Tibetan Book of the Dead

Oh yes! The Great Liberation Upon Hearing is based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Those of us who have read this book in the sixties, when it was required reading for “heads,” thought it impossible to imagine it putting it on stage with dancers.

Blessed be the Dance Brigade who has done the impossible. Here on stage at Laney College last night they took my breath away. They have one more nights there, so come and experience them.

The book begins with a person dying. What this soul encounters during death is depicted with vivid images, and a humorous narrative performed by Krissy Keefer, Artistic Director.

She has magnificent help with the dancers she has collaborated with; some twenty tireless dancers and Taiko drummers who brought down the house in an orgasmic moment somehow still having to do with death.

It seems nobody really believes that they are dead. It seems to them that all is as was, except they are not addressed by their friends anymore, and generally speaking they arte left out of life altogether. This clues most of us in.

The journey is that from life into another life. Now listen good, listen deeply, when you see the bright light and it’s not going on to long, just a little, grab that moment and liberate yourself from the endless cycles of rebirth. This entire Book of the Dead is advising us how to be dead. It’s fascinating.

 But most of the time we miss that moment of instant liberation.

Instead we begin the bardos, the dream states. First we encounter the Spirit of Space. And again the good council is, do not be afraid, all of these images are but the creation of our own minds.

If you get scared, images can get worse of course.

Without giving away the entire plot, you’ll be surprised how much we need to know just to be dead.

Come out to Oakland, lots of parking at Laney Collage, lovely theater, background projections bring up  the visuals, and the  diverse dancers are to die for. Seriously.