FULL CATASTROPHE DANCING

an investigation of being in ecological disaster

by and with Raphael Jay Adjani and associates

It is better

To live your own destiny imperfectly

than to live

an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection

- The Bhagavad Gita

Full Catastrophe Dancing is an inter-disciplinary dance-based program combining practice and theory. exploring being at a time of ecological disaster

The program is consturcted to allow flexible delivery in diverse contexts:-

I offer Full Catastrophe Dancing to:

• University departments of philosophy, auto-ethnography, art, dance, theatre, psychotherapy, ecology

• Studios of Art, Dance and Theatre

• Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Centers including those focusing on addressing trauma, depression, violence, burnout, and identity exploration

• Wellness centers and spas

• Yoga and Meditation centers

• Community and activist groups

• Tailored program for Individuals who can commit to a rigorous creative exploration

ARRANGE A CONSULTATION FOR A BESPOKE PROGRAM I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

D-A-P-F-A: DANCE-ART-PERFORMANCE-FILM-ARCHITECTURE

Full Catastrophe Dancing is the latest incarnation of a wider creative program set that I offer called:

D-A-P-F-A: DANCE-ART-PERFORMANCE-FILM-ARCHITECTURE.

Each program in D-A-P-F-A focuses on a specific art form with inter-disciplinary crossover. Each is exploring Being through a particular art form in the context of deep ecology and ecological catstrophe

D-A-P-F-A embodies a lifetime exploration of being through creative practice and academic research. The creative and academic pathway ran in tandem with the meditative pathway and the way of psychotherapy

It is my way.

Art has enthralled me since childhood. Creative writing, dance, theatre and music. Archiecture fasscinated me too and it became an area of academic research.

My ongoing research is the creative, personal and academic research of being, of being-in-the world, of relational being. It is embodied in my doctoral thesis:

Toward a Deep Ecology of Art, Technology and Being,

with particular reference to the rock-cut edifices of Ellora and the Water Temple of Tadao Ando

I have created and directed innovative art programs across a rage of media. These theory and practice based courses have been shared in diverse locations:

• Faculty member of Goldsmiths, University of London UK

• Children’s pop up studio on the streets of an impoverished district of Paris, France

• Other courses, lectures, workshops around the world

• Hospital for the criminally insane UK

• BIPOC oriented mental health center UK

• Awakening and Healing Center, Thailand

Raphael has a way of

immediately making people

feel at ease with the present.

Feelings and thoughts are validated in that moment.

This made it possible for

communication and engagement to flow.

The students valued Raphael's demystification of

quite complex philosophical ideas.

They were able to examine their everyday experiences

and

appreciate the art of simplicity and conviviality

in a present and authentic way

- Dr Daniel Somerville Senior Lecturer, University of Worcester,

commenting on Raphael’s playshops with his masters students

Message Me for more details of the range of D-A-P-F-A: DANCE-ART-PERFORMANCE-FILM-ARCHITECTURE programs that can be tailored to your needs.

FULL CATASTROPHE DANCING

an investigation of being in ecological disasterFull Catastrophe Dancing

Synopsis

I explore Art and Being at this moment particularly through dance. This personal dance exploration I call: Full Catastrophe Dancing

Full Catastrophe Dancing engages with the impending ecological catastrophe. It is a way of dancing the crisis of through physical relationship with earth and ocean. It is my grieving and acceptance of death. It is a way of being in crisis. It is a way of living and dying in the same moment.

I now share my insights through a program called: Full Catastrophe Dancing: an investigation of being in ecological disaster

This program is an exploration of deep ecology, art in daily living. It engages with ideas drawn from South Asian and Japanese philosophy: shunyata, void, emptiness, stillness, ma, mu, yugen and omomuki and pratityasamudpada, dependent origination. It engages with contemporary science investiting ideas of relational being such as biloogist Lynne Margulis symbiogenesis.

Full Catastrophe Dancing takes some ideas from the meditative yoga dance that is Mind Flow Yoga, and steers them, with less formal structure to the theme of facing the ecological catastrophe through dance,;of engaging in grief and loss and death.

