Everything began with the memory of my childhood village...a special place for me...pure nature, fresh air, animals, flowers, colors....
I got some objects from my grandparents' old house but my attention drop on my grand- grand mother's picture, with a white material on her head. I talked to my relatives about her just to find out more about this woman, that I never met, but which represents the human being and the place where I come from. Her qualities can be considered as scores for my improvisation:
- warm smile(she was always smiling);
- simple;
- modest;
- alone (her husband died after the First World War);
- honest;
- respectful;
- shy;
- pure;
- hard working (to raise her 8 children);
My opinion is that her qualities deserve to be conserved and even transmitted to the next generations...
Now days women have different characteristics, as:
- aggressive;
- violent;
- vulgar;
- seductive.
AS we studied about the idea of feminism, I started to explore it more and more and I tried to find a comparison between women who lived in two different ages:
- activities;
- interests;
- building relationships;
- qualities/goals;
- behavior; etc...
This is one of the reasons why I started to write a series of Letters to Myself, just to find out where am I placed in relation to there ideas. What changes happened in my life and how did they influence my behavior, my concepts, my feelings...Obviously new people came in my life, how do they change my personality and my way of being???
One amazing artist, Vava Stefanescu influenced my work...she uses the concept of transiency- what can you do with things and experiences from your past? She is inspired my the memories of old performances to create a new one, jut by having a journey into her past experiences...because things that we don't do or use anymore are still in our memory and body and they still affect our lives and they also define us as unique human being.
I would like to find out more about my grandma and the only way of coming in contact with her is by invoking her spirit! This is way I started to research more about rituals and symbols...
This book : "The International Encyclopedia of Dance" has a chapter called "Ritual and Dance" who defines "dance" as a integral part of the ritual manifestations, that often have religious or mystical significance. Theatrical dance evolved from primitive ritual idea originated in 18th Century and this form of art started to progress.
Someone special used to tell me interesting stories about different cultures and rituals like: Yemaya, Ochun, etc..and I start to understand their meaning and I notice how people try to transmit a specific message just be creating some movement...I find interesting to learn more about this kind of manifestations, because it is a significant part of history and culture! .... Thank you!!! (you always open me up...)
This ideas can be observed in the work of many dancers like Martha Graham, Katherine Dunham, Doris Humphrey, etc , who tried to connect the participants to the fundamental spiritual principles.
The dance is the connection between human and spiritual realm.
With this ideas in my head I tried to create some movement and even a collaboration with music students happened on this theme. We recorded some of my whispers, breath, steps, sound related to my piece of work, which will be the background song for my ritual.
Ritual activities include also an unusual behavior:
- past occurs in the present;
- time stands still;
- repetitive actions;
- connection and communication with the spiritual realm;
- the spirit can posses the dancer;
- the dancer can be a character of a sacred story;
- the dancer can embody a spirituality;
All this ideas can be used as scores for an exciting ritual to connect with my grand- grand mother...
The place should be somewhere in the nature, under the blue sky and stars, I'll use a huge fire, and it will happen at midnight!!!!
For my presentation I used the idea of "The Fire bird" (music by Igor Stravinsky) with the elastics...It represents that something doesn't let you go and even posses you, changes you, that presence can do anything with you, without being conscious...
No comments:
Post a Comment