History and Stories of the Bellybutton Encounters.

The Bellybutton Encounters appeared in 2001 and came from my need of total integration of the, at the time, different aspects of my life. Once there existed a "ME" who was a student, another who practiced Martial Arts, another that appeared in front of family and friends, and even others whom I even didn't notice. All the several masks we are educated to use, hiding the little and very special being, which is our essence, the "thing" which makes us really capable of celebrating life as it deserves to be celebrated.

There was also a time when another "me" appeared, and started to live the great voyage of discovering the world of "living the moment", with improvisation and contemporary movement associated to the creation of performances for public presentation. This was my first big inner revolution, started with a Contact-improvisation workshop, by João Fiadeiro, in 1992.

By then I was already participating in the, so called, new Portuguese Contemporary Dance wave, only as a spectator, eager to jump to the stage, but also full of doubts:"...it is too late to start...it is too difficult...". Contact-improvisation opened the doors of a new vast horizon, suddenly full of light! All that I was already doing in my everyday life, and practicing for many years, all that could be part of my creation!

Slowly it became clear to me that it was not about the activity in itself, but more the way I was present in the activity, the way I executed it, without expectations, self-criticism, only enjoying each tiny moment of surprises, which are constantly appearing in life, intrinsically improvised.  Then I only had to use this process, this way of being really present to create whatever I needed: Dance, Sing, Paint, Poetry or just BE (the topmost of the creative process).

Several years ago and almost without me noticing it, a new fusion energy apeared in my life, melting everything together in it's way, it's name is Bagwan, Rajneesh, or Osho, simply the sound of the wind and the waves... A presence that made me more aware of the sleeping spaces inside, since then I have reborn countless times! Every day awakens me to a new meaning of TO BE, this celebration of our instantaneous presence, the spirit of Zorba-the-Buda, the playful master. The word Meditation, never had such a clear and happy significance for me.

The Bellybutton Encounters have been the natural exteriorization of all this fusion and melting pot, my synthesis. They apeared naturally, has I become full of energy, I started to feel the need to share it and my voyage with other beings.

The Encounters started to be weekend trips, meetings of people available for their own personal discovery, in places where we could be in contact with nature, uprooted, braking habits, places where we could not grab our everyday security given by our everyday spaces. And by doing this, trying to cleanse ourselves both physically and spiritually, integrally, recovering more natural ways of being. These Encounters, are then a search which allows us to reach a state, that we may use to do all kinds of activities, waking us for a more present living, for the moment.

Than, making bridges towards objective uses, is an easy step. An example is the rediscovery of my personal way of practicing and teaching Martial Arts, and Taido in particular, a very fluid Japanese style, which uses all the body's potencial, and the notion of spherical space. Using the ground, flying and falling to return with even more power. Practicing a Martial art in a "Bellybutton" way, conferring a new quality to the practice.

Nowadays all these voyages continue, however they are complemented by others, the "Easy Motion" and Contact-Improvisation classes and workshops. To improvise and use "clean" movements with other beings, it is necessary for us to be completely present in ourselves and in the space where we move. Looking for the easy feeling that comes from being in this here-and-now dimension.

Project Nomad, wants to be part of a people, projects and ideas exchange net. The Bellybutton Encounters space is a 150 year old granite house, located in the small village of "Coentral Grande", in the Lousã mountain, Portugal. This is also the cocoon where me and the Encounters are able to stop and rest, when tired of flowing through the planet.

More and more I am reminded by the old mountain and  special friends and masters that my place is acting as the "bridge  builder and keeper ", preparing a passage that brings and updates old knowledge into the present, learning how to live in an essencial way, without being dazzeled by the beautiful modern virtuality. This has given birth of the Bellybutton-shamanic practices: Root-Trance and Sweat-lodge or Stone People lodge cerimonies.

Truth in never unique or perfect, changing with the flow of surprises. All of these ways evolute with me and all the others who pass through these experiences I am happy to lead and participate in, everybodu leaves their own experience, theachs me something, renews my doubts, making me stop from time to time and start fresh again, always and now.

Pramod 2007