SUMMER 2022
PULLING NO STRINGS: A Series of 10 premieres choreographed during lockdown.
After the Plague:
Through the Glass Lightly: I have seen generations of dancers being swallowed by the mirrors (in the dance studios, in the dressing rooms, at home). Obsessed with “how I look dancing” they missed the point of “how the spirit informed the dancing.”
For this piece Through the Glass, Lightly, I chose to use the Venus Effect, made famous by painters like Velazquez, Rokeby and Titian, which showed Venus gazing into a mirror.
May our upcoming generation of dancers evolve into less self-centeredness and less vanity through limited access to self reflection, and through the understanding of the negative effect of mirrors. They swallow the soul!
“Study yourself in the mirror to make sure your face does not reflect dishonorable thoughts or deeds.” Socrates. That’s a good piece of advice!
The Color of Time
Prelude to a Summer Day
The Multidisciplinary Dancer: Playing Strings (piano, violin, cello, etc)rather than “pulling strings” to get ahead. A humble suggestion.
The 7th Position
Like Water with Rock
SPRING SEASON 2021
THROUGH THE GLASS, LIGHTLY
May you be a shining mirror. Come with the sun, stay with the sun.
May your dancing free you from the mirror rather than enslave you to it.
“When you have silence then your soul can sing.” Beethoven, the deaf composer.
When you let go of your reflection, then you can dance.
Let the mirror help us see the divine in us dancers. After that, for all transcending purposes, less is better.
Non-attachment to our mirror reflection will allow for dance to grow free like leaves on a tree.
Mirrors reflect energy in the form of light. Dancers are pure energy, solid and ethereal. For the dancer, whatever the mirror reflects must be positive. No vanity’s display. Vanity is the beginning and end of a person’s character. Vanity of person and situation. Vanity of body shape and beauty. Vanity of talent and artistry
Photography: Tommy Kwak
Mirrors are sponges of the soul as our ballet culture fosters the Narcissus syndrome. Falling in love with one’s own image. With one’s own unattainable reflection. “I burn with love of my own self.” Mirrors can reflect wrong expectations. “We start the fire we suffer.”
Photography: Liel Anapolsky
May the mirror you look into be the Cosmic Mirror, in tune with the forces of yin and yang, but not reflecting dishonorable thoughts nor deeds.
When I look in the mirror it reflects: The universe is with me and I can get where I am going without having to highjack anybody’s dream.
Photography: Vale Zmeykov
It’s time to turn our backs to the mirror. May your dancing free you from the mirror rather than enslave you to it.
Let the mirror help you understand and see your own light.
Internal beauty is reflected in the audience’s eyes.
WINTER SEASON 2021
THEATER INTERLUDE
Pocketa-Pocketa, the sound of a diesel engine in its attempt to start is the founding metaphor for this timely play. It stands for all those failed attempts to start or restart a relationship which actually drive couples farther away from each other, precisely because the underlying foundation of the relationship is wrong. In the play, Fred and Agnes, who have been married for over twenty years, attempt to rekindle their relationship while under lockdown, only to find out that it’s in Fred’s giving up of his Mercedes and in Agnes’ getting rid of her books where any hope, if any at all exist.
On a different dimension, with this Zoom production I sought to bring forth another possible scenario not present in the original script: The struggle for those couples who are separated by lockdowns, for whom reconnecting has to be attempted from separate living quarters. Zoom is more than our current Theater Platform. It is the lifesaver, a raft sliding over an accelerating murky current made of our own wrongdoings, which only we can fix if we wish to get control of the raft. Until that is achieved, we are fortunate to have this platform for healing and discovery. What is the sound an engine makes when it gets going, and at high speed? Zoom! Zoom!
Play script Ed Balou, copyright 2021.
Zoom Production Concept and Direction: Sylvie DeLourdes
Cast: Vilma Hodo as AGNES and Rick Reid as FRED.
Synopsis: Forced to confront their estranged relationship due to the pandemic lockdown, Agnes and Fred realize they have nothing else but each other, and the sound of an old Mercedes that goes ‘pocketa-pocketa.’
