Dear You: Day 1
Hey you,
Today’s work was “Kuro-nuri/ Aze-nuri”.
Plastering the mud we made yesterday along the walls of the Tanbo (rice paddy), this will keep moles from poking holes into the sides, which cause water leakage.
It’s fun feeling the mud between your toes, but learning how to use your tool and body is a challenge. Being a process only done once a year, you have to think back to the lessons learned a year ago.
Last year, watching me work, my teacher said to me:
“Unnecessary movements are not beautiful.”
😨💔A learning that I still chew on every day.
Seeing him work today, it was so clear where the movements for the Okina dance come from.
This is how he teaches us how to move, beyond just tracing choreography.
・・・
The truck ran out of gas so after finishing, we walked our way back. My feet were too muddy to put my boots back on so I walked barefoot.
It reminded me of walking on the rocky beaches of the Oregon coast, and that particular way you have to walk to avoid the sharp points. The best way I can describe it is to step with your feet “extra flat”, treading with less weight on your feet. It looks pretty awkward, but it does the trick.
When explaining certain body movements in a dance or Taiko, my teacher often used examples from daily activities:
“Walk like the time you carried a huge bowl full of Ramen late at night, and you’re walking carefully because the soups is full to the brim, and, you don’t want anyone to hear you.”
or
“Imagine lifting up something huge, so heavy that you have to balance it on your thighs while wrapping your arms around it. That’s the basic position.”
I’m fascinated to no end by the connection of our daily life activities—the way we use and move our bodies in mundane situations—and our movements in performance.
Instead of insisting on rigorous, specialized training, here the movements are cultivated through our lifestyle, and I can’t help but think that it becomes a reflection of how we move through our world.
I don’t know if my awkward “flat feet” technique will ever make an appearance on stage, but certainly is just one of the lifetime of experiences that has informed my body awareness, and introduced me to the awareness that different landscapes require different movements.
Have you walked outside barefoot lately?