sine

Sine is an evening-length multimedia dance theater work that explores contemporary mythos through a fluid, integrated physical/media language. Structurally, the piece is based upon the classical form of the monomyth, or hero’s journey, and the solar myth of Icarus and Daedalus, and progresses through the archetypal stages of departure, initiation, battle, return, and discovery of the gift. Told from the perspective of a woman warrior exploring uncharted regions of inner space, Sine explores and rediscovers feminine archetype in light of the battles that confront the contemporary psyche.

The journey of Sine unfolds within the progression of the sun’s arc across the sky through the course of a day in the shape of a sine wave. It begins with a ritualistic invocation and call to battle as the Warrior awakens to a shattered reflection of what she “previously held as a safe and comfortable understanding of self” and nothing more or less than an invitation to journey. She finds herself on a boat, sailing unfamiliar waters in the darkness. Four goddesses, all of whom are metaphorical reflections of the Warrior, comprise the boat and emerge sequentially as the journey unfolds. As day breaks, she meets The One Who Hides and Hovers Above, a fire goddess who carries the sun. The One Blowing with White opens the sails to her boat as the journey begins. The Warrior encounters The Naked One, a water goddess whose sparks a current. What begins as an alluring electric fascination escalates into an cacophany of momentum and desire – mirroring the ascent of the myth of Icarus and Daedalus – and eventually results in annihilation of the Warrior and her boat at the heart of the sun. The Warrior falls back to earth and is restored by the sensuous discovery of the One With Leather Who Smells Like the Earth, and the journey brings itself to completion with a heroic feast.

MULTIMEDIA DANCE THEATER
1999