The Eye of Leo Series
“(I meet myself in all aspects of life here.) I lay myself out on the ground of receiving. Delicious. This is a multi-year process unfolding with an overview of the whole to be brought together as a mandala of magic.”
This project explores archetypes of the Soul; specifically the four major patterns: The Child, The Victim, The Prostitute and the Saboteur; and the concepts of individuation and integration, between them. The project is grounded in the theory that we traverse a series of experiences and create characters, personas, tendencies that we repeat and recreate without being conscious. What if one of us wakes up and sees the game board and all players? Would that awakening bring the individual home and all of the parts into one? Would the lessons, skills, experiences be learned, integrated and the density released? I have conceived of this piece as a playground with many people playing different roles and creating scenarios that anyone could relate to and imagine from a neutral or non-‐judgmental view as an audience.
6 heroes journeys – some overlap, some written into the future, others dark and light hands clutching a silver thread woven into a tapestry of tears. Beyond state there is a consciousness that tills that soil. Each collaboration is a specific process of self- inquiry and conversation. 9 performing artists, 3 architects of environment and 1 question: Is Integration possible through intention, vibration? and neutrality? (plus a lot of grace.)
The terrain for the culminating presentation will be created in a geometric design within a large rectangle to give perimeters and boundaries to each performer. The audience will see a game board where players face their attachments, addictions, beliefs and have the opportunity to let go of “who they are not” and allow who they truly are to appear. The final piece will be choreographed on 6 dancers, playing and exchanging several roles. I will play the witness and the live Director as a participant. David Szlasa’s media design will form an immersive environment while representing the subconscious material or provocateur of each player. The language and sound track, live and recorded, will bring in the multiple voices of both the child and the adult in richly layered and orchestrated conversational actions that only sound can provide. The sound environment will take on the action of the players as well.
The Eye of Leo: For the Love of Emptiness
November 3-4, 2012 • Photo by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOIST: JORGE DE HOYOS
SOUND: NORMAN RUTHERFORD
MEDIA AND LIGHTS: DAVID SZLASA
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN
The Eye of Leo: PETER
March 1- 2, 2013 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOIST: JESSE HEWIT
SOUND: ROBBIE BEAHRS
VIDEO & LIGHTS: DAVID SZLASA
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN
If I walk up the mountain, will it encourage the view? If I take the train, will I miss it?9 heroes journeys – some overlap, some written into the future, others dark and light hands clutching a silver thread woven into a tapestry of tears. Beyond state there is a consciousness that tills that soil. Each collaboration is a specific process of self- inquiry and conversation. ( I meet myself in all aspects of life here. ) I lay myself out on the ground of receiving. Delicious. This is a 2-3 year process unfolding with an overview of the whole to be brought together as a mandala of magic. 9 performing artists, 3 architects of environment and 1 question: Is Integration possible through intention, vibration? and neutrality? (plus a lot of grace.) In PETER, simple elements construct a game inside the mind as an electrical magnetism produces heat inside Jesse’s [Hewit] body. From solo to solo bodies change shape, weight, size and meaning. PETER is facing the stars. I invite you into the journey. Perhaps we’ll share a meal together, watch that yellow yoke drop into the ocean or flag a shooting star.
The Eye of Leo: “C”
May 10-11, 2013 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOISTS: MARINTHA TEWKSBURY, CHRISTINE BONANSEA, RACHAEL LINCOLN
SOUND: NORMAN RUTHERFORD
LIGHTS: DAVID SZLASA
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN
C is for clown, child, concept, children, criteria, crowd of aspects wanting attention or hidden. C is for Clarity.
3 women, different by nature and skill, create a hide and seek game of consciousness and while moving through their given and developed tendencies they create an architecture with the mind, the body, the space. A place where symbols and meaning flow outward and curve back into their bodies as an unspoken language or knowing.
This work functions with both a facade and a transparency as its target. Sometimes a mask cannot be removed. Sometimes a mask may be read as a series of locks and keys into the internal realm of a person.
C is a journey as a puzzle without beginning or end. It is framed in the present with all time condensed. It is a play upon the thoughts of the body/mind in interaction with the other, that part of the hidden personality – whether it be the sound of the feet running, a cough from a witness, a truck screeching to a halt or the wind rattling the windows. And so, we tread lightly into the soft tissue, the underbelly.
The Eye of Leo: FUTURE LIFE/23KG
October 5-6, 2013 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOIST: SHERWOOD CHEN
COMPOSER: NORMAN RUTHERFORD
LIGHTING AND MEDIA: DAVID SZLASA
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN
What is the programer up to?
Sherwood engages with meeting aspects of his desires and how they become convergent travelogues of experience from several points of view. He opens a magic box, sees himself a younger boy filled with aspirations, and an older brother walking into himself and directly through the image into the future. It is a weaving of sorts that cannot be seen as performance except through one’s imagination.
It is the dancer’s attention we are tracking through this journey. This performance process is an engagement of layers pulled out of a suitcase, worn and turned inside out. It could be the way in which we wear our inner nature for all to see without realizing it.
What is it to pull apart the glue of emotions or string them up after a good washing only to ask the sunlight to do what it does for us all?
If Sherwood is 1 – I am Sherwood.
The Eye of Leo: Hybrid 3/The Teaching of a Thick Water Griffen
May 25, 2014
SOLOISTS: ALICE GOSTI, ALIA SWERSKY, BETH GRACZYK
SOUND DESIGN: JASON E. ANDERSON
LIGHT DESIGN: ILVS STRUSS
DIRECTION: SARA SHELTON MANN
The Eye of Leo: Hybrid 5/Form is Relentless
January 9-10, 2015 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOISTS: ABBY CRAIN, KATHLEEN HERMESDORF
LIGHT AND SOUND: DAVID SZLASA
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN
The Eye of Leo: Hybrid 7/an ever never animal meets mud loves love
March 20-21, 2015 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOISTS: ANYA CLOUD, LESLIE SEITERS
SOUND: ANYA CLOUD, LESLIE SEITERS
DIRECTION: SARA SHELTON MANN
The Eye of Leo: The Gathering
August 26-27, 2016 • Photos by Robbie Sweeny
SOLOISTS: ANYA CLOUD, MARINTHA TEWKSBURY, ABBY CRAIN, JESSE HEWIT
MEDIA & LIGHTING: MATTHEW DEGUMBIA
SOUND CONSULTATION: NORMAN RUTHERFORD
PRODUCTION: ALEXANDER ZENDZIAN
DIRECTOR: SARA SHELTON MANN