BALAM Dance Theatre: Broadway Meets Baroque in Washington Heights

BALAM Awarded Grant to Create New Spanish Baroque Program

BALAM Dance Theatre has been awarded a grant from the Fund for Creative Communities. The grant will provide the ensemble dance company with seed money to present an imaginative Spanish Baroque dance workshop series and a performance in Washington Heights, New York for the community to experience and engage with the arts.

BALAM will create a workshop and new program, A Don Quixote for the Washington Heights Choir School, a non-denominational after school program. Inspired by the classic novel, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the children’s workshop series will run from September 18 through October 17 and be offered free-of-charge to the students attending the institution.

Baroque Dance Lessons

They will receive Baroque dance lessons complementing their current Baroque music lessons at Washington Heights Choir School and dance and act in a finale performance with BALAM's artists on October 18. In the workshop, students will learn period fencing, perform the dances sarabande and bourree, and get acquainted with grotesque masks in the commedia dell'arte style.

Featured Guest Artists

The program will feature BALAM’s artists and guest artist Broadway actor and singer Mauricio Villalobos, as the bilingual English and Spanish narrator and Don Quixote figure, and Elias Guzman performing on the vihuela.

Photo: Robin Gilbert in Folia. Photo Credit: Eric Bandiero.

The performance will be presented on October 18 at 3:00 p.m. at Holyrood Episcopal Church -- Iglesia Santa Cruz, located at 715 West 179th Street, in New York City. The unique program will be free and open to the public. Donations are welcome and appreciated.

"This award enables BALAM to introduce and serve children and families from the vibrant Washington Heights community to Baroque music and dance and our eclectic programming," said Carlos Fittante, artistic director, BALAM Dance Theatre.

The program, A Don Quixote for Washington Heights Choir School, is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

About BALAM

BALAM has performed throughout the United States and internationally at renowned venues such as: Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, American Museum of Natural History, and the Bali International Arts Festival. Its work has received acclaim from audiences, critics, scholars, and dignitaries alike, including critical praise mentioned in the New York Times, Village Voice, and endorsements from the Indonesian Consulate of New York, and the Governor of Bali.

The company's long standing interest in dance research, along with its extensive collection of Balinese masks, and cutural costumes and props, make it a resource for educators, artists, and scholars.

The Deeper Meaning of the "Ramayana"

By Shelley Lynne Cummins, www.jaisriyogis.com/

Shelley Lynne Cummins is a yoga and Oneness Blessing trainer, as well as a dancer.

The first two limbs in the eight fold path of yoga are the Yamas, Awareness of the obstacles in life, and Niyamas, cultivating practices to remove the obstacles. As these limbs are activated in harmony, a balance or zero point arrives allowing causality to permeate. The classic tale of the Ramayana is a perfect depiction of this inner balance Of polarities producing unity.

As a dancer and yogini, I have had the great opportunity to study and dance the Ramayana for many years. Every time I enter into this great epic, new realizations are found. It is likened to the dance of day, going to sleep and awaking again in the morning for a new play. Amidst the routines of life subtle realizations appear as the mystery of unity Dances around in the unseen worlds.

A yogini's reflection of this great great tale.

The Ramayana is the story of the divine marriage within. It is everyone's story with all the players aspects of their self. The story begins with a happy and harmonious marriage of Sita and Rama. Sita symbolizes the balanced female and Rama the balanced male within each individual.

One day Sita is enticed by a golden deer into the cave of the evil demon, Rawana.

The capture of Sita is a metaphor of the ego consciousness trying to gain control over the potential of all. The golden deer represents the possible deception and false allure of the illusion of this physical plane.

Upon hearing the news of Sita's capture, Rama gives his golden ring to Hanuman the Monkey King. He orders Hanuman to deliver the ring to Sita so she will know help is on the way.

Here Rama embodies his higher masculine qualities of protection of the unseen and the absolute creation which lives in his word.

The ring symbolizes the circle of light around the body, known as the merkabah or golden carriage of light.

Hanuman the Monkey King represents our monkey mind constantly chattering. As our mind unites with the purpose of reinstalling causality, it becomes a servant of the heart. In service Hanuman flies across the ocean to deliver the ring to Sita. He is able to tap into the One Heart Mind And use his merkabah to transport himself where needed.

Hanuman delivers the ring to Sita and upon his return tells Rama of her whereabouts. Rama goes to fight the evil demon, Rawana, for the release of Sita.

Rama is fighting the ultimate battle of light and dark in order to regain the feminine intuitive, All knowing, nurturing life force. The light always wins as it illuminates the dark corners and shadows. Rama reunites with Sita and together they live happily ever after in the diversity and play of unity.

And to think we know the whole story, the entire ring in the circle of life.We boldly go on experiencing each section of the ring.

As Joseph Campbell says: We are each a heroine or hero on a great journey.We begin enlightened creating a life of experiences in order to realize and reunite with our all encompassing light.