WARKENTINE'S REMARKABLE ANAÎS NIN FANTASY IS STUNNING SUCCESS

On March 13, Ellen Warkentine presented a fantasy drawn from the copious writings of Anaîs Nin in her production of NIN DESCENDING A STAIRCASE presented at the charming, diminutive bar called SINGLISH on 13th Street in New York City. In another lifetime, the location of Singlish served as the site for Anaîs Nin's printing press, and headquarters for her literary activity and iconoclastic lifestyle.  Warkentine selected the writings and organized them into a dramatic structure performed by three actors, and one of the most original bands to ever perform Off-Broadway.

Although this production enhances the thesis work for Warkentine's Masters Degree at NYU's Gallatin School, this is a thoroughly professional production mounted at a level far beyond most Off-Broadway offerings.  Warkentine is a composer, singer, poet, and writer. Each of her creative roles is professional and artistically insightful, as she crafts a masterpiece of her own from another artist's ouevre that resonates with her own sensibility.

The audience is brought into the work at the beginning by walking up the stairs of the tiny bar to begin the performance and descending the stairs to punctuate the ending. Every element of the production is coordinated to shape the character of Nin as revealed through her writings.

Warkentine shapes a distinctive profile of Nin drawn from Nin's own extensive writings. Nin's writing career spans many years and she may be the most prolific female author who ever lived. Indeed her extensive works appear more copious than most male authors. She was constantly writing diaries, essays, novels, and exchanging letters with many authors and artists, including Henry Miller.

NIN DESCENDING A STAIRCASE is presented in seven scenes performed without interruption.
      1. Sabina (A Spy in the House of Love)
      2. Lina (Little Birds)
      3. Djuna (Four Chambered Heart)
      4. Lillian (Ladders to Fire)
      5. Lilith (Winter of Artifice)
      6. Djuna 2
      7. Stella (Stella)

The scene names seem more like a cryptic code instead of a dramatic structure, but actors and musicians reveal the substance of the narrative that discloses Anaîs Nin, unpacking the events and relations in her life to achieve an apotheosis of self awareness and insight. Nin's life of protest, writing, and iconoclasm culminates in her own understanding of her contradictions as Stella, resolving her enigma in a celebration of understanding and forgiveness.

Elizabeth Stahlmann as a facet of Nin as Sabina, opens the first scene in a monologue that sets the tone of rapidly changing, volatile emotions. She is a liar to herself and the world ("wash your lying eyes and face"). Stahlmann is a major talent. Clearly this is an Off-Broadway performance worthy of an Obie or Tony Award. Her expressive range provides a stunning control of her voice, her facial charisma, and imaginative gestures. Her technique as an actress is what makes us believe by the end of this production that she has achieved a spiritual awakening by examining her life and works. By the end of the performance, Nin as Stella has achieved celebrity, but even more, she is spiritually aware, "melting everyone" and artistically fulfilled.

Equally accomplished, Anna Crivelli (two faces of Djuna) as the Lina facade of Nin "is a liar who can't bear her real face in the mirror." Her interaction with Stahlman is flawless and convincing as a foil of introspection in the gathering awareness of Nin whose passion for life has evolved into an artform. Djuna struggles with conflicting desires in a search for "peace in simplicity." The deft direction of Jesse Rasmussen (who is also a co-creator) is clear as the interaction of Crivelli and Stahlmann becomes so entwined through gesture and fluid movement that they metaphorically and visually become one.

With a performance filled with women, Leland Fowler, an accomplished actor with a rich background from Shakespeare to modern classics in Off-Broadway and Theater Festival venues is much more than a "token male" among a bevy of exceedingly accomplished females. As Jay, the Lie Detector, he shines the light of truth on Nin's fantasies. He is a powerful and demanding presence, but adds an air of the calm inquisitor in search of truth.

A word about the band of musicians, instrumentalists who also provide a song as explication of Nin's emerging realization of her existence as an artist. The instrumental/vocal ensemble, Ellen Warkentine, piano et al, Eve Elliot piano, accordian, et al, Hanna Rose Dexter, Bass, and Daisy Castro, Violin, all perform songs that contribute to the narrative structure in a much more integrated way than a traditional Greek Chorus. Each song seems an introspective journey through the inner terrain of Anaîs Nin.

Billed as "A Site Specific Cabaret," this Off-Broadway production by Ellen Warkentine in collaboration with Jesse Rasmussen, this reflection on Anaîs Nin's creative journey transcends traditional staged drama, almost like the Happenings that occurred in New York City in the 1950s. This was the milieu of Nin as an artistic genius and historian of a creative epoch of American artists hailing a new era of making Art.

                                                                                 ...Jon Vance

NEW YORK STORIES: MULBERRY STREET

The plane had circled JFK for three or four times. Passengers aboard the flight were quiet, almost somber, resigned to the indignity of a delay after traveling from Korea halfway across the planet in less than 12 hours riding a tailwind as they crossed over Canada.

Jerome was traveling light, but he was in no rush. For a while he stared out the plane's window, trying to recognize Long Island landmarks. He really had nothing to rush home to, if this really was home.  He wasn't prepared to be back in New York. But in just a short while he would be at Washington Square, trying to make sense of the past ten months.

Jerome was struck by his awareness of feeling so solitary. When they finally landed, he gathered his bag, passing through customs quickly and without incident... unless you counted the slight tug at his heart as he passed through the exit where he had embraced Cassandra for the first time when she arrived like a angel come to save him from himself.

There did not seem to be many people at the taxi dock. His suitcase was quickly stowed and suddenly he was hearing the driver ask if he preferred a route into the city. Jerome replied "Your choice," and they were off on the beltway to Manhattan.

It was raining. Jerome had always liked New York in the rain. Before he moved to New York, he would write short stories about the lights glittering in the rain on New York streets. Once in Manhattan, he realized his stories had failed to capture the magical quality of the lights glistening on the streets... with the rain, the city was quieter and more intimate. He thought about the first time he had walked down Fifth Avenue with Cassandra shortly after she had arrived in August. It began to rain, and she saw a street vendor and bought an umbrella. "It's so romantic," she whispered, "walking with you on Fifth Avenue in the rain..." She smiled as she pulled him under the umbrella, and he felt her bonding with him.

