September 20, 2008
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(4:16) On Butoh-based Dance: A Saturday morning amble…
Butoh, strange and surreal as it is, is about intimacy.YouTube URL here for Butoh-Based Dance talk and poem
Ok, so. Posted my first iMac video on Butoh-based dance with a poem in my white flannel nightgown this morning on YouTube.
Video YouTube: Poetry Performance Pieces
Even
before coffee. I leave as is. Though I did add the poem later this
evening and you might have to increase the volume since, though I
re-recorded a number of times much closer to the computer’s built-in
microphone than the original clip, I wasn’t able to arrive at the same
volume levels.
Strange and surreal as it often is, Butoh is about intimacy.
__hugs xo
Comments (13)
Wow, was this righteous or not? Excellent. You have the legs of a dancer. One never loses that. It is the one thing I can say I did not lose after so many years of not being able to dance because of the injury so long ago.
Friend Brenda, this was divine to watch. I hope you do more of these as well. What life is brought to the words of Poetry through the spoken voice that we don’t even think when we are reading and impressed by just that? I love the gold tone of the video. Quite vintage in flair.
I think, too, just to have made the video speaks of a depth of courage in your spirit as an individual and as an artist. Bravo! Divine Poetry written and read as well.
I just got home from Ye Olde Inn and it is one of those evenings…a bella sera.
Blessings~
@madmorrigan -
Madmorrigan, I am intrigued by the word “righteous” and must ask what you mean. Butoh is so very interactive and not authoritarian at all. In the emptiness of the dancer everything comes to be. Perhaps I didn’t manage to impart this in my little experimental video with its uneven sound? I’m not sure how to rectify that, unless you meant me, talking about it, or attempting to share a recent experience which I am in the process of understanding. I didn’t mean to sound righteous; if I did, I sincerely apologize for it. xo
I have to laugh, Miss Brenda!! “Righteous” is a colloquialism for depth of fabulous (as opposed to “self-righteous”, which would not even have entered my thought process in response to this stunning video)!!! You know, I haven’t used the term for so long that I forgot it may be outmoded. My dear Friend, what you must have thought?!?!?! No, no, no, it is a very, very good term. Think…Righteous Brothers sing righteous good music.
It was so late at night, and the video was so impressive, and immediately I thought: “Wow, this is ‘righteous’”! It is an absolute compliment, to be sure.
Blessings~
@brendaclews -
Forgot to click reply above~!!
@madmorrigan -
You know, it was so ad-lib, completely improvised, just playing with the capabilities of the computer, that I have no idea how it appears. Nothing planned at all. In fact while I had started the poem it went through some wild revisions that evening as I decided to add it to see what it might be like. Then I wanted to decrease the size of the video so I could email to a few friends but posting on YouTube became the easiest option. I am, of course, all worried about the nightgown, the early morning ambience, the sense of intimacy. No-one but you has commented, and I’ve left links in a few places now. Perhaps it’s over the top, I have no idea. So thank you for both responses: the former led me to change my blurb on the video; the latter has calmed me a little. What we produce from our most vulnerable selves always carried risk with it. Many blessings, dear friend. xo
@brendaclews -
I think you will get some feedback soon. Weekend visitors are not as plentiful as those during the week. I’ve noticed this over the years here at Xangadoon and on some other blogs. It seems to pick up Sunday evening through Thursday and then dissipates again. I truly do like this video art you have done. The quality is clear, and I am always drawn to a vintage flair, an ethereal one, and this fits that interest. The nuances are subtle between voice and vision and movement, but very present. The video, in fact, is a lot like your paintings, very fluid in movement, which, perhaps, shows how the artist projects one’s spirit into one’s art.
Blessings~:)
@madmorrigan -
Thank you, dear. I just sent you an email. iMovie offers options for colouring and I chose Sepia – it is rather nice isn’t it. The colour that the inbuilt video camera provides is too boosted for my taste, not settled enough. I hope to be able to afford FinalCut Express soon and learn how to use it since it offers many more options for editing video than the truly impressive iMovie.
And then there’s GarageBand, which I haven’t even opened yet.
How to be most human in these technologies, vulnerable, intimate, this is part of my aesthetic and my challenge.
Thank you again, dear friend. Many blessings.
Gossamer and grace, my dear. Always. I didn’t watch this earlier, because I was on a computer without working speakers.
THANK YOU for your recent comments. I always value your opinions and am touched by your caring and insight. I want you to know that.
If I had a teacher that did that sexy talking with her hands thing, I would never had been willing to graduate. It’s like a magic trick, following the motion, motion into the movement of words, translating the turns of a dance into poetry. I’m obsessed a bit I think with cross pollinating the senses having one naturally blend to another. You dance to poetry is onto something there I think.
Was gonna point out that Patti don’t do all that lead in, but looks like she’s reverted to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhFHZPkRUM i’ve always found those long ramblin’ intro annoying…but maybe that’s because i played in primarily instrumental bands…don’t think i ever talked up a song using more than five words
@EminemsRevenge -
Yeah, but that’s after the fact. And the preamble story helps with the poem, I think. Patti can do whateva she likes in my book. Though instrumental music is beyond words, can understand that.
This Butoh piece was done the other way around. First the ‘talk’ – computer not 12 hours old, checking it out – thinking to send it to a few close friends, couldn’t, file too large, so then You Tube, uh oh, better write a poem to go with it, worked on that, froze a frame, added it with the ‘rolling credits’ filter in iMovie as an after-thought.
So, no preamble to the poem; rather the poem an after-thought to the talk. The process of composition may make a difference, but then again it might not.
Thanks for dropping by – & ahem your You Tube music and poetry site?
Hoping this reminds me to come back and view. Got home late from partying.
Hi Brenda,
I left a short homage on YouTube for this piece. thanks for sharing!
Jay