Good Works
The Call of Ancient Voices
Atrium, Ahmanson Gallery
Sunday, May 24
Call of Ancient Voices III
Seres Ceremonials
By Yen Lu Wong
i. A Ceremony of Earth and Stone
Lon
From this earth...by these hands...our lives are created
II. A Ceremony of Sky and Water
Seek the spirit...touch the sky...a chrysallis forms of air and water...
III. A Ceremony of Light and Fire
Return to the source...emerge transformed...a union of earth, air, fire and water.
Choreography and staging by Yen Lu Wong.This work is made possible in part by a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Performed by Kwai-Ching Chang, Alexandra Bronwer and Yen Lu Wong
Music by Prent Rodgers (Ceremonials I and II) and Elizabeth Waldo (Ceremonial III)
Costumes designed by Carol Lee
Executed by Carol Lee an Kwai-Ching Chang
Ms. Wong will also conduct a movement workshop for young people in Chinatown Library on May 16, to explore the imagery and movements suggested by designs on the bronze vessels and jade carvings. A second workshop will be presented at the Museum For Family Day, May 17th.
The New Repertory (TNR) was founded by Herbert Shore and Yen Lu Wong in 1972 as a performance group for multi-cultural dance and theater, seeking to explore cultural heritage and to transform the richness of the past into new forms for the future. Its work takes place, not only on stage, but in public places as well, in natural and man-made milieus. TNR has presented its work in Africa, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Bali as well as in many parts of the United States. TNR has recently moved to Los Angeles. From its new home, it will continue to offer classes and workshops in movement art and theater, residencies, and master classes as well as performances.
Seres means silk,
A thinning strand between remembered time and time called now,
The silken strands we weave of earth and sky, water and fire
Our cocoon of transformation,
Metamorphosis from worm to butterfly.
Seres
long flowing silken cloth, garments, raiment, riches,
The route that carried silk,
The search pathways for promised lands
From Europe to Cathay, the Orient, the lands beyond Zinj,
From Asia across water paths and land paths to Fusan,
To Italy and Hungary and Spain,
Seres
the tie that binds,
The labor of humanity to wealth and riches,
Poverty, oppression to luxury and waste,
Seeking for metamorphosis,
Transformation,
Silken paths of dream and hope,
Memories of the past,
Memories of our future, yet to come...
I sought the waters and the earth was dry,
I came to a bed of rocks,
and there was a carver of stone,
Carving in light and darkness,
Among the stones were patterns and shapes,
Known to the sages of the past,
The mysteries of form and substance.
The earth was barren, concrete, broken glass and twisted steel,
I called upon the spirits of sky and water, the spirits within me,
To mark the path once more,
Ghosts are left to roam, looking for a place to rest.
Search north, search south, search east, search west,
Create the pathways, build the megaliths,
Turn the arm of the helix
Light, warmth, earth, water,
Chrysallis,
Dance the Seres path,
Transformed...
by Herbert Shore