Jerome was so lost in thought that he scarcely noticed as the taxi crossed the Manhattan Bridge and turned onto Canal Street. His heart began to beat faster as he recognized many places in Chinatown where Cassandra and he had shopped and an array of restaurants they had explored together. "What is this?" he thought, feeling a surge of anxiety as the taxi slowed and made right turn turn up Mulberry Street.

"No! Not this way!" he thought to himself. This was certainly not the expected route to Washington Square. His heart almost skipped a beat as he suddenly found himself on Mulberry street where Cassandra and he had lived from the first day she arrived. "Why did the cab take this route? I wasn't prepared for this..." He felt agitation, a pang of anxiety as they passed the Airbnb where they had begun their life together and then crossed Grand Street where they had walked hand-in-hand so many times. The first time she took his hand, she held it as though she would never let go.

Jerome wondered why he was so distressed. The days spent on Mulberry Street were the happiest of his life. He remembered before Cassandra arrived, walking on a summer day in late August along Houston and turning right at the Puck Building to wander south on Mulberry. He snapped photos and shot short videos as he walked along the street. 

Gradually he could feel the pull of Little Italy as he neared Grand Street, Indeed, the decorations were up and there was a festive atmosphere for the upcoming celebrations for  the Feast of San Gennaro in September. It seemed as though the festival was already beginning, but Jerome remembered how crowded Little Italy would be at the height of the celebration. There were performances, processions, contests, music concerts, and dancing in the streets...but the food was the real miracle of the Feast of San Gennaro, a festival held every September in Italy to honor Saint Januarius, the patron saint of Naples and Little Italy. 

Finally, Jerome sat at an outside table of a small restaurant On Mulberry near Grand Street. The sun was blazing overhead, but he could detect the smell of September in the air. He could sense Cassandra's arrival with the coming of Autumn, the ripening orange trees on Mulberry street, and the miracle of a renaissance about to change his life.

ZEN, ARCHERY, ECKER & DERNINI

I started to take a journey... the same journey I took maybe thirty years ago. I knew that I was attracted to ZEN because in some small way, it seemed similar to Phenomenology, which I had been introduced to by my colleague who seemed almost like a Zen Master to me. David Ecker taught in the art department at NYU Steinhardt. He was an arts craftsman and art philosopher. I had completed my doctorate at Columbia University, and never once had any class introduced or discussed phenomenology. In some ways David Ecker was my Zen Master who led me through endless inquiries that opened my world.

We had many adventures together, and they alone would be worthy of discussion and documentation, even now. 

I happened to try the Audible book for Zen in the Art of Archery.  Forget it! It's better to let your imagination conjure up the sound of the master's voice. The reader on Audible distorts his voice to attempt to sound like a Zen Master, but it just doesn't work for me.

But I am sympathetic to Herrigel's quest. He made many assumptions about what the experience of learning Zen through what the Japanese consider a deep and profound art grounded in the way of Zen...much more than a philosophy. There is a spiritual connection that is difficult for those of us who have been biased by Western philosophy and assumptions. 

David Ecker is no longer with us. But his presence lingers. He pursued the creation of knowledge through experiments such as Navigating Global Cultures. It so happened that a marvelous artist and inquirer, Sandro Dernini, came to study with David Ecker in the Art Department at NYU . I was fortunate enough to tag along and help in the launching of marvelous experiments in art as a way of knowing and inquiring---of ART as the disruptor.

So my journey here was originally planned as a shared adventure, but it fell by the way because Time had other plans. I pause now in the debris of a botched beginning that turned into a new opportunity of discovery. I see many of my past mentors in their separate journeys, but somehow beckoning me to be out and about. Life is perpetual discovery, uncovering each moment as immortal. 

WHO IS PHADREAS?

linked

Days...Months...Years have passed and yet, Phadreas has remained in the background. Phadreas has eluded me for years despite my attempts to find him and bring clarity to my wanderings. I’m not sure why he has emerged at this moment as an enigma that must be confronted. Yet, there he is, with his gleaming eyes and mysterious smile that bewilders and confronts me. It is not because he is amused, but rather that he understands what I seek, even though he won’t reveal anything to me directly. 

Phadreas is the shadow of my thinking, and my thinking is the essence of my Being, my sense of All and the essence of Allness, which we often call Eternity. Eternity is the contradiction of Time ending. Time and Being, as Heidegger so eloquently observed, are the essence of existence, the fundamental pulse that dismisses the void and utter disintegration.

Phaedrus often lurks around the entrance to my DOJO. As written in Wikipedia, a DoJo is a place for immersive and experiential learning. In Japanese, it literally means PLACE OF THE WAY. A few years ago I tripped out on Neil Diamond's THE WAY, where the musical structure continually shifts its grounding, it is a musical journey seeking closure but ends in an echoing rift of ongoingness. (Wyzard Ways: BEING ON TIME)

My journey deepens as I retrace the steps of a student of Zen In The Art of Archery. How important our process of Being is linked to Breathing... even to inspire is to take in... inspiration comes from our effortless breathing...appropiating the outside and bringing it into the center of ourselves, and holding it as it nourishes all life processes, then exhaling to return a transformed energy to our environment. Breathing and Being are central to our existence. The student working with the Zen Mastery is from a different culture. Coming from Germany to Japan, he brought a certain Western resistance to the Japanese ethos of Zen. His journey is about reconciling his cultural clash with a different and equally valid reality. It is not unlike F.S.C. Northrop's The Meeting of East and West, that reveals how the war with Japan was inevitable as a clash of cultural values, and how this meeting of two opposing cultures transformed our ideas about Art and Existence.