Full Catastrophe Dancing takes place in the environment. Here

• the dance floor and walls are the Ocean, the forest and trees

• the lighting is the sun, moon and stars

• the sound track is the waves, the wind, birds and sounds of the every day

• the “choreography” is in part being moved: by ocean and wind in meditative improvisation

Full Catastrophe Dancing is an invitation for each person to furrow their own way, primarily through creative movement, supported by creative painting, photography and writing.

It embraces both practice and theory, blending history, philosophy, the creative arts and science into a non-dogmatic approach.

Full Catastrophe Dancing acknowledges the impermanence and complexity of the world, suggesting that individuals benefit more from cultivating their own inner guidance—an anchor for stability and a compass for direction—than from adhering strictly to external or fixed systems of belief. This approach fosters adaptability, self-awareness, and personal growth.

ARRANGE A CONSULTATION FOR A BESPOKE PROGRAM I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

I am an Enabler

This is my skill

Below are some gallery images of personal experiments and quotations that have influenced me. I share these to give you a taste of my way. Please remember this is not a form or way to be copied. I am inviting you to find your way of living and dying in catastrophe

This is a dark time,

filled with suffering and uncertainty.

Like living cells in a larger body,

it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world.

So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel,

or the anger or fear,

because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.

- Deep Ecologist and Meditation Teacher Joanna Macy

I had the pleasure to teach.

I cannot forget the moment

When they presented to me their final PhD artwork:

“Relationship-Place Naka-Ma”:

It was so serene

Just magic!

- Professor Toshio Watanabe, Mentor for Raphael’s research and

My profession is the business of human rehabilitation,

which goes today by the name of dancer…

All the power of civilized morality,

hand in hand with the capitalist economic system and its political institutions,

is utterly opposed to using the body simply for the purpose, means, or tool of pleasure.

Still more, to a production-oriented society,

the aimless use of the body, which I call dance,

is a deadly enemy which must be taboo

- Pioneer of dance-theater Tatsumi Hijikata

In the dance, everything belongs to everything else:

the music, the set, the movement and whatever is said.

- Choreographer and Dancer Pina Bausch

I don't believe

architecture has to speak too much.

It should remain silent and

let nature in the guise of sunlight and wind

- Architect Tadao Ando

When one considers the body in relation to dance,

it is then that one truly realizes what suffering is:

it is a part of our lives.

No matter how much we search for it from the outside

there is no way we can find it without delving into ourselves.

Tatsumi Hijikata

A human being is a part of the whole called by us

universe,

a part limited in time and space.

He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling

as something separated from the rest,

a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us,

restricting us to our personal desires

and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison

by widening our circle of compassion

to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature

in its beauty

- Physicist Albert Einstein

The aim of research is no longer

an understanding of atoms

and their movements ‘in themselves’,

i.e.

Independently of the formulation of experimental problems.

From the very start we are involved in the argument

between nature and man in which science plays only a part,

so that the common division of the world into

subject and object,

inner world and outer world,

body and soul,

is no longer adequate and leads us into difficulties.

Thus even in science

the object of research

is no longer nature

but man’s investigation of nature.

-  Physicist Werner Heisenberg

What is important is to keep our mind high

in the world of true understanding,

And returning to the world of our daily experience 

To seek therein the truth of beauty.

No matter what we may be doing at a given moment,

We must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self 

Which is poetry

- Poet Matsuo Basho

There is no such thing as an empty space

or an empty time.

There is always something to see, something to hear.

In fact, try as we may to make a silence,

we cannot

- Composer and Philosopher John Cage

Dancing is a spiritual exercise in a physical form

- Choreographer and Dancer Merce Cunningham

There is no other knowledge

no other Learning,

no other Art,

not even Yoga or Action

that is not found in Dance

- The Natya Shastra

ancient text exploring creating art as a philosophical practice

The aim of art is to prepare a person for death

- Filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky

I'm convinced that a pre-made dance,

a dance made to be shown is of no interest.

The dance should be caressed and fondled;

here I'm not talking about a humorous dance but rather

an absurd dance.

It must be absurd.

It is a mirror which thaws fear.

The dancer should dance in this spirit

- Choreographer and Dancer Tatsumi Hijikata

A significant aspect of life learning is through play.

Play and Playfulness

‘Shapes the Brain,

Opens the Imagination,

and Invigorates the Soul’.

- Play Expert Stuart Brown