The Secret Splendour
July 2014
The fact alone of bringing forth a beautiful work, in the full sovereignty of one’s spirit, constitutes an act of revolt and denies all social fictions. . . . Whoever communicates to his brothers in suffering the secret splendor of his dreams acts upon the surrounding society in the manner of a solvent and makes of all those who understand him, often without their realization, outlaws and rebels.
Pierre Quillard, “L’anarchie par la litte´rature,” [1892]
As a visitor to France, I am deliciously immersed in beauty delicate in the extended twilight. I lost my sunglasses the day after I arrived and have been wandering well into the night unguarded, eyes smiling. The light is golden, the rain gentle; the language to my ears an undulating romance. When someone asks me what I want to order at a café, I hear an invitation to respond to secrets of the heart, s'il vous plaît. I am cognizant of my own interpretation but am happily surrendered to the dreamscape of my own making.
The conversations to be had in this cobbled French town draw me into the stories of another. In the context of the dance conference setting, for which I have travelled so far, I am soothed by the secret splendour of dreams unveiled and revealed. I have encountered mystery in the shared observations of dance scholars on the journey for insight through lived experience. In the dance I have encountered nakedness and heartache, the spirit stripped raw, floodlit and staged. My illusory notions of dancers as truth-bearers are shaken. I respond most deeply to the beauty of artists as storytellers and my ideas shift and morph in response to the beautiful works.
I am encouraged to be revolutionary in my own unique way. There are stories I should be telling and dances I should be making… not just because it is the language of my spirit, but because I have become an outlaw and a rebel with something to say. I want to create work that breathes life and offers hope; a salve for the diseased and damaged and an act of love that embraces the whole person who has bravely defied social conventions to be who they are designed to be.