Later Robert M. Pirsig would build upon this cultural dichotomy with his epic Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Years ago, I took this journey with Pirsig, and now, decades later, I renew this quest for a deeper understanding of my own journey. But I do not journey alone. This time the quest is with an artist searching a different artistic itinerary, and yet as we work within mutual boundaries of awareness, we may discover new destinations, new clearings in the dense forests of doubt.

It seems that life itself is the journey, and from the beginnings of our utterings on Earth, since antiquity, Homer's The Odyssey defined our quest to return home, for we awaken in a wilderness and know not whom we are. 

In the end, isn't our quest about Identity?

A NEW ODYSSEY...

How long have I been away? It's difficult to calculate. My last entry was not a return. That was an experiment with a digital magazine. 

 

I have been lost in some corridor without dimension, trying to find my way back to the conscious awareness that has always connected me to myself. These last few months...few days...I have somehow stumbled back...Phaedrus is alive, but perhaps it is still too tenuous, too embryonic, to know what is really going on. 

 

Phaedrus is still shrouded by the shadows...I pause in the deep shadows of the ether that obscures identity and launches a search... a wandering away from the bright avenues of deceit and destruction, looking for some opening through which I might return, from where I might escape into the fullness of myself...into the awareness of Being...where clarity reigns. But I know there is no such moment as clarity. Clarity requires Time to become timeless, where process stagnates into shrill stillness... we slip into the silence and its illusion as a tapestry of sound. 

 

I have been wandering. I've wandered since my earliest days in Texas...and the globe has been a gracious host. I heard Whitman calling me to join him in his wanderings, and I began to journey with him by my side and in my veins, beckoning me to find a clearing where we might rest and exchange notes. I should have perished long ago, but something lingers...not from the Past,  but from the Future... for wandering is an endless excursion into what might be and what might have been. And these wanderings have led to some phenonmenal experiments in Research as Lived Experience...in Heideggerian jousting with BEING AND TIME and the languaging of the world...in Hegel's even more dazzling Phenomenology of Spirit, as a quest for knowing and meaning which in some ways seems almost like a Western Civilization attempt to read between the lines of the Tao Te Ching.

 

I follow the footsteps of Whitman's wandering in search of his lingering presence...in search of our lingering presence, for we are all wanderers seeking the truth of ourselves. We are all embarked upon The Way... ultimately this is our journey as the infinite manifestation of Being.

 

I remember as I entered my 70s, I was surprised to still be around, somehow stuck in the ever enduring Now. My wanderings were over a vast internal terrain where I thought I was meant to discover or meet someone or some revelation about my true identity. Moving through life, I was constantly meeting and celebrating new arrivals in my conscious awareness that expanded my experience and created new horizons to pursue. I was surprised to find myself still seeking the next realm of revelation as decades passed.

 

SEGUE
 Begun six decades past...
 I always thought it might not last.
 But this is not the final word
 Many conversations still not heard...
 Somehow I’m still seeking text
 To reveal what might happen next.
 For me, text is not about the past...
 it’s more about making the present last.
 Noticing the moment with a pen
 Adds permanence and creates a “when”.
 
 But these words are more than just a start...
 The texting here is from the heart.
 This volume, was begun so long ago,
 When I was young—-so much I didn’t know.
 Now I know no matter what my age,
 Infinity expects another page.

 

So these postings, these wanderings, begin another phase of this adventure, but more importantly to notice the NOW of BEING and the process of BECOMING. These themes have emerged from my encounters with the dynamics of awareness. It seems that everything emerging is Forever unfolding the Nowness of Now. We've launched the James Webb Space Telescope a million miles into space to peer backward into Time... to some so-called beginning which is as much conjecture as it is a reality. It is challenging to be trapped in the permanence of Now seeking paths to the past and future...

 

DAFU LAI AND THE LEGACY OF THE OCARINA SOCIETY

Professor Dafu Lai (NYU Steinhardt Alumni, Class of 2006, MA in Music Ed.) sends us some notes from Beijing on how he joins his students on-line to continue his teachings on creating beautiful music playing the ocarina.

Dafu Lai was the first student in our department in NYU Steinhardt from Mainland China. I believe it was in 2004 when we first met and spoke how music technology could be a powerful factor for music education in China. He spoke of his university, Xiamin University, that had the most beautiful campus in the world. I thought to myself, maybe we all think our Alma Mater has the best of everything. But several years later, his teacher, Dean Xianbo Zhou, invited me to teach a summer class, and I discovered that it was indeed, the most beautiful campus I had ever scene. I immediately wanted to become a film director and have Xiamen University serve as my set.

Although technology has continued to be an important asset for Professor Lai, perhaps his greatest contribution to our field  of music education was to revive the ocarina as a legitimate, serious musical instrument, which also provides a entry to learning music as a life-long process. With great imagination and perseverance, Professor Dafu Lai continues to promote this ancient Chinese Instrument,  restoring its legacy of 5000 years as an instrument of epic proportions throughout its long history. Returning to China in 2006, after his graduation from Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University, he founded the Ocarina Society of China, which now has more than 5000 members.Professor Lai began teaching at Petroleum University, bringing music to thousands of students using this simple and revered instrument.

Ocarina Society of China

The Society has promoted concerts and alliances through international music education initiatives such as ISME and KODALY.  Some students have gone into the business of making Ocarinas, and many imaginative designs and sizes have emerged. Serving as the President of the Ocarina Society has been a rigorous and demanding responsibility, but Professor Lai notes that the activities of the society contributed to rise of popularity of the Ocarina and produced many virtuoso performers who perform throughout the world. Professor Lai founded an Ocarina Museum that is the home of many valuable Ocarinas centuries and milennia old. My visit to the museum was a highlight of my visit to Beijing as I learned that the instrument comes in many sizes and shapes as I toured the museum's stunning display.

 In the face of the COV-19 Virus lockdown, Professor Lai has maintained contact with his students through the Internet.

