"Phantom", a Butoh improvisation in front of Athabasca Glacier, Jasper.

Silent Shout -Butoh improvisation in front of Athabasca Glacier- (Jasper, Canada. Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

The Rocky Mountains are an impressive line of mountains which goes from the United States to northern Canada. Following one to another dozens of national parks were created in the two countries for the conservation of these natural wonders. As myself living in Canada considered a must visiting this place and this summer of 2013 went to the national parks of Banff and Jasper in the province of Alberta.

Very personal reasons (as always happens) took me there, but I kept the wish to do some Butoh improvisations in those landscapes full of snowy mountains, huge glaciers and beautiful lakes.

Performing Butoh in these places was not only for framing my work with a beautiful -or impressive- natural setting, but also entailed a real Butoh practicing in total relation with the basic teachings of  Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, the creators of Butoh in Japan: the dialogue with the natural environment with our movement. Our body, in the thought of Hijikata, has been domesticated in every way through the life in the city, our movements are codified and we must seek break those codes (Kazuo Ohno spoke of moving our body with the impulse coming from the heart); a way to break those codes of movement is going back to our natural sources, places which by their unique force bring us back to our primordial state. That means, of course, hard work, practice and exploration, but since I started my work with Butoh I decided that this exploration with the natural sources should have a big importance in my professional life, a big importance in my own technical findings.  

I am a man born and raised in a city, so I could not go to find my sources to my original place out of the city -like Hijikata in the Akita region, for example-, but I can go to places where I feel impressed by their beauty or by their own force. Every improvisation in those places brings the source I'm looking for, it is an adventure and I feel how my body revolutionizes itself, feeling the soil, the wind, the sun, the extreme weather.

The walking phantom -Butoh improvisation in front of Athabasca Glacier- (Jasper, Canada. Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

Weeks before this travel I had many rich and powerful experiences with several masters of Butoh, first in Japan with Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima and Seisuko, and after that with Denise Fujiwara, and Ko Murobushi who visited Toronto. All of them have a different interpretation of Butoh but they are also great teachers and guides, so I can find my own way of absorbing their teachings without any fight in my mind. Those teachings were practised in these improvisation in The Rockies and I felt great.

In this post I share one of the four improvisations I performed there, but my plan, if I find the time to edit everything, is to share the all four, of course.

With this video in the Blog you can see some photographs I considered of some value to illustrate better what I experienced.

Video "Phantom" 

Gustavo Thomas Butoh improvisation in front of Athabasca Glacier, Jasper

Phantom: Butoh Solo Improvisation in Front of Athabasca Glacier (2013) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Butoh Solo Improvisation at Saurbaer Church Graveyard, Northern Iceland (December, 2013)

Here the video I extracted the photographs posted in this Blog some months before. Remember that the temperature in Saurbaer was almost minus 15 degrees Celsius with cold winds, so just I'm asking you to imagine that the movement of the camera is what filmmakers call "subjective shot" and not someone dying of cold.

As is common with my Butoh videos, the music you listen is not what I was listening in that moment (in this case none). Hope you like it.

Video

Butoh Solo Improvisation at Saurbaer Church Graveyard, Northern Iceland (December, 2013)

Butoh Solo Improvisation at Saurbaer Church Graveyard, Northern Iceland from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

I was just going for a walk on Kamakura beach; some colleagues at Kazuo Ohno dance Studio told me that it was nice to come to Kamakura and just walk on the beach instead of going to the temples which is what the city is known, as I'd already visited most of its dozens temples I decided to take the advice and have that walk.

I didn't expect to see Mount Fuji from there, never!

And it's not always like that, Mount Fuji is a shy guy, usually is not visible and hides himself behind clouds or the brilliant sunlight, today it seemed something special was happening over there.

My excitement at the moment to see that Japanese icon appearing behind the mountains -and in a so clear way- was so big that I stopped my walk, immediately set my camera on the tripod and started to move in his honour, with my Butoh dedicated to him.

Here you have some of the still images from the video I recorded, just sharing what I consider some of the best moments of that "dance".

, 

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

To Mount Fuji. A Butoh improvisation at Kamakura beach (Gustavo Thomas © 2013)

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Long Shadows (A video from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

After some weeks I'm back in this Blog (where I expose my life and my theatre). As a first step I'm retaking the publication of videos from my Butoh Vlog. So many travels, parties and work (I must say it, with pleasure), had put on hold these videos and other articles I wanted to publish here.

I'm still thinking about the importance of publicly posting these documents of my daily training improvisations; I've received a very good opinion from those who have seen them and I appreciate it a lot.

As it's common in every post I clarify...:

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. 

