The Haiku Project, a dance of Japanese and Modern movement which convey three haikus (Fall, Winter and Spring), are set to Toru Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea. The interplay of haiku, music and choreography is designed to build hope in the possibility of renewal. Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry. The essence of haiku is “cutting” (kiru). This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji (“cutting word”) between them, a verbal punctuation mark that signals the separation and colors the relationship. Choreographing haiku is like conveying the sudden feeling of a moment without complication. The great earthquake and tsunami in Eastern Japan has created miles of contamination, thousands of homeless, and about 20,000 deaths. Full recovery will take decades. The cruel lessons of life make us focus on the essentials: a breath, a felt moment, sensations, or silences. As Basho states, “ The heart and soul of the poem must reach far beyond the words themselves leaving an indelible aftertaste.” -Kathy Hassinger

Inspired by “Into the Blue”, poem by Barbarba Kennard  

Into The Blue
(after Monet’s “Fisherman’s Cottage on the Cliffs at Varengeville”)

Before dawn suggested it,
I called out to the sea
and we met at the cliff that keeps
the fisherman’s cottage.  We stayed
awhile to think what we might do.

I took some time to watch roses
throw themselves in a jumble;
then down the path behind his house
I went, to sounds of things once there.

The sea hurled a thrashing shout and
I vanished into its fearful beauty:
the cliff, the cottage, the brush melted
all away, and I could do nothing. 

By evening I had been
carried into dark blue.
I waited all night for the sea,
but only a few stars arrived.
and they had nothing to say to me.

 It was morning when I woke
in the cliff’s shade;
the sea stood near by.
I called to it, and we met
to think what we might do.

Barbara Kennard, © 2004