Professor Dafu Lai teaching on-line in his studio at Petroleum University, Beijing

Dafu Lai is a professor of music of China University of Petroleum in Beijing. He also teaches Orff Method and ocarina flute at the other universities: China Conservatory of Music, China University of Politic Science & Law. Due to the outbreaking of COVID-19 and most students and teachers were required to stay at home, Professor Lai has been teaching online courses since February 2020. In order to make the students seeing and hearing his instruction clearly, Dafu invested significant funds to equip many facilities such as new desktop computer with two monitors, video camera, microphone, fill lights, etc. Better equipment better insures an online teaching effect.

According to Lai: Online teaching platform is also very important either for teacher or students. Due to the unpredictable epidemic situation, almost 20 million students had to learn online courses at the same time at the first few week days of the Spring semester. Dafu had to use four different online platforms such as Tencent Class, Rain Classroom, WeChat for Business, Douyin, Chaoxing and Zoom for his live broadcast class in order to avoid the congestion. Professor Lai observes:

Fortunately, most students feel that they got much more from my online teaching than in the classroom on campus. First, the students could see the teacher’s demonstration clearly and closely with the video camera, especially for ocarina playing. Second, the students can go over the teacher’s instruction with the video playback function. Third, the students can practice their ocarina playing without disturbing the rest classmates after the teacher’s demonstration. Last, I could give specific comments for the student’s homework with the “Drop of video” function in QQ platform. I can view my students’ homework on the cellphone anytime.

The virus may block the students’ way to the school, but it could never block the teacher’s instruction and the connection to the students. We wish the outbreaking of COVID-19 could under control and to be eliminated eventually all over the world as soon as possible. We are all looking forward to seeing each other again on campus. 

Dr. SANDRO DERNINI: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PLEXUS

My adventure with Sandro began decades ago, when I encountered him as the doctoral student of my colleague Dr. David Ecker. Sandro came to NYU already in possession of a PhD in Biology, but he was engaged in the art of life, and all forces conspired in the 70s-90s as to make NYU the place where new interactive artists gathered to enshrine proactive art as the shaping energy of artists around the world. Sandro Dernini articulated a destiny that seemed to have its own efficacy. This personal covenant matched perfectly with David Ecker's commitment to phenomenology and qualitative research. It was David Ecker, who in the 1990s launched Navigating Global Cultures. It was in that context and energy of Sandro Dernini founding Plexus that a series of events unfolded which brought Sandro and myself back together in recent times. I created a video I DO NOT KNOW and submitted art to participate in Plexus celebration at the MACRO Museum of Modern Art on December 12, 2018.

Sandro writes of our initial collaborations and the necessity of charting a new course in the wake of COV-19 Pandemic:Within the collaboration on  Navigating Global Cultures between New York University and University of Cagliari,  in 1995, for the 100th Anniversary of the Guglielmo Marconi's discovery of the Radio, Plexus International was launched.
THE OPEN CALL FOR THE WELL BEING IN THE XXI CENTURY (21 September 1995, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy)

WE ARE A SINGLE, INTERDEPENDENT, WORLD-WIDE SPECIE.

WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, WE ARE INTIMATELY BOUND UP WITH EACH OTHER AROUND EARTH.EAST AND WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH, OUR FATE IS LINKED TOGETHER.THUS A GLOBAL VIEW OF HUMAN HEALTH IS MORE ESSENTIAL NOW THEN EVEN BEFORE.”(Introductory statement by the Chairman of the 37th Assembly of the World Health Organization, on the Role of Universities for the Health for All, Geneva, 15 May 1984)

HEALTH is defined by the WHO (World Health Organization of the United Nations) as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

In the light of the current Covid-19 crisis, more then even, there is a need for a change of route, from the disease to the well-being by not only thinking to manage this pandemic or the next ones  with vaccines but with a more complete state of well-being, as stated in the WHO definition of health.  Therefore, a more multidimensional cultural navigation  is needed for changing the current dominant paradigm of health as presence or absence of diseases or infirmity.  Let's collaborate all together for a new Well-Being World, to be launched  on Human Rights Day 2020, 10 December, with a global artists.

Extract From David Ecker's paper “Cultural Navigations”presented at the International Forum “The Well Being in the XXIst Century, held in Carloforte, Sardinia, Italy, in 1992.

The idea of a kind of “cultural navigation” arose out of this initial discussion, the notion that what was required of us was to re-think the significance of Columbus’s landing in the light of a new global awareness of interdependence.  Further meetings generated a veritable “fleet” of proposals.  One of these proposals, made by Dr. Sandro Dernini of Plexus International, is now reaching fruition, a Reconciliation Forum to address the question of what will constitute well-being in the 21st Century for all the inhabitants of the globe.   For many of us, the initial idea of cultural navigation led quickly to the question of cultural identity.  

The nutritional, social, ethical and economic aspects of well-being will undoubtedly receive critical attention in the proceedings of the Forum.  But surely the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of life as we live it must figure in any formulation of a comprehensive vision of well-being. 

The arts make visible our cultural identity and provide a direct measure of the vitality of the culture in which a particular art object or event is embedded.  It follows that the arts have a special role to play in relation to the well-being of the members of each of the cultures of the world.

For one organization represented here, ISALTA, it is not enough to document the arts in their cultural settings, but to take steps to enhance the arts and thus the quality of the lives people live.  The name of this intentional group states its purpose:  The International Society for the Advancement of Living Traditions in Art.  Historically,  artistic decline accompanies the loss of cultural identity.  The felt need to preserve the meaning of a tradition in modern life is directly proportional to the loss of spiritual and material well-being of the artists and artisans sustaining their own cultures. Western solutions to the world’s misery, suffering, and destruction have tended in the 20th Century to be technological and humanistic, whereas earlier they tended to be religious or political solutions.  In the name of science, human nature, or God, the assumption underlying these solutions is that they transcend culture and have universal efficacy.  In contrast, we believe that the very meaning of “doing good for others” is culture-bound, as is the word “art”.

Cultural crises, whether caused by natural or man-made, whether caused by forces from outside or within a particular culture, are ideally to be resolved on the terms set by the affected culture.  What this ideal suggests is that there should be no “privileged discourse” in multicultural exchanges.  Communication on both “inside” and “outside” understandings of issues affecting well-being in the 21st Century must be encouraged from all cultural perspectives.  

