www.feetwash.de by delta RA'i

Art-idea & development background During all the years of my extensive work as a butoh dancer on many stages, I usually experienced the audience in a distanced form. Being applauded alone was no longer enough for me in the long run. In most stage performances, it is mainly the audiovisual senses that are addressed, while the other senses - feeling, smelling and tasting - are almost always neglected. With this ritual foot washing ceremony, a performance form was born that reduces the distance to the audience to a minimum and opens up a whole new level of experience: the tactile experience. Of course, dealing with individuals as an audience comes at the cost of quantity, but it allows for the highest degree of personal quality. With my ritual foot washing ceremony I have chosen this interactive, sensual quality of a solo performance.		delta RA'i I originally come from the field of dance theatre and performance art. I developed my ritual foot washing ceremony from many years of involvement with massage and Japanese butoh dance. Since 1986 I have been working as a dance performer (butoh), choreographer and director as well as a stage and lighting designer for various dance and theatre projects and productions at home and abroad. -->> tatoeba-TDG I lived and worked for 30 years in Berlin and at schloss bröllin - international theatre research location near Pasewalk in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania detailed artist curriculum vitae
And what does foot washing have to do with dance and butoh? There are many points of reference! Dance in the classical sense is inconceivable without feet. Butoh, the Japanese dance of the "stamping foot", is paradoxically more so. Both dance forms are based on one and the same energy, the concentration on ki, the energy of life, translated into physical expressiveness. While this energy is emitted outwards into the room in stage dance, it circulates within and between the two protagonists in ritual foot washing. Attentive spectators can perceive this through the clear change in body tension. The hands dance with the feet - and the soul. And why especially feet? Anyone who is intensively involved with dance and its effects on the body will inevitably turn their attention to the physical basis of dance, the feet. Tired, aching dancers' feet need special care and attention. The daily massage automatically results in a more intensive relationship with one's own feet and with those of others than in normal life. If you take a closer look, you may discover the unexpected artistic aesthetics and eroticism of human feet. Suddenly a "stinky foot" becomes an art object. There are no two identical feet, only similar ones, and each foot tells its own personal story...

Art-idea & development background

During all the years of my extensive work as a butoh dancer on many stages, I usually experienced the audience in a distanced form. Being applauded alone was no longer enough for me in the long run.
In most stage performances, it is mainly the audiovisual senses that are addressed, while the other senses - feeling, smelling and tasting - are almost always neglected.

With this ritual foot washing ceremony, a performance form was born that reduces the distance to the audience to a minimum and opens up a whole new level of experience: the tactile experience.
Of course, dealing with individuals as an audience comes at the cost of quantity, but it allows for the highest degree of personal quality.

With my ritual foot washing ceremony I have chosen this interactive, sensual quality of a solo performance. delta RA'i

I originally come from the field of dance theatre and performance art.
I developed my ritual foot washing ceremony from many years of involvement with massage and Japanese butoh dance.

Since 1986 I have been working as a dance performer (butoh), choreographer and director as well as a stage and lighting designer for various dance and theatre projects and productions at home and abroad.

-->> tatoeba-TDG

I lived and worked for 30 years in Berlin and at
schloss bröllin - international theatre research location near Pasewalk in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

detailed artist curriculum vitae

And what does foot washing have to do with dance and butoh?

There are many points of reference!

Dance in the classical sense is inconceivable without feet. Butoh, the Japanese dance of the "stamping foot", is paradoxically more so.
Both dance forms are based on one and the same energy, the concentration on ki, the energy of life, translated into physical expressiveness.
While this energy is emitted outwards into the room in stage dance, it circulates within and between the two protagonists in ritual foot washing. Attentive spectators can perceive this through the clear change in body tension.

The hands dance with the feet - and the soul.

And why especially feet?

Anyone who is intensively involved with dance and its effects on the body will inevitably turn their attention to the physical basis of dance, the feet.
Tired, aching dancers' feet need special care and attention. The daily massage automatically results in a more intensive relationship with one's own feet and with those of others than in normal life.
If you take a closer look, you may discover the unexpected artistic aesthetics and eroticism of human feet. Suddenly a "stinky foot" becomes an art object. There are no two identical feet, only similar ones, and each foot tells its own personal story...

For more interesting aspects, philosophical considerations and practical insights on the subject, see:
foot washing - tradition
things worth knowing about feet