Life, Death and Bones

"Life, Death and Bones" was an cross-cultural exploration of Yoruba and Mexica processes of energy movement during, life, the transition phase between (death), and what remains in the physical world (bones).

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Together, Heather and Andria explored dance as way of assisting the movement of spirit during life (breath, ha, chi, prana, ashe), and as a way to help the spirit detach from the body and travel to the spirit world (Mictlan, Mexica; Erun, Yoruba).

Through the Yoruba deity, Oya, the carer of the eguns (sometimes considered to be the “lost souls”, or the souls of un-deified people, Heather weaved in her research and practice of Yoruba notions of  air movement (wind, breath) and the symbolic tornado (spiral wind movement), which are believed to cleanse debri and create space for new life. With Andria representing the spirit within the body, that becomes embodied as a bird; this dance demonstrated the difficult transition between the soul leaving the physical body​, beginning its journey to the world of the spirits and the dangerous in-between, the time during which the soul may not successfully depart due to, for example, unsatisfied needs in life.

 

This work was presented as a performance-in-development piece with three performances of the work explored and developed by Heather Grant and Andria Pablo, the first being on the opening night of celebrations (31st October 2016) and the last being on El Dia de los Muertos (4th November 2016).