PLEXUS, as founded by Sandro has sustained many incarnations through world-wide initiatives. Perhaps one of the most recent undertakings was the world wide celebration of Human Rights Day, December 12, 2018.  With Plexus, Sandro with many colleagues, and especially David Ecker, established many living traditions and challenged past cultural inequities and crimes against humanity.

 MACRO is the equivalent of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but maybe slightly higher rating for being more on the leading edge of arts movements and trends. It is an impressive structure that invites large scale installations, and PLEXUS represented a large scale installation of multiple artists as well as a connection with other sides via the Internet and projected as part of the happenings at MACRO. Human Right's Day as celebrated by PLEXUS was a collage of sight, sound, touch, and technology that unfolded in the spirit of a happening as those in attendance were treated to an abundance of simultaneous activities throughout the museum. Maestro Riccardo Santoboni with his magical trombone, often provided musical commentary as well as leading spontaneous parades through the space. Bodies entrapped in mummy-like encasings wandered through the space until they spontaneously erupted in breaking free of the shackles through dancing and celebrations as they moved from confinement to freedom.

Participating Artists in PLEXUS Human Rights Day at MACRO.

This celebration at MACRO was an extraordinary happening, not unlike those of earlier days when spontaneous eruptions of collaborating artists created unique events throughout New York City in unexpected places such as abandoned buildings, warehouses, theaters, and the Projects. This group photo is on the outside steps of MACRO around 9 p.m. as HUMAN RIGHTS DAY wound down to a close, having begun as a celebration 12 hours earlier, but even a day before December 12, as they installed their works throughout the museum. An almost infinite continuum or trail of artworks submitted to be archived by PLEXUS could be seen throughout the space, followed as a path through the other installations. To document, I made a video of my tracing the path through the museum, but as I walked came upon showings or happenings that were taking place by the many collaborating artists. In many ways, this visitors that came to witness the event became a part of the installation, so that in fact, everyone became a work of art as they shared this extraordinary moment in time. In this sense, everyone was a collaborator, an instigator and reveler in this spontaneous interaction of shimmering facets of activity.

This is why I felt compelled to not let this celebration go unnoticed. It seems more than coincidence that as I left IMPACT and started to chart a new course for my post NYU career, that independently I came up with ARC (ARTS RENAISSANCE COLLABORATIVE), as a new path to pursue and research all I learned in collaboration with faculty, staff, participants, and students during my time at New York University. How stunning a revelation to see the flag raised by PLEXUS as the ARK of WELL-BEING. How well this Ark serves the dedication to the ideas launched in the 90s for NAVIGATING GLOBAL CULTURES. My own sense of ARC, also saw the metaphor of a vessell, but in addition the sense that ARC represents connection, a span to the future and well-being, but also as energy, that spark that ignites a revolution of BEING and MEANING. In these troubling times, Sandro Dernini's quest to maintain PLEXUS as Arts Advocacy for Human Rights and Well-Being has kept the organization at the forefront of relevant metaphysical and spiritual inquiry.

DR. TED COONS' 90th YEAR FESTSCHRIFT

On March 7, 2020, Dr. Edgar Coons of New York University was honored at Ted Coons Festschrift was presented at the NYU King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center in honor of his 90th year. A Festchrift is a volume or archive compiled in a celebration as a tribute to a scholar, writer, artist or accomplished figure, producing materials consisting of articles, essays, presentations related to the honoree's work and career. 

As a pioneer in neuro research, Dr. Coons career has produced leading researchers and scholars who have uncovered new terrain with regard to the brain and its functions. He himself has produced many breakthrough studies, and his students have gone on to distinguish themseles as leaders in this field.

This celebration was on the eve of the Pandemic crisis. Even at this meeting, participants were touching elbows rather than shaking hands. The participants are too numerous to identify here, so I will contextualize it with how my relationship with this remarkable man led to me presenting at this celebration.

I was invited by Ted to be a Co-Sponsor for The First International Conference on MIND, BODY AND THE PERFORMING ARTS in 1985 as I was serving as Director and Chair of NYU Steinhardt's Music and Performing Arts. (At that time, the school was still known as the School of Education, then, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Performance (SEHNAP), and finally, Steinhardt.)
I had begun my career at NYU with first contact in 1968, and Ted had begun his career in the School of Arts and Sciences a few years earlier than that. The conference was the first of its kind and it made news, attracting a number of outstanding artists, educators, doctors, and researchers. It was a series of coincidences that led to my meeting Dr. Coons, and I was fortunate that these events led to establishing a life-long friendship that was often shared at NOHO STAR, a restaurant that was near NYU, populated by artists, writers, students, musicians, and celebrities. It no longer exists, and we shifted our times to LAYFETTE, a restaurant a block from the NOHO STAR.

Coincidences shape the future.It was on the basis of that Mind Body conference that I was invited to share the findings as part of Ted's 90th Year Festschift.  If it had not been for the conference, I likely would have never met Ted. I met Ted through a doctoral student who had come to our department to pursue a PhD in Music Performance. The PhD in Music Performance was one of the first programs I created when I joined NYU. I was brought to NYU by. Dr. Jerrold Ross who had been the president of the New York College of Music. While at Columbia University studying for my doctorate, I became the composition student of David Simon, who also happened to be the registar of the New York College of Music. David had been impressed by our conversations about higher education. He recommended me to Dr. Ross.  The PhD in Music Performance was the first of its kind, and it attracted extraordinary musicians who were also interested in the research.  One such student was John Kella, the principal violist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His registration in Ted's research class led to discussions that resulted in creating the conference and brought me into partnership with Ted Coons.

As we rode in a taxi up Sixth Avenue for a fundraising event for the festival, we discovered our mtual past.

