Psychology + Zen = Philosophy and methods to relieve suffering and reveal happiness.
Psychology: We project onto others what we reject in ourselves. Some call it a Shadow. Healing comes from making the unconscious conscious, taking responsibility for our projections, integrating what is split off as our own thing.
Zen: There is no separate self. When we can be at one with every aspect, then we belong everywhere and we reject no one.
We heal the world by becoming intimate with our whole selves.
When something troubles me, I work with it, sit with it, and play with it. This video is a play on the question of help--taking help and giving it. Beautiful dancers, Justina and CJ, improvised on questions and phrases, and this is what emerged:
Struck by the juxtapostion of gigantic problems and tiny but important personal problems, I made this offering. For New York City, October 2012.
A montage to honor the courage it took to face death for a year. The workshop "A Year to Live," based on Stephen Levine's book, was held at the NYC Village Zendo, guided by Roshi Enkyo O'Hara and Robert Chodo Campbell.
Inspired by Cho's gestures, energy, and mission, a group of dancers celebrate human diversity in all its splendid manifestations.
Conceived and Choreographed by Irene Ruiz-Riveros
Video Directed and Edited by Elena TaJo
Music by Steve Elson
I am I: A Tribute to Margaret Cho screened in June of 2010 at Anthology Film Archives as part of an excellent series curated by New York Women in Film and Television. Running time 5:37 minutes
Made in 2008 or so, Gay "Marriage" exposes the dilemma of the maddening and unfair paperwork imposed on gay couples who want the same financial rights as heterosexual married couples. It is a tragicomedy that blends interview and animation to bring to life the horrifying effects of paperwork unfairly imposed on gay couples: JTROS, taxable gifts, powers of attorney, HIPAA, and more.
A star-crossed lesbian couple get the romance knocked out of them as they wake up to legal reality. Music by Mayra Casales. Running time, 12:13 minutes.
Ripe1: Mommy Doll Gets Old, an amalgam of documentary and performance art, skewers ideas about aging. What do you think of when you think of Old? Does it mean it’s time to give up? Does it mean we lose our minds? Does it mean it’s time for plastic surgery? Or does it mean wisdom? Mommy Doll Gets Old evoked tears and fascinating conversation at the Garnerville Arts Festival, the Trail Dance Film Festival, the Rivertown Shorts Festival, GIAA (3rd prize), and Digifestival.net 2007.
Total running time: 11:14 minutes
My favorite jam, utterly unavailable--making me utterly dependent. 
With all my might, I tried to open it. Impossible! So of course I had to drop everything I was doing and make make a video.
A gang of dancers encounter the people of New York City. Who is watching whom?
Conceived and choreographed by Deb Silver of Silco Dance. Running time 4:19 minutes
Martyred Mom Cracks Her Shackles! arose out of deep frustration over the seeming impossibility of reconciling motherhood and self-fulfillment. Made in 2005, the video tells the story of a devoted mother’s tortured journey from martyrdom and guilt to freedom and possibility. It is an amalgam of interview, performance art, and odd experimental technique (because the mother didn't know what she was doing). The music, by Marty Beller of They Might be Giants, makes it an energizing experience.
When my friend Marta asked me to do a little (no pressure!) dance at a little (really, no biggie) Festival, I panicked. Riddled with Doubt is what I was. During the same week my mother sent a poem that she had written On Doubt.
Duet with Doubt screened at the Sans Souci Festival of Dance, including their Texas State University tour, the Austin Woman's Film Festival, and the Baltimore Women's Film Festival.
A woman confronts her shadow. Reading her mothers poem, On Doubt, the woman engages with the unsavory presence and discovers how to start working. (2:10 min)
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