Echoes of Time's Past and Present - Nelia's Ethereal Abandonment Thoughts

Ethereal Abandonment:  Timeless, or covering all times?  We’re playing with the echoes of the characters that lived in this physical church, this imagined theater, this creative space, and hinting at several different generations of humans who have traipsed through each of these tangential time-space continuums.  The Muses’ movements ripple across all time periods, weaving together the audience’s experience of multiple worlds being present at once on our stage.
It’s been an exciting challenge in understanding the difference between the various kinds of story telling that each medium in Ethereal Abandonment provides.  We have a narrative story line, brief episodic snapshots, period dances from very distinct eras and styles, and non-linear, timeless movement that create a dream-like, multi-disciplinary experience for the audience that keeps surprising me.
Our soundscape is the same in that it covers multiple styles and eras.  “A Little Pink Rose” is a parlor song by Carrie Jacobs-Bond from 1912.  Jacobs-Bond’s music was repeatedly turned down by music publishers due to the male-dominated industry until she established her own sheet music publishing company.  She therefore owned every word of every song she wrote — not something many music artists can claim for themselves!  Her independence as a woman is something I draw from in my character’s flight from her hometown to the big city…she realizes that she doesn’t want to have a traditional life at home with a husband and family, and shapes herself instead into a Vaudeville performer.  The lyrics for “A Little Pink Rose” are nostalgic, asking if the pink rose has faded and gone away…when we grow, how much of our old selves remain, and how much has to be plucked away?  How much of the original girl from a small hometown remains under the performer’s exterior?
The ghostly echoes of times past and present linger in our space, in our characters, in our movement, and in our music.  We’re informed and inspired by the past to actively shape and cultivate our present and future…in Ethereal Abandonment, we can see remembering and action taking place at the same time, pulsating in our voices and bodies with a vibrance that remains in the space long after we’re gone.