Elijah? Magic Flower?

The video of "The Magic Flower" is my performance of a classic Jewish story that I re-wrote.

That particular story really doesn't have anything to do with Sherlock Holmes, and more to do with my trip to Spain last Summer. But, since I was also in London, I do have a companion story, a re-write of "Her Wisdom is Her Beauty."   It's a bit of a spoiler, but it does involve meeting Sherlock Holmes in at the West London Synagogue, except it really isn't him.  I can't tell you who he is, because that would be giving away the story.  I can tell you, it involves the Mystery of the Smart Women. There is no nudity, but there are Irene Adler types, and lots of hair.

Portions of the story will be posted soon, and with any luck, also a video. The dance portion will be something dramatic and a bit dark ....or I'll just do the Zambra Mora so I can wear my new big, red, puffy belly dance flamenco skirt. Even more serious stories should have some fun, and given my previous post, I don't want any of you getting the idea I'm anti-sensual or anti-body.

The Magic Flower - a story of Wise Women and delicate flowers

Here it is - the first video post from my performance at North Star Storytelling League's Tellabration. More are coming. This is the first part of The Magic Flower, my re-write of a Tale of Elijah, and featuring 2 wise women who save the day. Along the way, there are pretty flowers, a big bird, and some good parties. I don't take off my clothes or whip anyone (see previous posts to understand comment), but then I'm dealing with a good story, and I'd say a fairly decent update of an old tale. PLEASE USE THE YOUTUBE LINK TO SEE THE FULL PERFORMANCE. It is cut up into several posts. The post below is the introduction into the story. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEErB6e91eg&feature=related

There are 3-4 videos of this story on YouTube, as it was about a 20 minute long story.

I am not alone on Sherlock and Misogyny !

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/03/sherlock-sexist-steven-moffat

The link is to a more formal essay on the problem with Moffat's version of the Irene Adler story. It's worth reading. My account is more about a Jewish perspective, and the image of the sexually-overcharged Jewish woman.

Is Sherlock sexist? Steven Moffat's wanton women

In Moffat's hands the power of Irene Adler, Sherlock Holmes's female adversary, was sexual, not intellectual. A regressive step

Now That Sherlock has aired in the UK ........

  Time to move on. I saw another review of Sherlock: Scandal in Belgravia. I just shook my head. Irene Adler greets Sherlock Holmes at the door naked, wearing blood red lipstick. They do the "Holmes dressed as clergy" bit, so Adler rips of his clergy collar.  I'm not laughing. It's not funny, and sure sounds like Moffat went for the sensational, rather that the original. So much for an Adler written by Conan Doyle, who kindly took what she thought was an injured man (Holmes) into her home.  I think it lacks creativity and writing skills to go for the naked "bad girl," but maybe it's a male writer problem.

  Time to move on to my own writing. I'll be posting part of my new book as it develops. The first chapter is outlined, with much writing.

Performing - Acting Holy

 A warm day at the Pacific School of Religion, and I’m attending a summer dance week. I recall specifically the instructor saying that some people deride dance or theatre in a religious setting, they label it a “performance.”  She explained that she looked up the dictionary definition of the term, and found that one meaning of the word was “to do fully or completely.”  So a dance or dramatic performance in a worship setting might actually be a means of completing the liturgy or service.

   The students were all performers, so there was little objection to this definition, yet it probably isn’t a concept many people think about in a world full of dichotomy. Work, ethics, and living are separate from education, spirituality, and especially the arts. Science is seen as necessary for work, while the arts and humanities are relegated to side-studies. Never mind that one of the most brilliant minds, Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist and scientist.  Sherlock Holmes is fictional, but his creator developed a very believable character by making him a scientist who was also a musician with decent acting skills. The very real physicist Albert Einstein was a violinist.  Then there is the genius Shakespeare, the actor turned writer who has inspired generations with plays that deal with love, ethics, and religion, as well as the science of the day.  

       Religion, art, and spirituality get separated in popular thought, so that rigid dogma becomes religion, self-knowledge and personal pursuit becomes spirituality, and elite creative skills becomes art.  And of course, in some misguided thinking, all three having nothing to do with “”what really matters” – science, technology, and business.  Some people may understand art and spirituality as complementary, yet there are many people who understand the arts as the opposite of religion. While Shakespeare has Hamlet discuss theology, and Tony Kushner has Angles in America, most people can’t relate these dramas to what they learn and experience in the religious setting or even their spirituality. Above all, most people don’t understand what they have to do with so called “reality,” meaning making a living and earning lots of money.To me, this is confusing. I have a doctorate in Religion and the Arts, with specialization in the History of Religions. I also happen to be a performer. So when I am not studying dance in Jewish tradition, Buddhist temple dance, or Shakespeare and the Bible, I am actually dancing, storytelling, or acting. 

  I found that when I presented the arts in my world religion classes, students started to better understand how ritual affected people’s ethical behavior. The arts translated the ritual patterns and ideas into something for outside the sanctuary that still displayed community values.  As I remind my students, the ability to communicate well with a wide range of people, and understand values is essential for and underlies good business practices. Furthermore, out of the vision and creative activities of world cultures, often fostered by religion, there have come many advances in scientific thought.

 My students had difficulty examining the ethics of the text, and breaking free of theological assumptions. In a New Testament class, seeing the bible in film, and even acting out parts of the text transformed the experience for my students into something meaningful with real ethical implications.  I have been profoundly changed by these teaching experiences. So much so that I began to go back to my roots in performance studies on religion. While researching new materials on the topic, I realized that this is exactly what I had been writing on for the past several years. The overall thesis that draws these articles together is that the performing arts allow us to explore the possibilities of how to act more fully and meaningfully in life. They are therefore a means of experiencing and translating deep and important values into lived reality.

  So maybe Moffat's Adler is an example of a "not".  Being mean and cruel is not the mark of genius, but how she is portrayed.  Being cold and calculating, without any sense of humanity, is a blind-spot for Holmes. That's not the original story, but it is a point. The true genius is smart, wise, and empathetic. We have too little of that type of character in our current popular stories, so it is extra sad to see Adler changed into an ultimate bad girl (and I still think the image was the over-sexed Jewish bad girl).

  At least we have the writing on the wall in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - THE FUTURE IS FEMALE. This statement is scrawled on the wall in the background of one of the scenes in the latter half of the film. While all the male spies have screwed up the world and devalued their personal relationship, the hope for the future is not this. The hope is for the genius of the feminine and the relational.  The value is one of community, not war, torture, and killing. That's a great moral.