Author Archives: helisdance

Brittle Sisters Bardo

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The Brittle Sisters: the Bardo
Choreography: Helen Thorsen
Dancers: Mary Cutrera, Helen Thorsen, Cara Ross Berman, Erica Howard
On the shortest day of the year- the winter Solstice in a 5000-year-old prehistoric chamber in Ireland a soul is hanging from the ceiling on a thin silver cord, beneath buried in the ground is a beating heart. 13,000 years ago, in Mexico lay the bones of 16-year-old girl who died lost in a deep cave looking for water. The rising sun on the Winter Solstice enters to the back of the Irish chamber and the Mexican cave and the light in the darkness bringing the possibility of souls finding their way.

Photo: Dymitry Artamonov

Butoh + Performance March 17th at Youngstown 7 pm

Posted by helisdance on

On the shortest day of the year- the winter Solstice in a 5000-year-old prehistoric chamber in Ireland a soul is hanging on a from the ceiling on a thin silver cord, beneath buried in the ground is a beating heart. 13,000 years ago, in Mexico lay the bones of 16-year-old girl who died lost in a deep cave looking for water. The rising sun on the Winter Solstice enters to the back of the Irish chamber and the Mexican cave and the light in the darkness bringing the possibility of two spirits finding their way. These are images from a new Brittle Sisters dance. A dance that began in the new year from my work in a workshop by Marissa Niederhauser called Dance Spell.

Seattle Butoh Fest 2017

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2017-02-12-16-17-34Please join us for performances, workshops and a photo exhibit of Bruce Tom photos. This years festival bring Japanese butoh dancer Ken Mai and Compañía Ruta de la Memoria  Santiago, Chile along with DAIPAN members: Helen Thorsen, Sheri Brown, Diana Garcia-Snyder, Joan Laage and Kaoru Okumura

Ken Mai is a Japanese butoh Artist based in Helsinki, Finland. His dance is influenced by both the founding lineages of Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata as well as German Expressionism, Zen, martial arts, singing and the Yoga Sutras. He is often celebrated for his iconic butoh drag imagery and describes his approach to dance as a devotion for sending compassion and love to the world, from the darkness to the light. His workshop concentrates on yogic warm-ups and improvisations led through visual imagery to stimulate poetic movement. website

“As a swan she dwells in the pure water, as a flower she dwells in the pure sun. As the rain that falls to the vessel of my empty body, as a dance that gives me the freedom and compassion of love”  -Ken Mai

Compañía Ruta de la Memoria  Santiago, Chile

Founded by Natalia Cuéllar, Raimundo Estay and Leonel Cornejo in 2008 in Santiago, Compañía Ruta de la Memoria was born from the promise of rescuing the memory of Chile’s recent tragic past, and is known for its challenging work focusing on human rights, gender and memory. For DAIPAN’s festival, the company will perform “Cuerpo Quebrado,” a moving work dedicated to the disappearance of pregnant women in during the Pinochet dictatorship of the latter 1990s. The aesthetics and expressive force of the company are characterized by being minimalist, with the focus on emotion and the body. Ruta de la Memoria has held events in Chile, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, and won several prizes and creative grants. This is their first appearance in Seattle. Company members are director Natalia Cuéllar, Raimundo Estay, Leonel Cornejo, María Belén Espinosa, Ursula Campos, Alvaro Pizarro, and Francisco Jara.

PERFORMANCE Cuerpo Quebrado (Broken Body) April 7 & 8     8 pm Shoreline Community College Theater

WORKSHOP Butoh, Body and Biographical Memory

March 31-April 2 Friday 6-9 pm/Saturday 12-6 pm/Sunday 10-4 pm Taoist Studies Institute

Chile guest artists are conducting a weekend workshop called “Butoh, Body and Biographical Memory.” It will be taught by director Natalia Cuéllar and Raimundo Estay. Based in deep memory, the workshop begins with psychophysical training to deepen the butoh experience, and develops exercises using imagery. Participants will work with the biographical memory written in the body. The content of the workshop also includes animal walks, energy changes, and opposite forces.