Dance, Movement & Spiritualities - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2015

The following article is both subjective and theoretic, based on personal conviction, and also an enduring fascination with the potentials of dancing relative to Buddhist philosophy. Butoh, the postmodern dance of Japan, appears in context, especially where it relates to the key terms above. Zen poetry in the form of haiku dots the article throughout. We also note that in Japan, last names come first.

Guided by Buddhist teachings that call us to place our awareness on the body, this article explores the impact of the client’s moving body on the therapist’s moving body and vice versa. It discusses how coming into relationship is at a fundamental level a physiological process which always creates movement responses in oneself and the other. This enquiry posits that because of this, we are by our very nature always resonating and interconnecting with the world. Case material attempts to evidence this by describing how, in coming into relationship in the therapy room, movement always arises. I posit that this movement can often be patterned, (as we are conditioned by earlier relational experiences) and that by witnessing these patterns of movement we have the opportunity to become aware of our ‘stuck’ and painful relational strategies. This increases the possibility that those parts of us that hide, turn away, yearn and resist can be discovered, acknowledged and brought into relationship in the therapeutic encounter. In so doing, a critical shift may occur, away from the experience of being separate with a perceived fixed sense of self, so often felt and experienced in daily life, towards a deeper truth; that there is always underlying relational interconnectedness. This can help free us from our tight over-identification with the character of ‘me’ caught in repetitive patterns of being and move us instead into a potentially freer, more dynamic sense of emergence; the taste of the ‘non-self’ responsive to the ‘here and now’ and full of compassion.

Dogen Zenji’s thirteenth-century foundational text ‘Fukan zazengi/Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen’, provides the departure point for this article and its moving centre. In it, Dogen enjoins us to ‘[…] learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward’. Through an exploration of the function of practice in zazen (seated meditation), dancing and writing, I ask how is it that practice (sitting, stepping, scribbling) can focus, clarify and release such joy? The dance vocabulary is ballroom and the process of writing seeks to partner the reader as witness to the exchange between movement and stillness. Over the course of two back-to-back dance lessons, drawing on dream images and the lives of my Berlin grandparents, three alternating voices: the Zen student, the dancer and the narrator, follow the relationship between zazen, dance and writing and examine the interweaving of intention, intensity and intimacy.

This article offers some in-depth reflections on the body in Buddhism, and particularly the concept of ‘impermanence’ and ‘mindfulness of body’. I explore here, how the body is classified and intellectualized in Buddhist culture and tradition, with a focus on definitions and practices of Buddhist Theravada, including: Satipatthana, Vipassana Meditation, Nama-Rupa and Kayagatasati. I offer further reflections on my own work as a performer and choreographer, and the experience of applying, experiencing and reflecting on the Buddhist body in performance. From these in-depth observations that are derived from my deep immersion in Buddhist culture, my work as a performer/lecturer, and my doctorate, I focus specifically on the practice of ‘mindfulness’ and movement, which offers an experiential access route to a ‘direct experience’ of being; a state beyond attachments to body and notions of self. Notably, I am an insider cultured in Thai Buddhist traditions and culture – and from this standpoint, I both reflect on, and engage in, an intellectually rich, and complex spiritual traditional that ironically holds at its core the lesson to pursue non-self, and hence resists analysis and intellectualism.

This interview with Harrison Blum explores his current work in Buddhism, movement studies and mindfulness practices. Here, Harrison shares some of his approaches to Buddhism, education and movement practices, as well as his background and interest in Buddhism. I ask questions such as: how can Buddhist precepts and principles enhance improvisational dance modalities?; and what are the health benefits, for a dancer, when applying Buddhist principles to dance practice?

Dance Circles: Movement, Morality and Self-Fashioning in Urban Senegal, Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (2013) Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 252 pp. ISBN: 9781782381471, h/bk, £75