Khnopff

The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes,
and feel for what their duty bids them do.

The truly brave,
When they behold the brave oppressed with odds,
Are touched with a desire to shield and save:--
A mixture of wild beasts and demi-gods
Are they--now furious as the sweeping wave,
Now moved with pity; even as sometimes nods
The rugged tree unto the summer wind,
Compassion breathes along the savage mind.

-Lord Byron (Don Juan)

In a very literal way, consciousness lives in the continual and ever (re)new(ed) interplay of electricity in our brains.
Rather than say that our "consciousness is energy," it might be more accurate to understand that the physical structures
of the brain are dependent on this energy - which "plays upon" these structures and ever evolve jointly so that
consciousness is always, and can only be:
a verb.

ruinedmap dance company is the name under which Abel Coelho produces, directs, and choreographs dance works.  I work in many genres of dance, from experimental stage performances to extremely aesthetic and disciplined choreography practices.
As a workshop teacher, I apply everything I know and think to participants.  In that role I focus sharply on each and every individual, even with twenty people in the room.  I connect philosophy with movement, and show how philosophy and being are intimately connected in the body, and how to adjust those connections for various purposes.  In this way my workshops are rather rigorous yet free-wheeling.  The body is a vital and so immediate locus to experience philosophy and ways of "being".

We have performed in several cities, most notably Honolulu, Tokyo, New York City, Tasmania, and Shanghai.  We are based in Kyoto.

The style of ruinedmap is original and detailed.  We flock and follow, lead and migrate, ultimately journeying across the stage in diverse ways as metaphor and image.

We have our own tradition of dance – our stage movements  owe very little to modern or contemporary performance styles. Rather, we have our own dance language, one that expresses his our concerns and techniques as artists.

Neither fish nor fowl is our work – it lives within its own tradition.


Artist Statement
My art uses organic materials such as the human body, relying on somatic empathy to express abstract truths.  The viewers sympathize with and respond to what they see because, as humans, we all possess bodies and are capable of limbic empathy.  By using the human body, I hope to work with these very human responses to create “art” that truly speaks to the human being by awakening viewers’ somatic responses. 

The mouth is important for everyday use.  We use the mouth.  Without the mouth, we might perhaps revert to more basic and direct means of communication, just gossamer language with our limbic systems.  When an age comes where the mouth ceases to matter, then maybe we will have found a truer means of talking to each other.  A language that no longer uses symbols/words, but less concrete means of expressing our feelings.

When I realized that the human body is capable of so many actions, infinite ways of moving and posturing, I began to wonder how trapped we were in our learned movement patterns.  We are shackled to learned movements from childhood, and if we just try to break out of them, the  unexpected difficulty is incredible; surprising.  Interacting with the world in a less formalistic way involves far less and far more effort than one could suspect.

Our vocal equipment is capable of producing infinite sounds, yet most of us limit ourselves to our vocabularies and some society-acceptable noises.  The capacity to communicate incredible volumes beyond merely that which can be put into words lies mostly dormant in all of us.

Our bodies are still aliens.  We have many communication strategies that are unused, unknown.  That which you see onstage are some of the less recognized forms of movement - we are communicating with the most alien of creatures: each other.


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