5 years ago Kathi von Koerber, featured dancer and director of the Har Mukanday video, visited our community in Mexico, to introduce us in a 10 day dance retreat to a Japanese dance form called Jinen Butoh, created by Atshushi Takenouchi. This encounter opened in us a door into a deeper beautiful realm in our spiritual and artistic quest. The old Japanese word Jinen, expresses the perception of the Universe without the separation between man, nature and God. In Jinen Butoh we understand that everything vibrates and dances its own dance, as an expression of the divine universal energy. We join with our dance with all in life which is already dancing. The eternal flow of the universe moves the dancer, who surrenders - empty and open - to the forces of nature.
Last Spring the time was ripe to join creative forces in a mutual project. Kathi had been coming to teach at our Yoga Art Festival in Mexico and further had screened a sneak preview of her impressive feature dance film "Ridden by Nature" (www.riddenbynature.com), while at the same time we were mixing our latest album "Awakened Earth". The movie "Ridden by Nature" ( www.riddenbynature.com), a 7 year long project which will be released in Fall 2011, documents live Butoh dance by Atshushi Takenouchi and Kathi von Koerber, performed on some of the harshest and more remote areas in the United States, including Colombia Glacier in Alaska, Red Rocks in Moab, Utah, and lava glaciers in MacKenzie State Recreation Area in Hawaii. The film, an ode to Mother Earth, was created as a tool to ignite dialogue about humanity’s current relationship to the natural world, reaching out to environmentalists, artists, or anyone who is involved with awakening to human’s potential in such a critical point in the history of our blue planet. There was so much in common with the vision we wanted to share with our album " Awakened Earth". Kathi still had hours of footage from her shootings which had not been used for the final cut in her movie, and offered to include this stunning material in our music video. For us, the making of this video has been a beautiful experience, as well as a bringing to life the expression of our innermost longing to be united with Mother Nature. Mother Nature is the purest and clear form of freedom and harmony within itself, where nothing can live without everything else, everything coexists because of each other, and it is this beautiful endless dance of creator and creation.
Har Mukandayis the mantra which invokes the liberating aspect of God, and when we found Rumi's poem and included it in the mantra, we felt how perfect it completed the spirit of the piece, calling out to be freed of everything that takes us apart from our true nature, our true essence. "Take from me everything, that takes me from you, fill me with your love, liberate my soul."The roles we all four are playing in the video, could be seen as we both (Angelika & Markus) represent the human existence on this earth with the longing for unity, and at the same time this joy and ecstasy of living and experiencing . While the dance of Kathi and Atsushi represent the Spirit that is free and undivided. The footage with us was shot on the Iztaccihuatl, in a place called "La Joya" ( the pearl) in 13500 ft altitude, from where we could see Popocatepetl very closely, the second highest mountain in Mexico ( 17880 ft ). To be up in the mountains in the thin air, singing these words, it feels so real, the mountains make you feel so small, so naked in front of this majestic and perfect form of creation, and they give us the opportunity to see how small we tend to build our world and suffocate the beautiful and powerful being that we are. Sometimes we just need to really see the world around, with it's thousands of colors, taking our breath, and reminding us. We want to dedicate this video to our dear Mother Earth and all it's living beings. May she touch all of us with her beauty, and reach deep inside of us, so that we may serve this planet with love and dedication.
With gratitude, Markus & Angelika
P.S.
Out of this experience of creating together with Kathi, we created a Sacred Chant and Dance retreat, which will be held in Brazil from the 26th of November to the 4th of December at a beautiful place situated in the midst of nature, ocean, beach, river and waterfalls…
Mirabai Ceiba & Kiah Keya
Sacred Chant and Dance Retreat, Brazil
THE HEART OF HEALING.
Let your heart sing the song of your soul.
Let yourself be freely danced by the divine universal flow.
Experience your unlimited identity and creativity.
Har Mukanday, A Prayer for Peace
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