In June of 2005, I attended a symposium in Delphi, Greece, called the Delphic Games. This was an eight-day experience dedicated to the convergence of poetry, myth, and dance. The faculty was comprised of eminent scholars from around the world, such as Dr. Jeanne Bresciani of NYU, a powerful dancer and mythology scholar. She directed the Dance program of the symposium.
Transcendentalist scholar and author Dr. Richard Geldard spoke on philosophy and history at the ancient ruins and sacred sites. We followed our venerable Philosopher through the path of discovery that Isadora herself took a century ago, and our classroom was the magnificence of ancient temple ruins, sacred caves and springs in the city that once called itself "the Navel of the World."
Dr. Geldard's kindness and erudite wisdom made a deep impression on me. Here we are on closing night after my performance. I was quite giddy after having presented my piece in such illustrious company.
With Andonia on closing night. Andonia led us in primal voice work in the ancient stadium. She taught us to invoke the gods from deep within our souls and bellies. She is an amazing teacher and a vocal shaman!
With human rights activist and performance artist Hector Aristizabal, fellow dancer Ricca Gonzalez, and acclaimed storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade on closing night. If you have a chance to catch a performance by either Michael or Hector, don't miss it!
Michael lectured on mythos and folk wisdom, using his drum and folktales to illustrate subtle truths about human nature. He is more than a story teller. He is a traveling wise man, a bard and troubador of rare spirit and insight. He travels extensively to teach his amazing workshops. Check out his website at www.mosaicvoices.org.
Hector survived torture in Colombia and is a co-founder of the Center for Theater of the Oppressed in L.A. and the Colombian Peace Project. His performance narrating his experience with torture at the symposium moved people to tears. |
 belly dance
Inspired by the spirit of Isadora, here I am (center) on a mountaintop in a photo taken by my dear friend Veronica Fiedler. I designed the costume and wings for a performance I gave in Delphi to the song "Nunc Aperuit Nobis" by Hildegaard of Bingen.
Below, I nervously wait with the other performers in the Ancient Stadium of Delphi for our performance to begin. Next to me in white is the actress and voice/acting coach Andonia Cakouros, who gave an earth-shattering, eerie performance of Agave's tragic monologue from "The Bacchae" that day.
I developed a curiousity about Isadora Duncan in the middle of the night. I was up and began to read about her work and life on the internet. During this foray, I saw "Myth, Movement, and Metaphor", Dr. Bresciani's course at the Delphic Games. As a dancer and teacher of mythology and writing, I could not resist.
In the months to follow, I read anything I could get my hands on regarding Isadora Duncan. I ordered a pile of books and began to delve...Duncan scholar Lori Belilove called her "Dancer, adventurer, revolutionist, ardent defender of the poetic spirit" and she was all of the above and even more.
Duncan's historical moment was the dawning of the twentieth century. Women were beginning to shrug off the yoke of the patriarchy through expressions such as suffrage and casting off the corset. In an era where ballet was considered the only legitmate expression of dance art, Isadora outraged convention by rejecting ballet and all of its "unnatural" demands on the human body. She herself was a voluptuous woman, and that she danced free and natural in loose Greek tunics made more than a ripple in the stuffy Victorian atmosphere.
She was inspired by Greek Myth and traveled many times to Greece in search of "Dionysian movement" - that ecstatic state of body and soul when they move together as one. She went to sacred sites, re-imagining the movements of dancers depicted on urns, vases, friezes, and other antiquities. Her subjects were the Heroes and Gods and Demi-Gods of Greek epics, sometimes tragic, always exalted and larger than life. Duncan's dance reaches toward a mytho-poetic understanding of ourselves; that quarter of the human spirit that knows itself to be Divine.
Duncan dance can help MED dancers become more lifted, more graceful and noble in posture and gesture. The dancer realizes that many more spatial and spiritual dimensions exist and begins to reach toward them. She can infuse a gesture with more poignancy by contemplating it in a greater, grander context. The dance becomes an epic or a poem, telling a story of timeless dreams and deeply-felt intuition. That's what I'm after, so soon I will head to New York City for
BELILOVE'S ISADORA:
TEN-DAY INTENSIVE DANCE WOKSHOPS 2006
with LORI BELILOVE & COMPANY
June 9 -19
stay tuned for updates!
Some famous images of Isadora...
 goddess goddess goddess
 paola goddess dancer
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