I saw two performances which involved spoken language. The first one was by Gail Langstroth, a poet, eurythmist and stage artist (http://www.wordmoves.com/en/). She and Fred Johnson, a drummer/singer presented an evening of spoken/sung poetry with movements. The poems included both hers and other people's and she seemed to have danced these poems before. Her dance was clearly connected with spirituality coming from the poetry. It had a strong presentational quality which I'm not so used to and also somewhat congregational (?). The performers at times seemed to be calling for spirits through their movements, voice, and music and connecting with those who gathered. The second one was an event planned by two local Baltimore dancers. They read the words of a butoh dancer, Kazuo Ohno has uttered during his workshops in Yokohama. The floor was open for anyone who was inspired to dance. Given that Kazuo Ohno is a legendary dancer whose soul-filled performance kept captivating the audience until he died at the age of 103, I was expecting some kind of a spiritual connection between dancer and the words, the viewer and the event. However, despite the amount of dancing that was happening, the spiritual resonance seemed not to be there. The connection between the words and the dance was not apparent and neither was the relationship between the doer and the viewer. Compared to the first event, this one felt very personal and individualistic. And most importantly, Kazuo Ohno seemed not to be there.

In both of these events, dance was a way to enter into the person/the content through the words read or spoken.