After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you are listening in the video wasn't that I was working with during my training, it was added later during the edition.

Long Shadows (A video from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Video from My Butoh Vlog) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

More photographs extracted from the video:

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Long Shadows (Photograph from my Buton Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Das Lied Ist Aus (A video from my Butoh Vlog)

Das Lied Ist Aus (Butoh Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. 

After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you are listening in the video wasn't that I was working with during my training, it was added later during the edition.

Video:

Das Lied Ist Aus (Butoh Vlog. Oct 2nd, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

 

Greensleeves (Video from my Butoh Vlog. Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Greensleeves (Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. 

After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you are listening in the video wasn't that I was working with during my training, it was added later during the edition.

Greensleeves (Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog. Oct 1st, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

9 Different Dreams Of Coldenss And Humidity (Digital Work Over Photographs From my Butoh Vlog. 2012)

9 Different Dreams Of Coldenss And Humidity (Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

Those who follow my Blog know very well that my Butoh Vlog has become an unique source of visual art exploration, in video and in digital art and photography as well. Today I want to show to you a series of manipulated still photographies from one video of one of my Butoh trainings. These photographies acquired their own life when I was digitally working with them, and now are totally separated from the first impulse that provoked the movement in my training that day; you can imagine that is something I really love. They are now a series of 9 pieces that I've named: "9 Different Dreams Of Coldenss And Humidity".

Even you have here a slideshow with the 9 photographs, you can still going to the link in flickr and watching them separately, if you want: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gustavothomastheatre/sets/72157632111679604/

Slideshow of "9 Different Dreams Of Coldenss And Humidity"

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Youthful Illusions (Video from my Butoh Vlog. Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Youthful Illusions (A video from my Butoh Vlog. Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. 

After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you are listening in the video wasn't that I was working with during my training, it was added later during the edition.

Youthful Illusions (vals)

Butoh Vlog (Oct 1st, 2012): Ilusiones juveniles (Youthful Illusions) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

If you want to see other videos form my Butoh vlog you can go to the link: "Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog" on the upper part of this page

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Death Of A Quiet Poet (Video From My Butoh Vlog. Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Death Of A Quiet Poet (Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my Butoh Vlog, part of my daily morning training, and nothing else.

After walking and working with some postures and inner images as a warm up (and always with music), a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

The music you are listening to in the video is not what I was listening to during the exercise, it was added later.

Butoh Vlog (June 13, 2012): Death Of A Quiet Poet
from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Don't Want To Look Guilty (A Video From My Butoh Vlog. 2012)

"Don't Want To Look Guilty"

Butoh Vlog (Sep 20, 2012): Don't Want To Look Guilty 
  from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

 This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

"A short memory" (Video from my Butoh vlog. 2012)

"A short memory" (From my Butoh vlog) (Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

The music you hear is not what I was listened to when I was in the training, it was added later.

 

Butoh Vlog (Sep 13. 2012) Un pequeño recuerdo from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

The Rose (From my Butoh vlog) (Digital Work Over Photograph. By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

The Rose (From my Butoh vlog)

(Digital Art Over Photograph. By Gustavo Thomas © 2012. All Rights Reserved)

Summer has left me a difficult path in my own work and I haven't had time to edit the videos from my Butoh vlog (and therefore showing them off), but the digital art that surges from them has not stopped.

The flower is an object-subject Kazuo Ohno used to work as part of their own training and as part of his workshops in Yokohama, and his son, Yoshito Ohno, continues to do the same in his own workshops. 

This flower I'm showing here (an artificial rose) was given to me by Yoshito Ohno during a Butoh master class he gave in Montreal dance school last October 2011; the flower is now part of my daily training ... and part of my own art.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Writing To My Dead Friend (Video From My Butoh Vlog. 2012)

Gustavo Thomas "Writing To My Dead Friend" (Gustavo Thomas © 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog. 

Video:  "Writing To My Dead Friend"

Writing To My Dead Friend / Escribiendo a mi amigo muerto (Butoh Vlog June 18, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Delicacy Of The Aged. Three pieces of digital work over photographs. (From My Butoh Blog. 2012)

Delicacy of the Aged 1: The Source (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Three images, digitally worked, extracted from my Butoh Vlog. The inspiration came to me from a sentence said by Kazuo Ohno during one of his workshops in his studio, in Yokohama, about the idea of moving with the 'delicacy of the aged". Working with that proposition I've transformed the sentence in my experience of enjoying being aged.

A wrote a poem about the same subject, it will be the subject of other post.