TED: I don't know much about you. Where are you from?
JVG: You wouldn't know it. It's just a town in Texas.
TED: I might know. Where?
JVG: Amarillo...
TED: I know Amarillo. Did you know the Amarillo Conservatory of Music?
JVG: Yes.
TED: Did you study at the conservatory?
JVG: Yes.
TED: Well, I also studied at the conservatory. Did you study with Gladys Glenn?
JVG: Why, yes I did.
TED: I also studied with Gladys Glenn. Small world isn't it?

Because Ted is nine years my senior, I was in a different world from his. He was studying at the Conservatory in his teens, when I was just entering grade school, so our worlds never met. Yet, we shared a common background.

Ted's Festchrift was a true celebration, revealing the many layers of talents and achievements that have accrued over the illustrious years of his career.  It's impossible to report the full scope of presentations that were unveiled that day. The first presentation by Dr. Richard Young set the tone, as he reviewed Ted's remarkable career that launched the research careers of his many students, including Dr. Young himself. His point was that Ted's contributions are so vast and different, that anyone from the outside might view his work the way six blind men, in the familar proverbial story, tried to describe an elephant by just touching. After an entertaining and enlightening presentation, Dr. Young and his wife, Alice Zhu, presented Dr. Coons with an award that recognized him as a mentor, but as Ms. Zhu described, the word MENTOR does not do justice to a Chinese concept of the Teacher/Mentor/Spiritual Guide that the award represents. Even our cherished words of MAESTRO and MENSCH do not convey the cultural and spiritual import of the word.

This was a wonderful presentation and the conferring of the award set an appropriate tone for the ongoing celebration, as colleagues and former students and protegees paraded to the podium to honor Ted's extraordinary career as educator, adminstrator,  artist, writer, composer, and philosopher. Perhaps the only thing missing was Ted's recent stint as a Film Producer for his former student, Nathan Cutucci, the writer and director for IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS, a film that while having mixed reviews, "marks an impressive debut effort"... "with quite a few engaging twists and turns."

Dr. George Smith, founder of IDSVA (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts) recently served as the first recipient of Professorship in New Philosophy, created through a generous to donation to IDSVA by Dr. Ted Coons to fund the position. Dr. Smith's book The Artist-Philosopher and New Philosophy maintains that Western Metaphysics has come "an end" as posited by Heidegger. What will emerge is the artist-philosopher who "poeticizes" new philosophy spanning arts in all forms and penetrating culture in all its locations. Dr. Smith recounted his experiences with Ted, and his energy, spontaneity and artistic sensibility. He has with him, Ted's English translation of a Rilke poem which he made for the purpose of setting the poem to music. He invites Ted to share his translation, and we were afforded a sensitive and spontaneous moment through his reading.

Former Protege and student, Dr. David Rosenboom, composer, researcher and the Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music at CalArts and Dean of the Department presented his connection with Ted during the early days of The Electric Circus. I had met David as a young, pioneerng artist through a course I developed at NYU called EXPANDED MUSIC, and we visited the artist at his studio and tried to emulate some of his methods and techniques. David Rosenboom's presentation celebrated his relationship with Dr. Coons and also shared works that had been performed in a retrospective of David's prolific 50 years as a composer of new music and creator of countless new techniques in artistic collaboration and new ways of creating music, including ingenious use of bio-feedback in several contexts.

Among the presenters was Dr. Kathleen Riley, who received her PhD in Piano Performance in our department at NYU, while I was Director and Chair.  Kathleen was doing pioneering research using the Yamaha Disklavier technology to diagnose differences in interpretation of works, but ultimately to detect physical problems faced by pianists over the span of long careers.  Ted played an important role in the formative years of this research, providing her with space for her Yamaha Disklavier as well as advice and support for research projects. From this experience she developed an expertise in identifying what in many instances would be career-ending physical disorders, and providing remedies that saved and extended professional careers. She continues to build on these data through her INTENTION-The Power of the Heart.

 A moment of reflection as we conclude with Dr. Ted Coon's reading of his translation of Rilke's Poem Sonnet #9.

                                            Dr. Ted Coons Reads His Translation of Rilke Poem

DANCE PIONEER MEGAN MINTURN NAVIGATES A PANDEMIC

Megan Minturn is a colleague who has pioneered in what I have called the "otherness" of contemporary dance, a choreographer with courage and originality who uncovers the overlooked and ignored to become an advocate for those who have created something special, but no longer have a voice, or perhaps never did. 
 
I first became aware of Megan when with my colleague, Tom Beyer, we began to explore interactive distance collaboration that included simultaneous performance and improvisation between different locations. We used the internet to recruit dancers to take part in this collaborative improvisation. Megan responded and also recruited dancers to participate. Right from the first, these interactive collaborations were successful, and I was struck by Megan's openness and ability to creatively adjust within whatever parameters emerged to structure the moment. Everything was done within the span of a day from rehearsing to create materials in interacting with music, visual imagery, and movement to the moment of connecting to and responding to performers, technicians, and artists at other sites. Eventually, production planning to develop a theme and scenes was done through Internet over a few weeks with exchanges and connections to explore distance improvisation, collaboration, and coordination.

In my final years at NYU, we revived a course created for me in 1969 to introduce new technologies to Music Education which was called EXPANDED MUSIC: Its Impact on Music Education. We explored the works of artists that were performing at The Electric Circus. The course ran for about five years until I became so involved in creating new programs for the department. Then around 2010, we revived the course simply as EXPANDED MUSIC. Music became an entree to all the arts and technology---starting with music and expanding to include all the arts and technology. Because I noticed that musicians often did not seem comfortable in their bodies as they performed, I thought we should begin with movement and movement improvisation... (Expanded Movement as it were). I thought of Megan and asked if she would be willing to collaborate with me in the course, and the outcome was the creation of many memorable moments in the Provincetown Playhouse that were then applied in interactive productions with different locations, including Norway, Argentina, Ireland and others in NYU BlackBox Theatre and NYU LoeweTheatre.

