What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

Building, Studying, Sharing

Summer was a whirlwind of planting, building, preparing—and then meeting, studying, and sharing work with the wonderful individuals who joined us, first for Forest Dialogues, then for Butoh and Noh in the Olympic Rain Forest, followed by guests and teachers from the Salish Sea Butoh Festival.

Highlights were abundant: having our good friend and collaborator Dmitry Artamonov join forces with my brother Eric in building an outdoor camp kitchen complete with cedar decking, roof, stainless-steel sink and the necessary appliances; how the words shaped and spoken during Forest Dialogues wove into the dances made, creating a full-circle offering that left us humbled and glad; the immediacy in the highly focused hours of Noh theater and butoh sessions mixing with the joy of shared meals, laughter, and camaraderie during the summer butoh camp; the activating gathering of community for the Noh/ Forest butoh presentation and shared Salish Sea Festival meal; the astonishingly powerful and transformative performances of the three women Salish Sea instructors concluding the festival. Small moments too: picking cucumbers off the vine for a salad, tasting the amazing way Soonie cooked up the yellow garden squash, seeing Kan-san smile during a practice session, footsteps and lanterns on a summer evening.

I feel immense gratitude for and to each lovely human that joined us here this summer, creating a refuge of inquiry, generosity, and effort. Shared concentration is a kind of blessing, I think, if the intentions are good ones. Our place is now blessed.

Thank you all.

Camille

[Special thanks to Sandee Johnson for her photos of the butoh performance in the forest]