White, a Butoh-inspired dance

Videopoetry webpage with descriptions: http://sites.google.com/site/brendaclews/videopoetry A poetry in motion. I played with negatives. It reminds me of ice and snow, of liberation from constraint. Of imaging between being and non-being. Of the mother. Of the sorrow of the mother earth. Of disappearing into and emerging from. Of the continuous cacophony of the dance of life. Of the disjointed, an awkward grace. The film loses some of its quality in the uploaded video: the semi-opague layers appear more like faded images than the transparencies they are. Yet you let go of the white leaf and let it float out to the sea. I wanted to add words, a poem, and perhaps that's next. The flowers are from photographs I took last year of mandalas of fresh flowers in the street outside an Indian restaurant in honour of a Hindu festival. The increasing presence of the flowers behind the screen of the dance is a reminder of what is ever-present, profundita natura, the profundity of nature at its most beautiful, fragile, transitory, in the flower. I leave you with a screen of flowers, like a prayer.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Butoh
• Butoh-based dance
• dance
• dance video
• poetry performance
• videopoetry
• art film
• experimental film
• experimental dance
• expressive dance
• dance as meditation
• White
• visual poem
• Brenda Clews

[jmike510]

Nice! how did u do ur view thing? mines dosent work.

[janmahersh]

Very impressive. I have a new macbook and am timid about stepping into the possibilities. You inspire. Hugs from me.

[rcblove66]

Wow, knocked me out Brenda. Indeed, the sorrow of mother earth.

[Fritson]

And....the Award For the Best Butoh-Inspired-Dance in 2009 goooes tooo:

Brenda Clews!

For the greatest combination of bells & whistles, strange music, poetic dance movements, zoomers, faders, funny lighting, and.......very scary imagery!

Bravo.....Brenda Clews!

Reviewed by the elegant gentleman with lots of wonderfulness from....Facebook!  Hahaha......

Fred Fereydoon D

[johnfwalter]

I hope more of the pre-Simulationist group come and see this seminal work. Have you posted a link to it on our blog or on the Gather group site? I hope so. I feel lonely here with this comment, but I´m glad because as I hope you know I am one of your biggest admirers of your polyfaceted multimedia work.

A big kiss and a hug from Granada. Keep innovating, and setting new visual standards for yourself and other artists in this new world of social connectivity.

[johnfwalter]

You play with the evolving conventions of the butoh form (which is relatively new in labanotational terms, since Hiroshima) with confidence and mastery. You´ve also really gotten accomplished with your objective in front of the camera.

[johnfwalter]

This video is your most accomplished work to date, my dear Brenda. I loved the way you move back and forth between the solarized image of the mother-lover-dancer on the bed, and the actual image, in a brilliant use of black and white. The music of bells and piano complements the slow mudra gestures of the woman in this position of acceptance and release in full openness beautifully. I wonder what Twyla Tharpe would think of the use of the birth posture as an initial gambit to the dance?