Delicacy of the Aged 2: The Recovered Matter (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Delicacy of the Aged 3: The Essence (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

The Crane Dances a Kurdish Song (Video and Photographs From My Butoh Vlog. July 13, 2012)

Gustavo Thomas, The Crane Dances a Kurdish Song. (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

In this training I was working with Taijiquan movements as physical basis, but i had several types of inner images. 

Video:  The Crane Dances a Kurdish Song

The Crane Dances a Kurdish Song (Butoh Vlog July 13, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Slideshow of photographies extracted from the video

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Sweet Torment (Video and Photos From my Butoh Vlog. July 12, 2012)

Sweet Torment (From my Butoh vlog. July 12, 2012. By Gustavo Thomas.)

When you find some piece of music and the inner images that provoke the movement you become something as simple as a "medium of expression", you are covered and full, and you enjoy enormously what you're doing.

Dulce tormento / Sweet Torment (Butoh Vlog. July 12, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Dulce tormento / Sweet Torment


This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

Slideshow of still photographs from the video

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Dancing My Own Loss (Video from my Butoh vlog. Recorded in Newfoundland)

Dancing My Own Loss 

This was a Butoh improvisation I performed under the lighthouse in Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada.

There was all an atmosphere around: green grass and rocks all around; behind, the lighthouse you see in the photograph; in the front, the sea covered by fog (I could only hear the sound of the waves hitting the rocks and the wind). Everything I tried to follow with my sight was lost in that fog. I felt lost. That was an unique moment for moving. I put some music playing with my phone and started to move.

Butoh is liberating in all senses.

Dancing My Own Loss (From My Butoh Vlog July 27, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1

Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1

 

 

Butoh Vlog (June 17, 2012): Haiku 1 from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.


This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else.
After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.
The music you hear is not what I was listened to when I was in the training, it was added later.

Esto es parte de mi entrenamiento diario y nada más.
Después de caminar y trabajar algunas posturas e imágenes internas surge una pequeña coreografía; eso es lo que se ve en cada video de mi Vlog de Butoh.
La música que se escucha no es aquella que yo escuchaba mientras entrenaba, sino que ha sido añadida más tarde durante la edición del video.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Creating "La Danza del Padre" (video of the first rehearsals)

Creating La danza del padre (From Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog: Creating La danza del padre

Extracts from a rehearsal of La danza del padre.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Exploring Internal Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo). Video 3. Head and Seventh Zone.

Working with Head zone and Seventh zone (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

This is the third of a series of posts where I expose videos (recorded by me) showing the acting exploration of different Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo) and combinations of them.

Those who already know about González Caballero's acting method will understand what I meant with Zonas del Cuerpo, but those who don't know anything about this acting method maybe it is better first to go to this link and take a little look (it is in Spanish): http://agcmetodo.blogspot.com/2007/04/el-apoyo-zonas-del-cuerpo-el-cuerpo.html.

If you want to see the last post of this series, follow the links bellow:

- Sexual and Seventh zones: http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/2011/11/exploring-internal-body-zones-zonas-del.html

- Chest and Seventh zones: http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/2011/11/exploring-internal-body-zones-zonas-del_24.html

The process of this exploration is very simple: in front of the camera, and only my face, I must work in the inner concentration of one Body Zone (Zona del Cuerpo), with different levels and positions within the same zone, then I combine it with another zone (in this case the seventh zone, known as the crown, the only one with which all zones in this exploration will be combined).

As the only thing exposed on screen will be my face, no other part of the body will react to the impulse coming from the concentration on the body zone, only the face.

These videos are also part of my Butoh Vlog (http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/p/gustavo-thomas-butoh-vlog.html ) therefore it is important to clarify that I'm not listening to any piece of music during the explorations or recordings, nor any movement within the space will be the goal (as it is in Butoh). Even when that could mean for someone that it would not be Butoh, I still considered this exploration as part of my training in this discipline because I'm working with inner images and impulses with muscle movement as reaction of it, and that's one of its principles.

I believe the results (and the process itself) of these explorations will be very interesting for those who want to follow them, watching, studying or carrying out the exploration as well. For myself I'm opening another door in my own acting work, and I'm sure it will be the same for others who want to venture into this acting method and its infinite possibilities for exploration.

Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 25, 2011): Internal Body Zones Training Part 3. Head and Seventh Zone. (NO SOUND) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 20, 2011):

Internal Body Zones Training Part 3: Head and Seventh Zone.

Working with Internal Body Zones (Zonas del cuerpo). This time working with Head and Seventh zone, the crown (Zona de la cabeza y séptima zona).
Diferent positions concentrating attention inside the zone. From intensity in low level till climax and back to low level.

This is part of a daily training, I don't have any aesthetic goal in doing it (even when using a video effect or choosing a particular part of that training).
This is a document of my daily artistic life.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.