Butopia in Conscious Dancer Magazine
In the Winter 2012 issue of Conscious Dancer Magazine, Butopia co-founder Maureen Freehill authored an article (on pg. 11) about Dance as Activism. It featured some Flash Mob dances for the Occupy Movement in Oakland, CA; the practice of making human mandalas for personal and cultural transformation; and the embodiment and representation of wild animals (who would otherwise not have obvious voice/presence) in protest events. As non-monetary equal exchange for this piece, CD Magazine will put an ad for Butopia in the upcoming Spring issue. This is the beautiful ad that graphic designer, painter & movement artist Heather Hansen put together. The picture on top is by Architect Rex Hohlbein and the two below are by John Lorette & I. Please let us know what you think!
Living Without Money Film & Freecycle Events Feb 11 Seattle & 12 Whidbey Island
Title: Living Without Money Film & Freecycle Event
Location: St. Peters Lutheran Church in Clinton, WA
Description: Butopia Center for Embodied Arts Presents:
LIVING WITHOUT MONEY & Local Gift Economy Discussion & Barter
February 12 2012 at 2-4 pm
AT St. Peters Lutheran Church in Clinton, WA & Beery House on Capitol Hill, Seattle (see below)
Contact person: Maureen “Momo” Freehill
Email: mfreehill@hotmail.com
Phone contact for info: 206 855 5836 or 360-341-4715
Screening of “Living Without Money” and a rousing discussion about emerging gift economy and barter/exchange of goods & services as well as info about local opportunities to make a difference with an hour or 2 of your volunteer time. There will be no entrance fee but participants will be encouraged to offer some time/goods voluntarily to local orgs in need of assistance.
ALSO IN SEATTLE ON FEB 11:
February 11 2012 at 6-10 pm
AT The Beery House
Contact person: Maureen “Momo” Freehill or Max Beery
Email: momo @ butopia . net
Phone contact for info: 206 855 5836 or 206 854 0650
Potluck @6pm Film Screening of “Living Without Money” @7pm and a rousing discussion @8pm about emerging gift economy and barter/exchange of goods & services as well as info about local opportunities to make a difference with an hour or 2 of your volunteer time. Followed by a performance by the sweet S. California Band: DREAMHOUSEPLAYS. @9pm. There will be no entrance fee but participants will be encouraged to offer some time/goods voluntarily to local orgs in need of assistance.
SUMMARY:
“LIVING WITHOUT MONEY” – (52 minutes, directed by Line Halvorsen)
Is it possible to feel rich without possessions? Can you live happily without money? In the documentary “Living Without Money”, we meet the German woman Heidemarie Schwermer (68) who made a deliberate choice to live without money 14 years ago. One day she cancelled her flat, donated all of her belongings and started a new life based on exchanging favors – without the use of money. The experiences she made totally changed her outlook on life. Today she is living an interesting and adventurous life, which is very much related to living in the moment without worrying about the future. She is constantly on the move and always trying to help others find their path towards a more simple and harmonic life. The reactions against her are many and various. While some get angry and call her a parasite, others think she is a visionary and a great source of inspiration.
The film reflects around themes of materialism and over-consumption – how money influences our way of thinking, living and acting – and the consequences this has on our life, health and the environment.
Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2012-02-12
End Time: 16:00
Butoh Mini-Retreat in Nature: The 5-ELEMENTS in Our Body Sanctuary
Title: Butoh Mini-Retreat in Nature: The 5-ELEMENTS 
in Our Body Sanctuary
SATURDAY FEB 25 2-5pm
Location: Butopia Land in Freeland, WA
Description: Join us for our once-a-moon Butoh Dance mini-retreat to explore the basic foundation of all creation: The Elements of Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Space. Each element has a unique cosmology of influence and can be profoundly useful for our dances and day to day lives. Our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits can encounter balance or dis-harmony based on the condition of the elements in our consciousness. Each element corresponds to organs, emotional states, patterns and rhythms of movement and states of awareness. Participants will leave with a deepened understanding of the Elements and how to effectively and freely dance with them for intended transformation. We will use intermodal art cycles of movement, poetry & visual art as well as investigate commonalities and distinctions among a variety of ancient & contemporary systems that use the elements as guides such as: Native American, Chinese Acupuncture, Celtic, Tibetan Buddhist, Ecstatic Dance Rhythms, Yogic and others.
Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2012-02-25
End Time: 17:00
CONTACT IMPROVISATION as Healing Art with Stu Philips
CONTACT IMPROVISATION AS HEALING ART
Workshop & Performance with Stu Philips
Location: Butopia Land in Freeland, WA
Description: MARCH 2 & 3, 2012
Contact Improvisation As Healing Art: Workshop & Performance with Stu Philips
CI Performance/Beginning Demo & Lesson Friday March 2; 6:30-8:30pm Workshop Saturday March 3 11-4pm
Workshop consists of methods of being, particularly with self, and extending those out when “interacting” with others, by deconstructing, undermining and bypassing easily our usual or known mental and physical patterns, and allowing our true/real raw emotional energy to transform our dance movement, as well as ourselves, through behaviorally articulating who we are in aligning with how we are, perfectly.