WINTER SEASON 2021
THE 7th POSITION: The Power of Knowledge
THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE
The Supreme Mind of the universe has taken over. We either refuse o listen and succumb, or we choose to learn from it and be saved.
The 7th Position is all about that new paradigm we are creating. It’s about doing things not the way it has been, used to be, and thought would always be. It’s about creating something new, through trial and error, as it is often the case with creation. It’s about suffering through and because of our own mistakes, not suffering through the mistakes of others.
The 7th Position celebrates creativity without judgement. In this position the truth does not hurt, while lies do hurt! It may not have all the comforts we may be accustomed to (not that the other 6 position were ever comfortable!) but it is healthier, safer, and transcends human limitations. When we are in the 7th Position we never settle for something less than what we deserve.
Knowledge is our companion in this quest. Knowledge is there to make sure we don’t speak from ignorance.
Music by Rodion Schredin. Performed by Maxim Anikushin.
THE 7th POSITION: Where the unbelievable becomes believable!
The 7th Position is the position of Feedom. It is a metaphor for Personal Distance: This is my space to thrive, not to be used or abused. In the 7th Position we dance to heal ourselves, not to entertain others while creating more pain. But if we also entertain, even better.
In the 7th Position, beyond discipline and perseverence, we cultivate non-attachment instead of dependency, moderation instead of extremism, humility instead of pride, altruism instead of greed, self-restraint instead of self-indulgence.
The 7th Position is led by the creative forces of the universe. We are dancers by the power and will of the supreme mind of the universe. Angels lead our steps, spin us, and become our wings.
But how do I do this? You may wonder…
Time to suck in the Wisdom of the Ages!
In the beginning there was the word. Then came the book. Then the library followed. And so…the chance for wisdom was born.
AUTUMN SEASON 2020
OUT OF THE WOODS:
FROM THE INDOOR THEATER TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS.
Music: A L’Albeniz by Rodion Schredin Performed by Maxim Anikushin.
LOVE SEASON 2021
L IN THE TIME OF C Love in the Time of Covid
Or Elle in the time of See / El in the time of See.
I never promised you a rose garden” goes a song and “You can’t hurry love” goes another and they are so true. Here are other few thoughts on the untimely subject of love.
Love is not judgeamental: We are not here to judge anyone’s past, failures, or imperfections.
Love is unconditional, uninterested, unmitigated.
Love is not possessive, not domineering; it imposes no supremacy.
Love is not for the birds, as many would claim. It is meant for the eagles!
In the title of this piece of choreography, the L stands for Love and C stands for Covid; however, the meanings of these two letters could be multifold:
Love in the time of Covid
Light in the time of Change
Laughter in the time of Conflict
Life in the time of Choice
Lavish in the time of Creativity
Lite in the time of Chocolate
Perhaps even …
Lynch in the time of Corruption
HELLO OUT THERE: On Home Exile, Lockdowns and Cyber Communication
If the Supreme Mind of the Universe (which has taken over) is at war with technology, which one is winning?
For most of us Love is just one click away on our multiple devices. Laptops, tablets, laptops, etc have of late become the media through which we say “I love you” or “I don’t.”
But does it really work? Or is it all wasted clicking?
Since LOVE is not so much something we should go around searching for but rather something we should go around doing, doing it remotely leaves much to be desired, I would say. And I’m not talking sex here!
The question in need of an answer is: If our purpose in life is to Love and to have been Loved during the span of our lives…can we really do it via text, via electronic messages?
We have gone from person-to-person loving to remote loving while the widespread of psychic loving escalates in popularity. (Some love person-to-personS, but that is an entire different story)
Let’s say for arguments sake that all these methods work, but if that is the case, are we not changing the blue print of love while pursuing all of them?
Doing the right thing moves us forward. Perhaps the nearness of the loved one is the right thing these days, and that nearness may very well save the day.
A man is the woman he chooses, but the question remains…how to go about doing the choosing.