Tales of an Avid Documentarian, part deux

Four Sacred Elements and a Fifth

On the Synchronicity of 21

Last weekend, one of my best friends asked me to capture her performance in a lecture presented at UCSD in celebration of the 2010 UCIRA State of the Arts conference.  Professor Richard Cohen presented a twenty-minute lecture in which he expounded upon "the mystery" and how we need to bring it into academia as a bonafide inquiry of research - outside of the conventional paradigm of scientific data and theological explanation.

The reformance art piece that sprung up around him as he spoke - emerging both from within the audience as well as outside of it - embodied both the subject matter as well as the four human qualities that Professor Cohen chose to focus on as an entry point in which all of us can tune in to this mystery - with, in and through love, compassion, joy and serenity (LoCoJoSo).

Space Child Spirit

The following day, on Sunday, November 21st, I arrived into my beloved community for our weekly session of Dance Church.  I wandered over to our altar and intuitively pulled the #21 card from Stevee Postman's Cosmic Tribe Ta'rot deck.  The Universe card reads: "In darkest space, peopled by stars, the water breaks and a space child spills into being.  Comets and photons beam exaltation.  Quasars pulse rhythmically while black holes whistle and planets drum.  Now, the humble and hard-working Universe can actually see itself.  It looks through human eyes and onto the earth jewel in the crown of the cosmos and exclaims - Ah.... Beautiful!  Welcome, friend, to the Cosmic Tribe.


The four sacred elements of air, fire, water and earth converge from the corners to form our material world.  However, life and her conscious off spring cannot evolve without the fifth sacred element - Spirit.  Spirit is represented by a human space child.  The Cosmic eye gazes out from the space child's heart, reminding us that LOVE is our highest conscious expression.  When he opens his heart, the space child opens to the entire Universe, and within this greatly expanded sense of self, he contains galaxies of limitless potential.  He has merged with the cosmic mind.  His pose and aura reflect the sublime feeling of being the Universe that created him.  In this state, all walls come down.  The small contains the very large and distinctions dissolve into grand swirls of energy..."

Love is simultaneously the greatest mystery of all and it allows us to revel in the great mystery

Tales of an Avid Documentarian

La Escencia Dance Company

Life, Through a Lens

“The creative artist is fundamentally a religious person."  --Minor White

I was ten years old when I was first given a camera to use at my sole discretion. It was fifth grade camp and, although I had spent the summer flying the ~3,000 miles across the country from San Diego to New Jersey on my own solo adventure, it was my first time away from home with my peers. My mother had packed my duffle bag, including in it her point and shoot device.
Today, as I look back through not just my own photographs but those taken of me upon school campuses and elsewhere, I recognize that, like physical movement which afforded me an opportunity to connect to my classmates in a non-verbal way, the camera was yet another tool for providing me access into other people's worlds - an entrance within which I did not have to rely upon the bumbling messiness of the spoken word.

Sabor Mexico Theatrical Dance Company

Thus, I have been a photographer since the innocent age of ten.  However, my passion is rooted, as always, less in the form and more in the process.  I seek to document and preserve pieces of the past, tales unfolding and stories meant to be told.  I am an avid documentarian - it is a vital part of my practice.  So, when Christina Perez de Lock called me up a few weeks ago, asking for someone to capture "action shots" of her newest performance at the Centro Cultural de la Raza, I was only too eager to lend my eye.

I arrived at the witching hour and scoped out my spot in the Centro.  Naturally, I found the best seat in the house - I sat at the corner of the upper right stage where, with one of the transitory walls of the art gallery directly behind me, I was out of the audience's line of sight.  I was, however, directly beside where the dancers sashayed, twirled, pranced and played.  Their vibrant fabrics of flowing colors and dripping passion oozed and passed right by me.  In some moments, the swish and spin of these costumes came into direct contact with both the camera lens and myself.  Together, we all danced. 

As a dancer myself, how do I capture the fleeting ephemerality of movement?
How can I convey and share the passing of space and time with others after the moments have passed
and with this marvel that we call technology?  I don't know but, these days, I am more willing to try than I ever have been.  These days, I simply keep putting one foot in front of the other and walking forward.  It is all there is to do...

DanzArts