Scenes from Minturn's Monopoly: The Landlord's Game (photo by Jeff Schultz Photography)

As Megan's career has unfolded, she has developed a process of collaborating with her dancers in creating new works that address cultural issues, such as Monopoly: The Landlord's Game, inspired by Lizzie Magie, who was the original creator of the game and obtained a patent in 1903 as The Landlord's Game that was intended to teach Henry George's of political economy applied to everyday economics. However, the game was circulated informally to many people, who kept changing and adding rules. Elizabeth's creation was co-opted by Charles Darrow in 1935, who with Parker Brothers also secured a patent for Monopoly. Parker Brothers purchased Elizabeth's patent for $500. She insisted that her game be published as she created it with no changes, so Parker Brothers continued to publish The Landlord's Game and Monopoly, but Elizabeth received no royalties or credit for Monopoly. Megan's use of this material uses the game pieces of Monopoly and an imagined space of the game board, and with creative and imaginative twists, explores the injustices of our current "game board rules"---as well as celebrating the creative brilliance of the game's originator, Elizabeth Magie.

As New York entered Lockdown for the COVID-19, I started checking with creative artists as to how the lockdown has affected their process and creative work. In Megan's words, here is how she is pursuing new collaborative work with her colleagues:

A recent NYTimes cover page commemorated the almost 100,000 lives lost in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  It listed the names and short phrases from the obituaries of 1,000 people, or 1% of the people who have passed away from the virus. With so much communal grief and loss, mourning is not only appropriate, but I believe it is needed.  Much has been written about the stages of grief, including that they do not occur in linear steps.  The pandemic has impacted us in different manners and to different extremes, on different days.  I attended a memorial on zoom for someone lost to the virus; a performance I had been preparing for over the course of two years was cancelled; I am attempting to teach dance virtually and miss the community of my students.  These types of loss are of different magnitudes; the loss of life is paramount.  The feeling of artistic loss, nevertheless, leaves an impact.  Fortunately, a community with whom I have collaborated continues to redefine and explore the possibilities of our work.

Tagged is a project that brings together artists from multiple disciplines to create an experience in totality.  Music, dance, and the visual arts converge in a shared conversation. The formal process began in 2019, though some of the conversations, choreographic phrases, and imaginings began much earlier. Our two performances in 2019 were at the Stand4 Gallery in Brooklyn.  We used both outdoor and indoor space, a formal gallery room, a hallway, and a nook.  The importance of these physical areas appears all the more pertinent during a pandemic in which space has been restricted, shifted, and due to being confined in it, stretched.  The dance and music during the actual performances were largely improvisational, yet the structure created through our shared, in-person dialogue allowed for this creative space.  It also created an organic path for us to follow as a collective. 

Much of this process was predicated upon our physical presence and connection with one another. 

 What felt previously like a singular process has now turned to processes.  We meet on Zoom calls, send one another choreographed moments via video, and work to build together. Yet I, personally, have struggled in my process without the synergy of our in-person dialogue, movement, and the co-creation of a vision. To get a pulse on this impression that the pandemic is affecting us differently, I asked my collaborators about how their work has been affected.  

Evan Joseph, the composer, has continued his work at home.  Due to the nature of his work, he is able to create and compose from home.  His collaborations with this project and those with filmmakers have continued.  He discussed how his work has largely remained consistent with that prior to the pandemic, though he has stints where he is more creative than others. Similarly, David Gitt found that his practice has kept him productive during this environment, partly as a means of staying sane.  Most of his works are not shared in inside spaces.  He hopes more visual artists willrespond to the pandemic by being more open to reclaiming spaces other than gallery and museum spaces.  Kelli Chapman, a dancer, discussed the difficulty of moving and creating at home.  She described how she associates the space of “home” with relaxation, cooking, and rest. Michelle Applebaum correspondingly described how she continues her exercise and yoga practices, but her dance practice was difficult to maintain during the first month of quarantine.  After this first month, though, she entered more into her creative brain and found ways to dance throughout the pandemic.  Personally, I struggle with dancing in my apartment.  While I am fortunate to have space to move, my floors are old and creaky.  My neighbors living on the floor below me complain about my walking, much less my dancing. 

While our processes have been affected differently, we are exploring possibilities for further collaboration and construction.  We continue to build through sharing materials online.  Dance phrases are being added upon by sending video sections of our work and creating based on what is shared.  We are also exploring the creation of a film with visual art being activated by musicians and dancers in the setting of Gowanus, Brooklyn.  We will create this following social distancing guidelines.  Without question, one of the most satisfying aspects of this project is the community of artists that is formed.  Together we share a process, but also our lives in the arts, with its difficulties and beauty.  

CHOE CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY AT KENNEDY CENTER

On tour, Sang Cheul Choe's Contemporary Dance Company, was triumphant with its stunning performances at the KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, on August 18, 2019. Under invitation of the Korean Cultural Center of Washington D.C., Choe's company performed CHAOS and LIAR, compelling works with visual, dramatic, and intellectual elements providing an expressive range of artistry and technique.

Two works were performed at Kennedy Center: Chaos and Liar. These remarkable works received a standing ovation, and you can see summary of the performance provided by the Korean Cultural Center.

CHAOS

CHAOS, strangely enough, is about order. Visually, the work seethes with tension between order and disorder... Beings glide around a central dominating figure, effortlessly. Artistically, it may seem risky to introduce such apparently effortless motion of self-propelled gliders in orbit, but the beauty of motion and tension created circling the central figure provides a sense of wonder and awe.... Alwin Nikolais had a similar effect in Pond, which I saw recreated in 2010 at NYU, but gliders were powered by the dancers. Chaos is a much more ambitious work than Pond, and the range of diverse movement which celebrates the human body is the exact opposite of Nikolais' work, where bodies disappear to conform to geometrical revelation of imagery and pattern. Chaos is a rich tapestry exploring order emerging from chaos, suggesting that from disorder emerges the need for structure and tradition. But it is also a celebration of the human anatomy, emerging from evolution as highly functional for self defense and coping with sources for food but also aesthetically attractive to insure the continuation of the species. But the order sought is not that of this world, but one fashioned from the fabric of fantasy, somewhere beyond reality, suggesting that chaos is out natural condition. Order comes from the imagination, achieved in a world beyond reality.

