ooh, quick update on the butoh thingie
i had a blast at the butoh-inspired improv--it may not have been the world's best improv performance, but the whole process of working with these three other women for an hour and a half and then performing was really great. the response was very positive, and we all want to work together again.
the very last part of the piece had all four performers sitting on stage (my friend jen, whose show it was and who performed two solos that bracketed the improv, and the two other "bird women"). one sang "twinkle twinkle little star" softly; one was silent; one told a story about her childhood in the phillipines, which involved attempting to play with the headless chickens that were running around in the yard as her grandmother was beheading them for food and then crying when they flopped over and stopped "playing"; and i was describing extracting birds from mist nets and gently putting them in little cloth bags that are then clipped to a cord around my neck for transport back to the banding station--i end up wearing a living, fluttering necklace, and it's amazing. i was closest to the audience and was speaking in a very soft intimate way, and the dozen or so people who were around me were absolutely rapt during my story. it was intense.
the very last part of the piece had all four performers sitting on stage (my friend jen, whose show it was and who performed two solos that bracketed the improv, and the two other "bird women"). one sang "twinkle twinkle little star" softly; one was silent; one told a story about her childhood in the phillipines, which involved attempting to play with the headless chickens that were running around in the yard as her grandmother was beheading them for food and then crying when they flopped over and stopped "playing"; and i was describing extracting birds from mist nets and gently putting them in little cloth bags that are then clipped to a cord around my neck for transport back to the banding station--i end up wearing a living, fluttering necklace, and it's amazing. i was closest to the audience and was speaking in a very soft intimate way, and the dozen or so people who were around me were absolutely rapt during my story. it was intense.