About Meshi

Being an artist requires me to be intimate with mobility, resourcefulness, adaptability, and acceptance that genuine work often hides in places that demand discomfort. Creating something out of nothing is no small feat, and moving that creation toward articulation and meaning, requires attention, research, risk of failure, patience, and care. My work is an activation of my artistic practices, stretching beyond simplistic modes of productivity with a movement towards viewing the world from within these practices, thus creating meaning and meaningful life.

In addition to my training in the tradition of Butoh, my creative practice draws from Indigenous spiritual knowledge systems, ceremonial dance, and Latinx culture while embracing the Zen Buddhist philosophy that we live from moment to moment. My artistic endeavors seek to reflect the complexity of this human Spirit experience while unabashedly mining from the creation processes around us, the beauty, the richness, the devastation, the longing, and the belonging.

My mission as a choreographer is cultivating presence in the body and developing a deeper relationship to moving with, into, and alongside the unknown. If we linger long enough, intuition, inspiration, and the body’s intelligence flourish. I am interested in decentering myself as the all-important Artist, as a means to illuminate the already present unfolding. This approach to choreography is the way that I confront colonialism and white supremacy within the patriarchal designs that are inherited through Western dance methodologies and are amplified through collective cultural trauma.

Fostering radical attentiveness is required to investigate presence throughout the entire body, which creates possibilities to arise. I shed conventional ideas of what dance should be, shifting energy toward what dance has not yet become. Through the rigor of practice, patience, and kindness toward self, trust in embodiment grows, allowing connections with instinct, creativity, and clarity to resound. The result is a dancer who moves with adaptability to the present moment and dance infused with curiosity and palpable presence.

Meshi Chavez is currently Artist In Residence at Middlebury College. 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 that 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 and head and body and from a deep place where Spirit moves and 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 several workshops throughout the year.

Weekly classes
All classes currently are being offered through Zoom or Audio only session

Butoh Foundations (Online Class)
PDT – Portland – (Monday) 6:00p -7:15p
MDT – Albuquerque – (Monday) 7:00p – 8:15p
EDT – Vermont/NYC – (Monday) 9:00p – 10:15p
CST – Taiwan CST (Tuesday) 10:00a – 11:15a
AEST – Melbourne – (Tuesday) – 1:00a -2:15p

$25 – $10 sliding scale
Zoom – Online class or 7-day access to the Audio Recording of class

Butoh Foundations is on break!
See workshops for opportunities to work with Meshi.
We will begin Butoh Foundations Semester Series starting Feb 13th – May 8th at our regular time. 

If you want to keep up with your training, the audio versions of our past classes are available- payment by Venmo or PayPal 
for access to Audio classes or  information

Email Here  for access to Audio classes or more information

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 personal practice, and explore your creative desires.
Learn More 

Workshops

Butoh Salon
Monday, December 19th 
6pm – 7:30 Pacific time /  9pm – 10:30 Eastern Time 
Cost: $25
We will spend 30 min moving and then grab a drink and settle in for discussion and conversation about our practice. 
This is an opportunity to connect and be in dialogue about the practice.

Sign up here 
Payments can be made to my Venmo or PayPal
Please let me know if you plan to be in attendance. I will hold this session if we have 5 or more participants.

Generation / Articulation – Online Butoh Workshop  
Saturday, January 14th –
2pm – 5pm Pacific Time / 5pm – 8pm Eastern Time
Cost: $145 – $95 Sliding Scale 
During this online butoh workshop, we will work on fostering internal force while moving toward the accumulation of outside formation. We will explore how we as dancers can move aside and allow the formations that come from us to dance their own dance. 
Join Meshi Chavez for this 3-hour online exploration in butoh training. 

Sign up here Payments can be made to my Venmo or PayPal
Sign up by Jan 8th. I will hold this session if we have 5 or more participants.

Winter Gathering – Portland Oregon Dance Weekend
In Person With Meshi Chavez & Winky Wheeler
Feb 3rd – 5th  Friday Evening 6 -9pm / Sat & Sunday Workshop 1-5pm 
Cost $350
Join us for this dance workshop as we experience beauty through movement and embodiment. Together we will rekindle our connection to each other through the activation of the space between us and the celebration of togetherness. Winky Wheeler and Meshi Chavez will join forces for a rare in-person workshop that you don’t want to miss. 

Space is limited so sign up early! 
The link for sign-up will be live soon at https://ecstaticdancers.com