LIAR

LIAR is an intriguing work. The polarities of being attracted and repelled by the Liar are convincing and visually exciting.  The choreographer Jung-Hoon Kim achieves the level of a parable. The main figure emerges in the midst of a group of people, gesturing in such a way that they should follow him. He seems persuasive, but quite suddenly, he exits right, and immediately emerges again entering from the left. It is startling. Impossible. But we soon discover there are two identical figures, which one is authentic? Are they both liars?

The moving images that we link to in this Blog, are not video, but rather assembled live photos from iPhone, which provides another, different tool, for examining and understanding movement. The movement imagination is vigorous and spirited, and there is a strong narrative as to how we manage to deceive ourselves. The program notes state:

"We experience many constant lies and often view human conflict and division through the lens of unreasonable deceit. This dance work expresses the soul of youth, especially those who have experienced such conflict and anxiety as a result of an irrational society."

Choe & Company Honored by NYU

Following the performance at Kennedy Center, Choe brought his dancers to visit his Alma Mater, where he received his PhD. The Department of Music and Performing Arts with faculty from Dance, Music, and Music Technology celebrated Choe's work and provided an opportunity for his dancers to tour the facilities and studios where Choe attended for doctoral studies in the 90s.

Choe was greeted by the Director of Dance and Dance Education, Professor Deborah Damast, who provided an update of the profile of Dance at Steinhardt, while Dr. Elise Sobol greeted Choe and his dancers, as Director of Music Education. Professor Tom Beyer, Chief Systems Enigineer, greeted the visitors on behalf of Music Technology, and led a tour of the Dolan Recording Studios. It was such a treat to see Dr. Choe in the context of the Steinhardt Department of Music and the Performing Arts, especially since during his time at NYU, the department has continued to graduate an impressive array of artist educators.

Choe & Company Celebrated by Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery

The next day, before the Choe Contemporary Dance Company would return to Korea, they were invited by the Director of the Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery, Young Cho, to a tea ceremony in honor of Choe's dance company.  It was a happy coincidence that Technoimagination was installed at the gallery, introducing to New York the leading edge of media art in Korea, as part of the Korean Media Arts Festival 2019. Technoimagination was curated by Odelette Cho and Kyung Ran Joo, Director of FUSE Art Project.

Cho's Tea Ceremony honoring the dance company was inspiring, if only to witness how he managed to serve several pourings individually, even though there about 15 people in the room. Throughout the moments of that special occasion was the sense of reverence for life, and for art, and for honoring everyone's aspirations as artists. Young Cho is the founder of the Donghwa Foundation, and has been the source for inspiration as I have had some past association with activities of the Foundation. Serving as the Director of the Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery, has enabled Mr. Cho and his wife Odelette Cho, to enrich the community and the cultural scene in NYC, but also throughout the world. 

What makes Sang-Chuel Choe's coming to Kennedy Center significant in my ongoing work of ARC and its focus on collaborative arts has been my personal connection with Dr. Sang-Chuel Choe. I had the privilege to serve as the Chair for his doctoral research at New York University and have followed his professional and academic career since his time at NYU in the 1990s.

Sang Cheul Choe's career is impressive, from his early days in Korea, to his study at NYU and his work as a choreographer in New York City, responding to a new energy in contemporary dance in NYC, as choreographers were exploring new media and evolving new techniques.

I, myself, was earnestly following the career of Erick Hawkins who was in the twilight of his career in the 90s, but I had discovered him when he visited Texas Tech University in 1959-60 and performed his work Geography at Noon, utilizing a new technique of Hawkins based on free flow with gravity. By the time Choe came to New Yorkin the 90s, dance was undergoing a transformation, and in my estimation was the leading edge of contemporary arts in influencing the direction of new work. I preferred dance concerts over new music concerts to get the pulse of new works and artists.

Choe's work detected this NYC new energy, and he was undergoing artistic change as he worked in a new environment. Returning to Korea, Choe incorporated new media as an essential factor in his choreography. He developed his own method, fusing video and dance as a highly integrated embodiment, while embracing new technology in the context of the human body. Choe still regards BLACK ANGEL as his best use of media technology.

During the years following his sray in NYC, Choe sent me video disks of major new works almost yearly, compiling an impressive repertory that rivals the innovative technological work of Alwin Nikolais, the contemporary choreographer of New York who incorporated technology to transform the stage and the dancer as constructions, blurring distinctions between body and space. Nikolais also composed his own electronic scores so that every element of his work departed from the conventional space and time of dance protocols.  As I followed Choe's work from a distance, I saw his work take on an edge as he harvested the potential of media and choreography to create an impressive array of new works, while continuing to explore and extend the expressive range of the human body.

As this Pandemic Lockdown of 2020 became a global experience, I contacted Dr. Choe to ask about the effect on his work.  Choe replied and provided a haunting excerpt of on-line choregraphy and dancing. He had turned his command of technology to teachng and choregraphing on-line.

Dr. Choe commented:

In the past few months, it was a time with a new daily life like I had never experienced, it was a little uncomfortable and awkward, but the dancers became accustomed little by little. 

During this pandemic, Korean performing arts tried to do something by switching to a new direction of Internet live broadcasting. But the limitation of the inspiration is that it is not the familiar method we have always been doing, and it takes getting used to.

I think a lot about how precious it was for me to have such a small pleasure in completing a dance piece in discussion with dancers. Now we have to communicate all of these things through a cold machine, and I think that it is our new challenge: to get used to the process little by little and make the cold machine warm.

As you know well, Korean people meet, eat, drink, get excited about small things, and love to do something together. However, the reality of such meeting has become a fear.
I asked my graduate students to make a choreograph without meeting each other. I would like to share it with you as a very good result comes out. Of course, it is still an initiating effort, but these are pure dancers who have never challenged this “cineography” ---it's called “Fear”.

 

Choe's online work with students creating choreography ("Fear")

                   Choe's online work with students creating choreography: FEAR.