I have been deeply inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh.

His words have been guiding me. 
​
“Freedom is not given to us by anyone;

we have to cultivate it ourselves.

It is a daily practice...

No one can prevent you

from being aware of each step you take

or

each breath in

and

breath out.”

---

“Your body is

your first home.

Breathing in,

I arrive in my body.

Breathing out,

I am home.”


-Thich Nhat Hanh 
​

"To love is First  Of  All To Accept Yourself As You Actually Are."

"When We Restore Peace Within Ourselves,
We Have A Chance To Restore Peace Within Others."  

​-Thich Nhat Hanh

"I am determined 

To speak

Truthfully - With 

Words that inspire 

Self-Confidence, 

Joy and Hope. "
​

A meeting is like a miracle.  

There are many people on this planet, and we meet only some of them in our lives. 

And if we feel a connection with people who we meet- 

That is a special connection. 

We did not plan that happens;

Just happens. 

Sometimes repeatably we encounter same/similar people. 

Over and over and over 

Like or dislike

A person, A group, A place, A work, and so on... 

Any relationships...

We call it "EN". 

If we have an "EN", we will meet again. 

I hope we have a good "EN". 

​-Yokko

In Japanese, we have an idiom, "Feet on the ground" which means "down to Earth".  In other words, "be realistic".

While I have been researching, studying and training Butoh Dance, I have often encountered the concept of gravity. Many teachers who studied under Hijikata teach us about "against gravity". We practice erasing or at least reducing our weight so that our body looks/seems like floating- not like a human. When we apply the practice, our mind also floats in the air. I love the sensation. When we finish the practice - we have to come back to the reality-. literally down to the earth, and bring our feet on the ground. I really wish- I can just float every day-. But reality does not allow us to do so. As an independent/freelance artists, we need to find a balance between. We get an idea, we get inspired- but we also need to realize the ideas and inspirations, and for that, we plan, organize, communicate, and take actions. All tasks require somehow gravity. I tend immediately take an action right after getting an idea. However, at the end of this year, I am bringing thoughts to how to be grounded!

And now, I am interested in and curious about "gravity" in Butoh & movement. We do work with dual energy (pulling two different directions) Also, something pushes us down, and push those back- those movements make me absolutely grounded. In Pure Movement which I also teach time to time (I learned Trish Arnold's Pure Movement from Mery Conway), we play with our weight. heaviness and lightness of weight. We study what sensations we will get from those conditions. The study is endless. The roots are under the ground. In order to grow, we need to have the roots- and to balance, we need to bring our conscious to the roots-. roots. In order to let go something, we need to find our own roots. Body, Mind, Emotion, Spirit... 
Let us put out feet on the ground, and set our intentions to this coming year 2019! 

Hijikata said to his pupils "expression without expression" This reminded me "no acting, please" from my acting training. Through my acting training at Actors Studio Drama school. I was trained to be ok with just being there. I remember my teachers insisted to tell us to not presenting nor explaining through acting. So when I encountered Hijikata Butoh, and read his words and a book written by his students, and watch some documentaries- I found myself "home" to the philosophy of "expression without expression."

In the acting training, I had months of just sense memory practice. It developed not only my five senses deeper but also my focus level. In Hijikata's later work- notational butoh (Butoh Fu/Butoh Score), there are many body sensational conditions which we need to create first to begin. It has to be real. We really have to do it. Not kind of, not showing, not presenting, and of course not expressing. We actually feel itchiness, skin dryness, smoothness, lightness... It is a sensation; not presentation. For me, this is one of a principle thought,  and I love this very much. 
​

Since we are human beings, we make mistakes. We cause others to suffer. We hurt our loved ones, and we feel regret. But without making mistakes, there is no way to learn. If you can learn from. your mistakes, then you have already transformed garbage into flowers. Very often our mistakes come from our unskillfulness, and not because we want to harm one another. I think of our behavior in terms of being more or less skillful rather than in terms of good and bad. if you are skillful, you can avoid making yourself suffer and the other person suffer. If there's something you want to tell the other person, then you have to say it, but do so skillfully, in a way that leads to less rather than more suffering. 

To Love is, first of All, to accept ourselves as we actually are. The first practice of love is to know oneself. The Pali word, mettameans "loving kindness" When we practice mettameditation, we see the conditions that have caused us to be the way we are; this makes it easy for us to accept ourselves, including our suffering and our happiness. When we practice mettameditation, we touch our deepest aspirations. But the willingness and aspiration to love isnot yet love. we have to look deeply, with all our being, in order to understand the object of our meditation. The practice of love is not autosuggestion. We have to look deeply, at our body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. We can observe how much peace, happiness, and lightness, we already have. we can notice whether we are anxious about accidents or misfortunes, and how much anger, irritation, fear, anxiety or worry are still in us, our self-understanding will deepen. We will see how our fears and lack of peace contribute to our unhappiness, and we will see the value of loving ourselves, and cultivating a heart of compassion. Love will enter our thoughts, words, and actions.


- Thich Nhat Hanh

​We all have a gift.

But most of the time
we want to keep it a secret.

I think it is ok not to tell
what gifts you have

- in a way--
keep it a secret.

But it is nice
to share a gift with others.

Your beauty,
your strength,
your compassion,
your craft,
and more.

Just breathe a moment,
and share a part of yourself with others.

The moment you shared is a gift. 

​"Butoh is a dance of INOCHI  (being, soul, life) by Kazuo Ono.  

"My dance is expansion of human concept- letting a human body metamorphosis into anything including an animal, a plant, even an object which does not have a life, and the fundamental ideology of my butoh is finding the possibility." -Tatsumi Hijikata