Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Needfire Dancers

The Dancers of the Beltaine Collective performed the fire choreography for the Cabaret at BMEc on June 23rd.

This piece was only about 5 minutes but gave us a good indication of how the work could look. It was dissapointing that Sarah's beautiful footage couldn't be seen very well, but it did give us a sense that the two together - film of fire and moving bodies could be very affective with the right technical facilities.

The audience received this piece very well - clapping along and cheering. The energy of the dancers was beautiful and their pleasure in their work infectious.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Water images





9 sacred trees

I had a skim of the net to see if I could find any celtic symbols related to the 9 sacred trees. Could there be an area of the film where celtic symbols are flashing on a back background... perhaps just on one video project (the other two might have something else showing). I typed into google celtic symbols and 9 sacred trees under an image search and came up with some interesting results.



This image from: www.cornwalls.co.uk interested me because it was a bit like an artwork that I did for a collaboration between Dennis Kratz and Graham Chalcroft called 'Secrets of the City, Gumbramorra Swamp Thing'



Image: Dennis Kratz 'The Drowned on Cooks River Road' from Secrets of the City, Gumbramorra Swamp Thing!

Another image I found was on a site called 'The World Tree.' www.sacredlands.org/Dragonvale/WorldTree/ Don't get me wrong, this is an incredibly tacky, kind of self help site (but hey, we all need a bit of kitsch, tacky self help sometimes don't we!) but there was some information of interest. I do like the idea of the four different elements - perhaps this could relate to the weather (earth, water, fire, sky) and the four elements they also mention here: th physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual This is all quoted direct, and the picture at the end is taken from the site.

The Sacred Circle

This is an ancient symbol used by almost all the native people around the world. There are many different ways that this basic concept is expressed: the four grandfathers, the four winds, the four cardinal directions, and many other relationships that can be expressed in sets of four. Just like a mirror can be used to see things not normally visible (e.g. behind us or around a corner), the Sacred Circle can be used to help us see or understand things we can't quite see or understand because they are ideas and not physical objects.

The Sacred Circle teaches us that the four symbolic races are all part of the same human family. All are brothers and sisters living on the same Mother Earth.

The Sacred Circle teaches us that the four elements, each so distinctive and powerful, are all part of the physical world. All must be respected equally for their gift of life.

The Sacred Circle teaches us that we have four aspects to our nature: the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual. Each of these aspects must be equally developed in a healthy, well-balanced individual through the development and use of volition (i.e. will).