Mariko Endo
Dance / Butoh
NYC
Review
Endo contorts her body from a hunched beggar or street urchin into a powerful woman warrior. She collapses and rises again, repeatedly, with movement that ranges from vulnerable to violent and sensual to stark. The soundscapes propel her motion and emotions.
-Broadway World (2018) by Cindy Sibilsky
"Butoh is a kaleidoscope into Life itself".
-Hijikata (a founder of Butoh)
Mariko is trained by masters
Akira Kasai, Butoh
Kiki Flynn, Ashtanga Yoga and Patanjali Yoga Sutras
COMMUNITY
Mariko acts for change for children and adults from all walks of life.
Mariko Endo brings 20 years of professional experience in the performing Arts to the community. She invites the public to learn a unique and introspective approach to the Art of finding the self. Mariko teaches Dance, Yoga, and Mindfulness to people from all walks of life. She helps others achieve a healthier state of mind, body and spirit.
Artist Statement
My primary goal is working towards World Peace. I draw people's attention using the Introspective approach. As plants use photosynthesis, humans are attracted to an innate feeling of peace. It is urgent to reconnect our natural intelligence to the Light.
I perform and teach Dance as a journey of intuitive expression. There is an inborn sense of texture in each individual’s mind which cannot be expressed in words, but rather in states of being. Your odyssey is Butoh itself. Our methodology is spreading the awareness of internal/external connections with Nature, Space, and Self through Art.
PROGRAM NOTES
The four movements of AHIMSA are a progression in time and a progression in a broadening understanding of four aspects of peace.
The first aspect of peace. Without peace within oneself— an acceptance of yourself as a whole human being, content within your own inner world and thoughts—there can be no peace. The first movement tells of my grandfather’s journey in 1905 to America as a young boy, a journey he took by himself, leaving a family stuck in rigid old-world views, to gain the freedom to think his own thoughts, follow his own path, in America.
The second aspect of peace. Extending beyond the personal, we must be able to achieve peace with all those with whom we come in contact—family, friends, co-workers, community. The second movement tells of Gandhi’s journey in the 1920s and 1930s, as he took the lessons learned in his South African campaign back to India to free his country from British colonial rule.
The third aspect of peace. Peace among communities around the world. The work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1950s and 60s expanded the concept of peace to an acceptance of the equality of all men, no matter their race. While his work was focused on the deep racial divides in America, his principles more broadly applied to all of humanity. There can be no peace if people everywhere fail to recognize their common humanity.
The fourth aspect of peace. The highest level of peace is when we learn to understand that we are one with the entirety of life around us—with earth, rock, and tree, and with all life with whom we share our living planet. John Lennon, in his ceaseless search and growth through the 1960s and 70s until his tragic death, embodies that broad understanding. He taught us to imagine a new paradigm, where there are no countries, no divides between peoples, the world as one, above us only sky.
