Dealing with the Unexpected: Reflections After a Workshop

“Feeling good isn’t a special quality,” my Butoh dance teacher Anna Barth explained many years ago. One might have thought her cynical, but instead, my heart opened up. Like a wise enticement, the sentence expressed what one senses but searches for in vain when Instagram images routinely elevate comfort to a desirable standard. With this sentence, a space opened up that hospitably granted access to a variety of moods and feelings. The goal was no longer to lead a happy life, but a rich one. When dancing, this manifested itself in such a way that I shamelessly no longer…