This bellydancing performance invokes Lilith, “the ancient Middle Eastern goddess and demoness.” (from the press release) See and hear this dark Goddess expressed through dance and spoken word.
Artistic Director Aepril Schaile and Amelia Kurpeski, Libby Rowe, Shaina Rae, and Samara Martin will be performing the bellydancing portions of the show. Their dance company, Exquisite Corpse Dance Theatre, “merges the ancient and ghostly past with cutting edge modern performance art” to create a “darkly distinctive” bellydancing performance. (www.exquisitecorpsedancetheatre.com/About.html)
Most of the spoken word in the performance will be voiced by Laura Crook Waxdal, who plays The Priestess. She will quote ancient texts, 19th-century poetry, and 1960’s-era feminist writing. Many of these pieces of writing are “not so flattering” to Lilith, says Ms. Schaile. “We use their words, but turn them on their heads, by telling Her story in dance, to give Her Her voice.”
Lilith is associated with aspects our society considers ‘bad,’ Ms. Schaile explains. “She’s about sex and about death and the shadow and the things we don’t want to acknowledge. In order to have health in our society we need to integrate this kind of energy that Lilith represents.”
Lilith is also strongly associated with Nature. “She’s a protector of the animal world,” says Ms. Schaile. “She’s always depicted with animal legs or a snake body. She is called Screech-Owl, and Bitch; animal names that are supposed to be insults.” Accepting Her energy can begin to heal some of our problems with the environment, she explains.
Ms. Schaile is a Witch, and the show has some parts that watching pagans will recognize as coming from her faith. She and the other performers took a compass to the theatre to find out where the four quarters are in relation to the stage. “We use them in the show. Another Witch might know: that’s what we’re doing.”
See a video trailer at www.exquisitecorpsedancetheatre.com/The_Book_of_Lilith.html.
The show will play Friday, September 3 and Saturday, September 4 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, September 5 at 3:00 pm. It will be performed at the Salem Theatre Company Theatre at 90 Lafayette Street in Salem MA. Tickets are $25 each. Buy yours at www.salemtheatre.com or at the door.
This show includes suggestive material and scary demons and is not aimed at young children.
The theatre is accessible.
For more information, see www.exquisitecorpsedancetheatre.com/The_Book_of_Lilith.html or aeprilschaile.com, or email Ms. Schaile at info@aeprilschaile.com.
Read about Lilith in the book Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude, reviewed by this Examiner at examiner.com/pagan-in-boston/eternally-bad-goddesses-with-attitude-by-trina-robbins-a-review.
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