About Meshi

I am a dance maker, a movement facilitator, and a choreographer. I am a queer artist. I develop methods to fully inhabit the body, increasing sensitivity and awareness while creating a deeper engagement with the world. My practice is one of relationality. As a community builder, I bring people together through movement to experience being embodied together. I approach training through the cultivation of attention and curiosity. I work from the premise that all aspects of existence are inextricably linked and activated by the movement of a larger universal body. Engaging with this force strengthens self-understanding and allows artistic newness and possibilities to arise.

Butoh is my dance/performance practice, both improvisation and choreography. This dance form emerged from Japan at the time of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In its creation, Butoh pushed against Western influence dominating the region and, with it, its dance ascetic, spreading across the globe; to this day, it still does. Instead of trying to fix dance into place, Butoh seeks to unfix it and show its wild and transformational nature. It values the development of presence, spaciousness, and stillness alongside movement. Butoh is taught worldwide yet remains a relative niche dance expression. I am one of a handful of teachers of this work in North America. I have studied for twenty years with Denise Fujiwara and our master teacher Natsu Nakajima. Nakajima was the first female butoh dancer and choreographer.

I am third generation American, by blood Mexican and Spanish. I was adopted through ceremony into Lakota Sioux traditions in my early twenties. As I navigate the complexities of the art world, I find myself in situations where I must divulge information that requires a certain level of opacity to maintain its integrity. My participation in ceremonial dance informs how I approach life, my understanding of movement, and my place in creation. My artistic expressions are translations of an ongoing conversation with the spirit world.

I dance to illuminate our entanglement with creation’s steady and present unfolding. I shed conventional ideas of what dance should be, shifting energy toward what it is moving toward and has yet to become. The cultivation of the moving body reveals relationships between objects, space, and time. Through the rigor of practice, patience, and kindness, trust in embodiment grows, allowing instinct, creativity, and clarity to resound. This approach to choreography is how I confront colonialism and white supremacy within the patriarchal designs inherited through Western dance methodologies and amplified through collective cultural trauma. This is how I move alongside the unknown, with adaptability to the present moment and movement infused with curiosity and palpable presence.

Meshi Chavez was Artist In Residence at Middlebury College from 2021 – 2023. His career has spanned two decades allowing him to teach, present, and perform nationally and internationally. His work is predicated on the concept that creativity is our birthright. Through the discipline of training the mind, body, and spirit, we learn to claim this creative force and build from there. He has taught at Schumacher College and Middlebury College, where he choreographed Dance Company Middlebury 2019-2020. His choreography has been presented at The Joan Mitchell Foundation in New Orleans. Chavez is co-founder of Momentum Conscious Movement, where he has been creating in-person and online, ongoing adult movement education programs for more than 20 years. He works internationally with author, scholar, and theologian Matthew Fox, teaching Movement as Meditation with a recent online course through The Shift Network. His mentors include choreographers Denise Fujiwara and Natsu Nakajima &  Donna Faye Burchfield.  He believes cultivating creativity, strengthening curiosity, and embracing the unknown, is the secret to making an artful life.

Meshi Chavez – CV

“Meshi is an extraordinary teacher who teaches with heart, head, and body and from a deep place where Spirit moves, awakens, and heals.  Students, of course, love him!” Matthew Fox

Performance

Masked & Then We Were Three –
Masked – Choreography & Performance – Meshi Chavez.
Music –  A good day to live – Composed & Performed – Lisa DeGrace
Then We Were Three – Middlebury Student Work – Spring 2022
Choreography – Meshi Chavez & Kari Borni

Lorro: of wings and seas –
The 9th Asia pacific triennial of contemporary art, Brisbane Australia — 2019
Movement Choreography – Meshi Chavez
Spoken Word – Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Performed – Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

Being Moved Performance Intensive Participants 2017 –
Choreography – Meshi Chavez
Music Composed & Performed – Lisa DeGrace
Artistic Consultant/Design – Yukiyo Kawano
Performers – Mara Steen, Teresa Vanderkin, Jen Gwirtz, Nicole Walters, and Joe Mclaughlin

Suspended Moment Performance – Hiroshima Remembrance Day 2017 Choreography & Performed – Meshi Chavez
Artistic Design & Sculptural Installation – Yukiyo Kawano
Music Composed & Performed – Lisa DeGrace
Spoken Word Creation – Alison Cobb
Video Installation – Stephen Miller

Artistic Collaboration – Meshi Chavez & Winky Wheeler
Portland Art Museum  – 2015

Classes

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
– Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

There are several opportunities to study with Meshi Chavez. He offers weekly drop-in online classes, Audio classes, Independent Study programs, and workshops throughout the year.

Weekly classes
All classes currently are being offered through Zoom or Audio sessions.

The Practice of Practice: Summer 12-week Series 
Weekly Audio Classes June 5th – August 21st 
Per Class:  $25 – $10 Sliding scale
 
This Series includes an optional bi-weekly Zoom Study Group  
Mondays 6:30 – 8 pm Pacific Time
June 12 & 26, July 10 & 24, and Aug 7 & 21
 

Payment for The Practice of the Practice: Audio Series by Venmo or PayPal 

Email Here to request access to the Audio class series

Facilitated Zoom Classes are on break and will return in Fall 2023.

Sunday Morning Dance
Sundays, 10a- 11:15a (PST)
$25 – $10 sliding scale

Zoom – Online class
Learn More 

Inquiry- Independent Study Program
Personalized Independent Movement Program
Deepen your practice, and explore your creative desires.
Learn More 

Workshops

Dance Camp: Dance, Camp, Community 
McMinnville, Oregon 
August 24, 25, 26
Don’t miss this fantastic, fun, connecting, joy-filled dance & camping event!We dance under the big sky. We share delicious food and hang out together. We camp together. This is a magical weekend of movement, connection, and fun. Join us and dance, play, eat, and hang out together.  It’s a blast! Don’t miss it.

Butoh: Body, Mind & Spirit 
Month-Long Residency Portland Oregon
– 30 hours of training
10 hours per week
September 7th – 23rd
Thursday, Friday Evening & Saturday Daytime
(Exact times TBA)
3 weeks $650 – $499  Sliding Scale
2 Weeks $350
1 Week $199
 
I will begin accepting sign-ups for this Residency in July 2023.
Payment plans are available.