The earth is my mother
| The fire is lit... The man in the circle starts awakening the spirits. A scream brakes the darkness. The earth is breathing. She moves. She rises. Stretching. The ground shakes by her first step. Another step. And another. The earth finds her rhythm. Faster and faster. Wilder and wilder. The earth dances. The story has begun... |
 The Earth is my Mother is a ritual performance based on the relation between nature and human being, inspired by rituals for the earth from all over the world. It is performed by a dancer, a singer and a percussionist. |
The press wrote:
"The stage is set in the glow of the twilight. The audience are guided to the dance space. The torches are light, and silence covers nature and humans, while the last sunbeams disappears.
An unusual and exciting combination of play, dance and ritual. The power of the dance and music is unmistakable. It is connected with the conditions of nature and the life of human beings. But these powers do not stand alone, and this makes the performance concerned and important. ....the performance rises from being the conditions of life expressed in dance to be ritual."
"The stage is set in the glow of the twilight. The audience are guided to the dance space. The torches are light, and silence covers nature and humans, while the last sunbeams disappears.
An unusual and exciting combination of play, dance and ritual. The power of the dance and music is unmistakable. It is connected with the conditions of nature and the life of human beings. But these powers do not stand alone, and this makes the performance concerned and important. ....the performance rises from being the conditions of life expressed in dance to be ritual."
Anders Laugesen - Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish Newspaper)
The performance and how it was created"It is a music and dance performance, that resounds with myths from the earliest times about the connection between life and earth, which people still tell each other in many parts of the world. And it is a performance which brings life to the earth and the humans.
...It is a performance to gain wisdom from. And in the right atmosphere it almost makes you beautiful."
"It is a music and dance performance, that resounds with myths from the earliest times about the connection between life and earth, which people still tell each other in many parts of the world. And it is a performance which brings life to the earth and the humans.
...It is a performance to gain wisdom from. And in the right atmosphere it almost makes you beautiful."
Knud Vilby - Chairman of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (International Association)
Since the beginning of time man has tried to find a way to explain the mysteries of nature and life. It seems as a need of human beings - no matter their culture - to create myths and religions around the idea that there is something that is greater than us.
In creating the performance we took a closer look at some of the myths from our culture and myths from other parts of the world. The parrallel stories of nature and man began to materialize itself, and create a shape for the performance.
The transitions in life became the line throughout the performance, connecting them with spring turning in to summere etc., and with the elemants of nature - fire, water, wind and soil.
The working proces was an interaction of the suggestions from the director followed by improvisations from the artists in the language of rhythm - movement - voice, all basic intruments of the dancer, singer and percussionist. And in this performance at the same time split into three independent caracters played by a dancer, a singer and a percussionist. The soul sings - the dance was voiced and the songs became flesh - and the dancing drumsticks resembled the beating legs of the dancer.
We hoped to find a way of connecting the tales our ancestors have told sitting around the fire, and their forgotten prayers concerning the wellbeing of all of us and our earth, with our present state of being citicens in a modern world.
What we have found is a new way of telling the myth about the earth and the human beeing, in the borderland between ritual and performance. The story rises from treasures of our myths in commen about transissions that each human being is bound to meet throughout a lifetime, mirrored in the seasons of the earth. Stripped to the very essence.
The Earth is my Mother
Created in 1996 by:Direction: Sacha World
Dance: Pernille Overø
Music: Rikke C. Rohde and Mads Bischoff
Set design: Mette Munk Lammers
Light design: Steen Molls Rasmussen
