions as precisely aspossible. In my Butoh lesson, there is no "jobdescriptions" basically about what to do orhow to do, as long as trainees areexperiencing honestly one's own body-mind. Ibelieve that the whole process of thisexploration and discovery makes thebody-mind set for authentic Butoh.

* Not many but some professional dancers aresuffering from information deficiency when Idon't give clear-cut instructions about how tomove. Some of them seem to lack the abilityto perceive their own inner body and theemotions elicited in it. If you feel somethinglike uneasiness or fear because of myinsufficient information, it should affect yourway of moving, and it is the starting point ofyour own Butoh.However, some are really lacking this kind ofconnectivity among thebody-mind-(emotion)-surroudings, or empathyin a broad sense, and tend to compose everymovement only by thinking. Such informationseekers can be a good dancer whenchoreographed fully, but it is not the way inButoh.

Rigorous movements based upon theenhanced body-mind awareness


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(Jan.31,200)

Dance critics sometimes told us that ourmovements and performance are veryrigorous with delicate and precise movements.I am very pleased to hear that, because we arevery anxious about delicate and smallmovements in general. But, in order to avoid acommon misunderstanding among non-Butohdancers about this statement, I need to clarifywhat authentically small and delicatemovements are, in contrast with apparentsmall movements by choreography.

"Opening a fist" exercise is a simple exerciseto explore your own body-mind:

Grasp your five fingers of your righthand and make a fist.

1.

Opening your fist continuously for threeminutes is the basic requirement.

2.

The fist naturally begins to swellwhen you relieve the muscle tensionfrom your fist.

a.

You perceive squeaky extendingmovements in your finger joints.

b.

The fingers gradually lose theirnaturally extending energy, and youhave to find out once again how yourealize the finger extendingmovements.

c.

There are at least three ways toactualize this: by controlling thefinger extending movements, or byusing the weight of fingers, or bygiving a lot of energy to the fingers.

d.

Why not changing your posture ore.


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angle of your arm, or why notchanging your breathing pattern, orwhy not strongly wishing thatfingers should extend with anger ortears or desperation, etc...

When you undergo this exercise several times,you will understand that you learned a lotabout how the joints, muscles, tendons workand how your mind-set or wish affects to thefist opening movement. Body-mind awarenessis enhanced through these exploratory anddiscovering experiences concerning each partof your body.

One of other simple exercises to enhanceyour body-mind awareness is the slowstretching:Lean your head to the right or left side byusing your head weight. The head is heavy,and your neck muscles and tendons in theupper side of your neck are graduallystretched. Anatomical studies claim that ittakes 30-40 seconds for a tendon to startextending naturally. The tendon comprisesthree parts in terms of its strength, two edgesand the middle part. While the middle part is akind of a loose spring and extends easily, theedges are a hard one to extend. By keepingthe tendon under strain for some time, thehard edges gradually start extending as if itstarts melting like a candy.

Slow movements are significant for enhancingthe body-mind awareness. Awareness of theweight of each part of body is the keyconcept in Noguchi Taiso.


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You can enjoy this anatomical finding in yourown body if you take time to perceive well.When you move very slowly, there will be a lotof occasions to perceive this kind of bodilyfacts one by one while noticing what otherparts of your body react in the head leaningmovement.

These small and delicate movements are notobtained by simple choreographicinstructions. Rather, choreography shouldcome after you get enhanced body-mindawareness if necessary.

Improvisation vs. Choreography inButoh

(Feb.2,2009)

The terms "improvisation" and "choreography"always annoy me when requested to giveexplanations about how we compose ourButoh dance piece in terms these two words:"Is your dance piece a choreographed one orimprovisational ?"

*Please check one of my recent papers againabout this contrast: "New understandings ofButoh Creation and Creative AutopoieticButoh- From Subconscious Hidden Observerto Perturbation of Body-Mind System" (2010)

The original meaning of choreography isbased on the fact that there are basic fixedmovements or posture patterns in a givendance form. Hijikata's Butoh style hadchanged three or four times: At some periodhe choreographed very strictly, at another


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period he preferred so-called "happening".Apart from this, it is said that Hijikata createdabout 5000-6000 movement sequencepatterns, and Yoko Ashikawa, one of his bestfemale disciples, reportedly, could replicateabout 3000 patterns.

Before jumping to a simple conclusion thatButoh was based upon choreography, we haveto notice that, before attaining severalthousands of movement patterns, Hijikatacreated utterly new movements or posturesthat had not existed in the modern danceworld. To use an analogy, while the moderndance and ballet use the already existingalphabet characters to compose a newsequence of movement, Hijikata createdutterly new letters first, and composed asequence of movement by using those"strange" new letters.

I think that seemingly important two terms"improvisation" and "choreography" havealready lost its evaluating power to grasp adance form, or at least they are veryinsufficient to grasp Butoh. As a matter offact, all I do with Mika, my Butoh partner,beforehand in our performance is apre-arrangement about when and how she issupposed to appear or leave. During ourperformance, she dances in her own way asshe likes, and I do mine. Of course, we talkone another in our practice about what kind ofmovement is good or suitable, but it is notchoreography but suggestions or comments.We explore our own movements, and usuallystart exploring new movements or postures


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that would satisfy both of us more. Hence, wehave never bored with our performancebecause both of us don't know exactly whatwill happen next.

* I am omitting here the descriptions abouthow I came to be urged to do a certainmovement during our performance.

One of the most important characteristics ofButoh comes from this creative process: Youare entitled to create any movements orpostures or any combination patters thatdon't exist so far.

In the world of performing arts, the creationprocess of this kind always have to rely uponhow much and deep you experience your ownbody-mind, and the body-mind sensitivitydetermines the quality of Butoh dance,whether it is improvisation or choreography.

*There are many factors or parts in our bodythat are ignored by intentional choreography.But, those unattended factors or body partsplay a significant role in an unnoticeable way.If you persist any choreography too much, italways runs the risk of over-intellectualizationand loss of vibrant factors duringperformance. Choreographers only see whatthey choreograph, but the audience can seewhat choreographers never noticed.

Predominant channel or mode ofperception

(preparing...)


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itto morita - practical butoh training guide 2011

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