Shimenawa and Pilgrimage

Shimenawa is a beautifully crafted dance theater piece that showcased last fall at Counterpulse. This refined version has the classic feel of Kabuki and Noh theater with a modern overlay of sensibility and substance. It’s ritual theater expressed in poetry, music and dance with a tight ensemble, Melody Takata has performed with over the years, including local treasure, Sensei Nakajima, the foremost sax player composer, Francis Wong, bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Tatsu Aoki, and myself, on poetry and vocals. Lenora Lee, a brilliant modern dancer who moves with the velocity of lightning and the shimmering lightness of a butterfly, is featured with Melody. Shimenawa examines human loss through dementia and community.  Is there a connection between alzheimer and social trauma? Melody’s piece is a personal exploration of the unscientific truth of personal trauma.

I share Friday evening’s performance, April 17th, with readings from my new poetry collection, Pilgrimage, which also explores loss through immigration, diaspora and death. My travels to South Asia, Indonesia, India and the HImalayas, Venezuela and Bosnia-Hercegoviana are part of a continuing spiritual journey, which I’ve embarked on over the last ten years. The poems are meditations on passages in life.

Genny Lim