ANCIENT FUTURE Performance

 

Ancient Future: Seeds of a New Civilization

An Original Performance Piece created for a conference on Climate Change and Consciousness

ANCIENT FUTURE was performed at Universal Hall, in the Findhorn Community in Scotland on April 21, 2019

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT   (This video, made before the performance, tells about our approach)

Watch the FULL PERFORMANCE

ANCIENT FUTURE was created to address the urgent and unprecendented problems of our times-  a radically changing climate that demands a revolution of our perspective.  Climate change demands world change.   Art speaks in a language designed to transcend the resistence of the mind, a mother tongue that touches the heart directly.

     The data of climate science can be confusing, the magnitude overwhelming, the prospects frightening. When the crisis is beyond what the rational mind can figure and resolve, we are broken open. As the Arts are called to do, this ‘ritual theater’ performance reaches through the chaos and confusion to access visionary realms of myth and meaning. 

   

   “With her performance piece, “Ancient Future,” Dana Andersen takes us on a journey using ancient symbols and archetypes to the heart of our own being. It awakens vast future possibilities for us as individuals and for the evolution of humanity. Don’t miss this unique vision of the where we have been and where we are going.”   ~ Nayaswami Devi Novak

 

A Mythic Tale

ANCIENT FUTURE is a mythic tale, beginning with the dissolution of the world as we know it.  We go on a journey beyond the crumbling structures of civilization to the deeper strata of what is ancient and enduring.  The vehicle of the fairytale allows the story to speak in the mother tongue of the childlike heart and resonate in deeper realms of archetypal truths

         ANCIENT FUTURE is a multi-modality and multi-media performance. Mythic worlds appear in sound and light, and through the interweaving of word and image a tale is told. Movement and music energize the poetic narrative, while subtle interactions with projection and light-play create sets and scenes. Music, dance, visual and video arts, poetry and dialogue integrate into live theater, telling a simple, yet profound and inspiring story.

          Though the tale is mystical, the arc of the narrative draws upon contemporary revelations in science, psychology & systems theory*.  This knowledge forms deep structural support for the meaning and message embedded in the story.

     STORYLINE   The story begins with the unraveling of the world.  Evacuations from escalating natural catastrophes precipitate the diaspora of the world.  We all become refugees. This opening scene touches the sadness and grief of climate change. The anguish of humanity becomes a collective prayer that invokes the grace of Divine perception.  As the ordinary reality dissolves, the mythic realm scintillates into view.

         The heroine embarks on a mythic journey that reconnects her with wisdom of creation. In the silent aftermath of the deluge, she hears the ‘songs of the stars’ opening her perception to the vastness of time and space. In an enchanted forest, heightened vision enables her to see the Prana (Life Force energy) beneath the many forms of nature; One Life flowing in all creatures. Awakening to the reality of subtle realms, she is guided by the intrinsic Divine intelligence within and around her.  As she reaches the apex of the Misty Mountains, shining Devas impart seeded symbols of higher consciousness. Moving through thresholds of initiation, she gains the courage to choose love over fear, hope over despair. 

          Ultimately, her journey leads her to the Tree of Life and Light.  Here she discovers that she is not alone as many others arrive- each having also followed their inner guidance. Together they discover the One Light of their many rays. We hear the sound of ‘one voice’, then two, three, and finally the full ensemble singing ‘One Spirit One Voice’.  Restoring the alchemical harmony of the terrestrial and celestial, they together plant the seeds of the new civilization and begin to build a new world.  

         In the last scene the audience is invited to gather round the Tree of Life, together weaving scattered threads into the radiant tapestry of a new reality.  We end with a spiral dance accompanied by an original finale song.

• One Life Flowing   • One Light Shining     • One Spirit Rising

We are developing the next level of Ancient Future.  This will include other performances as well as its pubication in book form.  If you’d like to be involved or help support this unique project. 

Donate Here  

or email info(at)awakeningartsacademy.com

 

Ancient Future draws upon the ideas of Transformational theory.

  At every juncture of evolution there is a surge of chaos before the newly emergent order is crystalized. In Systems theories such as Ilya Prigogine’s Nobel prize winning theory of ‘dissipative structures’[i] we see how disruptive ‘interference’ can be an evolutionary interception.

                  At every stage of evolution there is a given order- and whatever is outside of that system is interpreted as ‘noise’– a term for information that does not make sense.  It has yet to be ‘read’ as information. ‘Noise’ is unintelligible so it is experienced as static. As a system grows it continually encounters new signals that are nearly always initially perceived as disruptive ‘noise’. At the edge of any ordered system there is a fringy border of potentially important new information that is being tuned out.  A healthy system is continually incorporating ‘noise’ by turning it into information. Once its incorporated, the ‘noise’ is no longer ‘static’ to be tuned out– it becomes information that can be ‘heard’.                  

      At key junctures in evolution, there is a build-up of noise.  Eventually, there is so much noise that the system is threatened by the invasion of the noise and defends against it.  At a certain point the ‘noise’ can overwhelm the order as the system becomes saturated with the ‘noise’.  In these moments the ‘status quo’ order loses its grip and the ‘order’ mixes with the ‘chaos’.  Nothing seems intelligible!  The old order is dissolving and the new order doesn’t yet make sense. 

                  This profound disequilibrium is a moment of great danger and opportunity.  At this stage, a system can lose its coherency and collapse downward into a lower level of development.  When the information cannot be ‘heard’, it remains a disruptive static that then simply overwhelms and disintegrates the existing order.  The melody of stability drowns in the noise of chaos. 

                  But at this critical stage, a system can also incorporate the evolutionary influx and rise upward to a greater coherency.  The system can find the Chaord– the sweet-spot between order and chaos.  It can suddenly perceive the pattern in the static and thus ‘hear’ the new information.  A higher degree of complexity can then be incorporated.  A new gestalt emerges that simplifies the increased complexity into a richer and more intelligent organization.  Just as we see in the phenomenon of turbulent flow or even in the formation of ice-  an acceleration of energy and information can precipitate a sudden emergence of a highly elaborated pattern.  A system inundated with noise can spontaneously crystallize into a higher level of ordering intelligence.    

ANCIENT FUTURE seeds coherency at a higher level, giving strength to the potential for the breakdown to serve the breakthrough. 

 

If you would like to know more about this unique project, email us: info(at)awakeningartsacademy.com   Donate Today!

Donate Today!