THIS IS NOT A SHOW OR A PERFORMANCE.
THIS IS AN INVITATION TO WITNESS...
dreaming ritual demonstration
with Antero Alli, Nick Walker, Sylvi Alli and David Hunt
Sunday Oct. 5th, 8:30pm sharp
The Finnish Brotherhood Hall
1970 Chestnut (off University Ave) in Berkeley
Upstairs. Doors open at 8:15pm. Seating limited to 60.
$5.-$10. donation. voicemail: 510-464-4640
From Australian Aborigine dreaming camps to the Senoi dream councils of Malaya to Native American vision quests, indigenous dreaming cultures continue performing rituals to access the multidimensional "dreamtime". What is the dreamtime ? In our night dreams we can be aware of a "dream self", a dreambody, engaged in various activities and adventures in the dreams we inhabit. According to certain tribal people, we awaken the next morning because our dreambody went to sleep (in its dreamtime) to begin dreaming our daytime selves into existence. We are the Dreamer and The Dreamed, dreaming ourselves into being throughout the Daytime/Dreamtime continuum.
A ritual is any external (kinetic) activity capable of catalyzing specific internal states of consciousness. The paratheatrical dreaming rituals we are exploring here are designed by piecing together kinetic remnants from our dreams into a precise choreography that, when performed fully conscious, trigger the forces, images and emotions innate to the dreams they originated from. The four chief aims of these dreaming rituals are:
1. Spiritual: gnosis; to know unity between "dreamtime" and "daytime" realities.
2. Mental: memory; to enter the dream with the intention of recalling movements.
3. Emotional: heart; to bypass psychological interpretation in lieu of empowerment.
4. Physical: vitalize; to experience the dream through the awakened body in action.
-- Antero Alli
excerpted from "PARATHEATRICAL DREAMING RITUALS"
Non-Interpretive Dreamwork for the Active Body
ANTERO ALLI has been director of ParaTheatrical ReSearch since 1977. He is a filmmaker and author of seven books including his paratheatre workbook, Towards an Archeology of the Soul. NICK WALKER has taught aikido for over two decades and is the founder of Aiki Arts and Aikido Shusekai. He has been working in paratheatre with Antero since 1996. SYLVI ALLI is an accomplished musician/singer, soundtrack composer and voice teacher who has worked in paratheatre with Antero since 1996. DAVID HUNT works and plays with the multi-disciplines of circus arts. As a performer, focusing most recently on a co-collaborated project, Circus Bella, and as teacher / coach primarily with youth throughout inner city Oakland. He has participated in three paratheatre labs with Antero.
paratheatre links
on recalibrating the purpose of paratheatre
links to dreaming cultures and traditions
