{"id":4833,"date":"2015-07-16T08:46:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T12:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=4833"},"modified":"2016-05-23T10:25:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T14:25:44","slug":"grief-dances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=4833","title":{"rendered":"Grief Dances"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my work with Erica, a lot of grief has come up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not all for my own broken life, it\u2019s for all the suffering on our planet, all the beings being poisoned or driven out or raped, the gang members in LA who suffer from a \u201clethal absence of hope,\u201d the women in the Congo who have had hideous things done to them&#8230; \u00a0 I have to delete emails that show the gratuitous suffering of animals for some economic reason, I can\u2019t bear it.\u00a0 I had to find some way to move this grief.\u00a0 I have heard that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Malidoma_Patrice_Som\u00e9\" target=\"_blank\">Malidoma Som\u00e9<\/a> said of this country \u201cyour streets are full of unmourned dead,\u201d and that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matthew_Fox_(priest)\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew Fox<\/a> said if people did 15 minutes of grieving a day, it would liberate a lot of energy.\u00a0 So I decided that I wanted to create a grief ritual.\u00a0 I put together a sequence of Circle Dances that we do, some of them are traditional, some are modern choreographies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeeftos Yeni Yol<\/strong> \u2014 Gypsy \u2014those who keep being driven out. They were also sent to the ovens along with Jews, retarded people etc.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dar Gorani<\/strong> \u2014 Armenian prayer for the lost homeland. The sadness of losing your home, its safety and beauty, and the hope of finding a new home.\u00a0 It\u2019s a contemporary piece of music, the dance was choreographed using traditional Armenian movements.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vrlisko Kolo<\/strong> \u2014 Yugoslavian \u2014 women stepping over the dead bodies on the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goodnight Saigon<\/strong> \u2014 America \u2014 song by Billy Joel.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t allowed to play it on the radio during the Vietnam War.\u00a0 We dance the suffering of soldiers, especially in a dirty war which wasn\u2019t about saving their country at all. \u00a0The line that breaks my heart is \u201cWe were so gung-ho to lay down our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Billy Joel - Goodnight Saigon (Official Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qjzjhl-QztE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A little known fact about that war. \u00a0About 60,000 soldiers died in the war, and more than 150,000 veterans have died by suicide since the war ended.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heartsongs<\/strong> \u2014 Corsica \u2014 Two people standing on the beach, looking out to sea.\u00a0 The boat sailed away and hasn\u2019t come back.\u00a0 This is for the pain of the families of the disappeared, the missing in action, all the ones where you say \u201cI never knew what happened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Go\u00e7<\/strong> \u2014 Armenian \u2014 leaving the homeland. \u00a0The steps are slow and reluctant, caressing the earth you love and are leaving behind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shoror<\/strong> \u2014 Armenian \u2014 lullaby to the future.\u00a0 This is from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UKd30XOiNCM&amp;list=PLUSRfoOcUe4bFrtC5wzXF8OW2345-GkR_&amp;index=3\" target=\"_blank\">Oratorium in Memory of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915<\/a>. \u00a0I see a woman, carrying her baby, on a death march: Armenian, Cherokee, Dakota, Navajo, &#8230; \u00a0 The dance is a modern choreography using traditional Armenian steps.\u00a0 There is a part which recalls the forced marches out into the desert, which is a more cruel way of killing people than shooting them.\u00a0 I heard a horrifying thing which is that the Turks got the idea from the American Genocide of the Cherokee, the \u201ctrail of tears.\u201d\u00a0 At the end of the dance we walk into the center with our hands raised, representing the last movement of the Oratorium which is \u201cArmenia with a Thousand Wings.\u201d\u00a0 Laura Shannon, the choreographer, says this \u201cThis beautiful music is a traditional lullaby melody arranged within a modern composition using traditional Armenian instruments, a beautiful example of the creativity with which Armenians have responded to the loss in this century of so much of their music, dance and other art, as well as the loss of so many lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Omal Red Rain<\/strong> \u2014 the musicians are Greek, Turkish and Armenian.\u00a0 We do it as a prayer for peace between ancient enemies. \u00a0The first time I heard this music I saw a bombed out town. \u00a0Buildings crumbling, small fires, cars overturned, dead bodies, a few people walking dazedly through the smoke.<\/p>\n<p>WORDS TO DANCE SONGS<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yeeftos Yeni Yol words. \u00a0Translation:<br \/>\nI have no country, I have no hope<br \/>\nNo nation will miss me<br \/>\nAnd with my hands and my heart<br \/>\nI build tents in my dreams.<br \/>\nAnd our legs, when they dance<br \/>\nIn the perfumes which enchant you<br \/>\nMake bodies move&#8230;<br \/>\nAnd enfold you in their embrace.<\/p>\n<p>Shoror words:<br \/>\n\u2018Night, light of the moon falling on your face<br \/>\nMy love is always for you<br \/>\nMay no evil hand reach you<br \/>\nYou are my only hope, you are my innocent, noble little one<br \/>\nI will rock you with this lullaby<br \/>\nSo that you may grow older quickly<br \/>\nAnd quickly become the flame in the hearth of your own home<br \/>\nYou are my dream, you are my sun&#8230;\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my work with Erica, a lot of grief has come up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not all for my own broken life, it\u2019s for all the suffering on our planet, all the beings being poisoned or driven out or raped, the gang &hellip; 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