Stu will lead an introduction with performance and participatory elements for anyBODY on Friday evening. Saturday’s workshop will go into depth researching and practicing the healing potentials of the art of Contact Improvisation: dancing in physical (and other means of) contact with others.
Suggested donation: Friday evening 10-15 dollars, Saturday 50-60 dollars. Work exchange also available.
Stu Phillips is a Professional Contact Improvisational Dance Performer and Teacher of more than 24 years, teaching and performing throughout the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, also teaching and performing Improvisational Dance and Theater for 30 years throughout US. The focus is full expression, tuning to emotional and energetic reality constantly in personal flows, portraying that onto students with gentle psychic sensitivity. He is based in Eugene, Oregon.
Start Date: 2012-04-02
Start Time: 18:30
End Date: 2012-04-03
End Time: 16:00
Yoga of Phyllis Moses
Title: Yoga of Phyllis Moses
Location: Butopia’s Sanctuary of Moving Arts in Freeland
Description: Phyllis Moses will offer a class on the yogic practices of transformation and deep healing. Working with the subtle energies of body, mind, and spirit she will guide us into activating the dormant forces within the spine, using the alchemy of the yogic practices of asana, pranayama, bandhas, and meditation to integrate, embody and stabilize our practice. We’ll focus on the element of Space, feeling Spaciousness within.
RSVP to attend (206)855-5836 or momo at butopia.org
Feb. 19 Sun. at 4:00 – 5:30pm $15 suggested donation
Phyllis has taught Viniyoga for 18 years. She has studied esoteric yogic practices with some of the most profound Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Masters. www.hypnobirthingandyoga.com
Start Time: 16:00
Date: 2012-02-19
End Time: 17:30
Spontaneous Dreams Dancing Freely & Fleetingly
You know how when you just wake up and know you have been dreaming but can not quite recall what? This happens to me A LOT. I often miss being able to have & hold the richness of this dream material as enjoyment, insight, material for creative inspiration and contemplation. There are lots of folks that will teach you how to recall night dreams more easily, and what do DO with them when you do. But that is not what happened this past week. Instead, the waking life I experienced became a vivid dreamlike journey of learning and discovery.
I had the pleasure of a series of teachings that relate to this “dream” we are living and dancing daily. The first was from a beloved wild woman Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Lama Lena. Each time I am in her presence she rocks my world in a most appreciated way. This time, she shared teachings about the way humans experience reality; often mentioning that this transitory & spontaneously arising dancing dream of life that we think we are experiencing is utterly empty in the most alive and brilliant way. She pointed to the mistake of dualism in a way that I could glimpse, and it felt both satisfying and disturbing. What are we do DO with this realization? Among the suggestions she offered, what struck me most keenly concerned why we make ART and why we PRACTICE to grow. Of course, this is what I THINK I HEARD HER SAY. Who knows really? She puts forth that there is NO THING to change or make better, to fix or understand. Art is a function and celebration of the spontaneously emerging RICHNESS of a creation that is ever arising from and dissolving into VAST LUMINOUS SPACE. It is delightful to engage in this richness, just as long as you do not try to KEEP it. That is where our suffering will begin. Enlightenment is and always has been and is already always present….and, if you do not see that or are not satisfied with your current experience then some spiritual (or freely fleeting spontaneous dance) practice could be a way to possibly increase that satisfaction. Not much to grasp onto to in all that, eh?
What I gathered is that our SPONTANEOUS DANCING FREELY & Embodied Art PRACTICES with nature (both human and non-human); can be an excellent way to promote being fully awake, engaged and perhaps even satisfied in this fleeting dream dance we call “life.” Another way is to just simply NOTICE (and perhaps embody, engage with &/or experience gratitude in) the infinitely rich spontaneously arising dream dance that you are already, always engaged in….right HERE and NOW!! As I type this on computer I look out window and breath and relax my body noticing and appreciating the richness of many sensations. No matter whether you are “PRACTICING” or not. It appears, that our PRACTICES of letting go & dancing spontaneously tend to lead to more ease with dancing freely in every moment.
Next, I went to see a well-done local play about Gertrude Stein (who appears as a ghost throughout most of the play) and Alice B. Toklas (who appears sad and elderly throughout most of play). If not for the days first event with Lama Lena, I would have been very emotionally drawn into the drama of the play and these women’s considerable attachments to one another, their reputations, and their formidable collection of art & artists. Instead, I sat watching my patterned reactions of how heart strings are plucked by certain situations like death of a loved one, acts of betrayal, cruelty, injustice, kindness, caring and so on.
