Feedback from performance

It's very helpful to get feedback from the audience about what you're presenting, offering, showing, etc. In the past, I used to be terrified and would take a lot of it personally (I still do sometimes), but I feel, now, it's such an important part of growing in whatever you do. Artistic or not.

After my March 11 performance (video coming soon), I got amazing, detailed feedback. Detailed is the key word here. My intention for the evening was to have fun. I wanted to have fun and I totally had it. But hearing a couple of people's reactions to my piece was so appreciated because, let's face it, doing solos can be a lonely process!

One audience member acknowledged and appreciated my presence on stage, even through the intensity of it overall. How a performer/dancer can hold the space and be there, show up for the audience.
Another audience member (a long time practitioner of Butoh), gave such detailed observations right down to my fingertips! I was fascinated by the fingertips because I never really noticed it or considered it within the choreography. She explained the flow of movement through the fingertips, like when you touch something hot or are shocked; to continue that flow or extension as if it's literally coming through and out the fingertips into space. It's hard to describe in words, but I hope you get the jist. I know that my hands and fingers throughout the piece were in a claw-like position at certain points, so I really appreciated it and want to investigate that further.

My piece was called "Awake" and it was about peeling the layers of ourselves, bodies, souls. I was wrapped in white tule in the beginning, like a crysalus before a catepillar becomes a butterfly. From there, I worked my way out of it. The first audience member told me she could've watched me play with that much longer, and I instantly agreed because I remembered being in the moment and wanting the same.
Not for show purposes.
For me.

If you're in the SF Bay Area, butoh masters, Hiroko and Koichi Tamano will be teaching a workshop for a limited time while they're back in the US. Click here for more info.

3-9-12 practice: The Sutro Baths

Crouching on jagged teeth, rusty and hard
prickly surface under my feet, embracing
wind and atomsphere
elements surround my body, earth
sun warming and soothing
water within my reach but above hovering over
as the waves crash against the bath house
ruins I roam and glide along the edge
the rusty, rotted teeth peer up at me
inviting, raw and beautifully revolting
it was once alive and a piece of it stays
alive, for the sea water, gulls, ducks, salt
nourish and worship its spirit that still
lingers everywhere and all around
I turn away from the vast Pacific and
acknowledge the space, sacred ground, and once
lively meeting place of past guests visitors, socializing
and soaking in the beauty and tranquility
around.