18-19 June – SUMMER SOLSTICE – JINEN Butoh workshop in Nature in the Mountain (Italy)

The Summer Solstice (Litha) represents a portal, a magical moment, charged with energy, prosperity and
abundance. It is the maximum expression of light. In ancient traditions this moment was celebrated
through lustral baths with flower crowns, and nocturnal bonfires, in the shortest night of the year, to await the
rising of the sun and driving away darkness and driving evil spirits to flight. Around the fire they sang and
danced and, in the magical night, prodigies were performed. Dance, in ancient cultures, has always been one of the
most important means of celebrating nature through festivals and rituals. Accompanying the Litha rites are
always present the water in its purifying aspect, the propitiatory fire, and the flowers, symbol of the life regenerating itself.
Rituals help the human being to communicate emotional states, to connect with what transcends his own
individuality. Never like now, perhaps,  we need to connect and regain the ritual to access
to its symbolic meaning, to create community and foster a sense of solidarity. According to some scholars,
“ritual” derives from the Latin “ritus” whose etymology means to flow.
Through the Butoh practice, we will activate a deep work within our being, our own
identity, understood as the search for one’s own original and authentic being. At the same time contact
deep with nature will lead us to dissolve this identity and to feel part of the whole, until we become
simply a flow of energy, a substance in motion that transforms itself. Letting us cross
by flows of energy, experiencing being danced, we will dance with the trees, the water, the fire, the flowers, the sun,
the moon, the stars.
The whole workshop is a great ritual, a crossing of inner states and connections and sharing
with nature and with the other participants. The practice will start with body training intended to release extra tensions in the body to allow energy to circulate within it, in order to find
a more fluid, organic and effortless movement. This will then allow us to work better
on the activation of the energy to be released in the dance. Breathing work, movement related to
breathing, activation of energy within the body and around it, perception of oneself and of others,
awareness of the external environment and others; guided improvisations in nature.

ORGANIZATION
DAY 1: from 10:00am to 6:00pm with a break for a packed lunch.  In the evening, a party around the fire
DAY 2: from 10:00 to 1:00pm

(the timetable may undergo a small change in accordance with the needs of the group)

 

For more info please write maruska.ronchi@gmail.com