Finally, we attended another inspiring/disturbing/hopeful talk by visionary economist Charles Eisenstein referring to his theories on how we got into this cultural & ecological nightmare of an economic crisis. He articulated the need for a GIFT based economy as a way to initiate and live in the world of our best dreams. I was grateful to have attended. It even shifted the way I request donations for Butopia’s offerings at this point. It is preparing me to host our first Butopia Film Night at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Clinton, WA… We will show the documentary movie “Living Without Money” about one woman who chose to live without money for over 15 years in Europe. I hope this will help instigate a local conversation about the possibilities and difficulties of a gift economy here. I also hope it will stimulate more participation in a wider range of volunteer gifting of goods & services locally. Life without money could be a dream come true, or it could be a nightmare…what do you think? Come join us on Feb 12 at 2-4pm. Bring something to GIVE AWAY!
Next, on the suggestion of a fellow MomoButoh Dance Co. member Melinda Harrison of Nautre Moves in Boulder, I went to San Diego to attend the Life Force International’s first ever DREAM ACADEMY. That is California Dreamin’ for sure! There are loads of folks living and wishing they were living their dreams everywhere! There were many people who have made small or large fortunes by referring others to the Life Force products, by enrolling others to become business parters and so on in this Network Marketing company that is now poised to explode with growth under the helm of MLM guru David Colister. having pictures taken with the sports cars and Rolls Royce in the parking lot, others of us gasping in awe at the grand opening of the MASSIVE new facility to hold future Dream Academies. Melinda’s dream is that dancers will be healthy and financially independent and well provided for. Hope her dream comes true!
http://youtu.be/q3CbcS8z4SM
In a parallel universe in San Diego, I came down with a nasty flu. In the delirium, I lost my glasses so I could no longer see clearly or drive. Along the way, I met an exceptional cast of characters who live and work with butoh, local churches and the erotic dance business. I danced freely on the coastal beach and made the film below inspired by dream-like images in nature that struck me particularly strongly. The shadow of my body on the firm, flat sand, the roar of surf and ripples of waves spreading over the shoreline, a spontaneously knotted strip of kelp, the tiny bird footprints, flecks of gold dust in the sand, sculpture-like seaweeds dried & twisted, the sparkling shells, rhythms of footfalls and fingers dragging in sand…..all felt as reflections of an emerging dream dance life that I could only witness and be moved with gratitude and awe at the GIFT of it all.
Then today, I went out to dance on our local dreamy beach, Double Bluff. I was playing with as stone and seaweed when a private helicopter flew at me
and started circling low just over my head, heading back and forth down the beach a ways and then returning to me. I spun and danced while it spun and danced overhead. Very surreal. Very much like a dream and certainly nothing I have ever experienced before. Life is but a dream dancing itself awake!
Thank you for reading, watching, dancing and dreaming. Hope you can come attend an event at Butopia soon. Love, Momo.
dancing Our dreams
D
R
E
A
M
dancing
reading
eating
acting
moving
in the spirit of light, in the spirit of We
distance
rowdy
eternal
action
multiply
reaching for my own ambitions eyes to the sky, feet on the ground
connecting to the Inside
the Soul language
and Higher Purpose
I dream of eliminating that which hurts myself and others
I dream of walking my path with Courage and Humility
I dream of creating and living Freely
I dream of connecting to my fellow dancers and the ripples we have made, are making, and will come to make
I dream of peace and a good nights sleep
I dance to re connect to the pulse
that I am so often distracted from
by the mundane workings of every day life,
the seemingly important
but seriously trivial.
I dance for my Grandmother
running across a bridge- fully aware of every moment – the joyful working of my still youthful body.
One of the first questions Momo posed to me at a Butoh workshop was “WHO or WHAT do you dance for?”
I Dream that we can all Dance for what matters to us most, as individuals and as a beautiful community.
I have just reached a new city in pursuit of my Heart’s dreams, and I find that checking in with my daily dance, and the Dance of Life, is helping me adjust to this huge transition with more Strength and Grace than I previously dreamed possible.
Isn’t that the great thing about Dreams? They can keep evolving, growing, stretching, expanding. . .
Me dancing with Lightness & Dali’s Alice in Wonderland
Butoh Mini-Retreat In Nature: “Dancing Our Dreams”
~ Butoh Mini-Retreat in Nature: “Dancing Our Wildest Dreams” ~
Location: SOMA @ Butopia in Freeland, WA
Date: SAT January 28, 2012 2-5pm PST
Description: MomoButoh presents “Once-a-Moon Butoh Mini-Retreat in Nature” facilitated by Maureen Momo Freehill, MFA at the newly opened SOMA (Sanctuary of Moving Arts) in Freeland, WA. This month’s theme is Dream Dances. We will delve into the Embodied realm of our wildest and simplest DREAMS of the night and day as well as our heart’s deepest callings. We use a range of Embodied Arts tools including Scoreography with cycles of Movement, Drawing and Word/Poetry. We will stimulate meaningful sensation and activate imagination to craft dances based on our personal and collective DREAMS. This retreat will assist our MomoButoh Dance Company project for Jan/Feb to enter one another’s dreamscapes, dance and exchange with one another there. 2-5 pm will be the work, 5-6:30pm will an optional potluck meal to converse socially and make merry.
Contact Momo or go to Events At Butopia page for info and pre-registration. 25 suggested in advance 35 at door.
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