"RE" is the prefix for repetition and the 65
minute work, inspired by passages from the "Tibetan Book of
the Dead", is a chain of images of renewal, rejuvenation and
reproduction - all ideas contained within the larger concept
of reincarnation.
Its message began before the performance. Audience members
were asked to wait at the entrance to the theater which was
masked by heavy black drapery. We were then ushered in, single,
by silent, black-clad attendants, and seated randomly around
the house. This metaphor of birth was perhaps a reminder that
we come into this life alone and leave it the same way.
The performance began with Tai Dang suspended in midair
bound to the door of a wrecked car. After the attendants lowered
him, he went through various stages that divested him of his
material body and desires, until he is naked. The second half
of the piece began with his nude body being redressed in a
robe of saffron silk, in which he makes his way back from
the world of spirit to the world of substance.
The stages correspond to the sections of the "Tibetan Book
of the Dead" or "Bardo Thodöl" written about A.D. 747
by Padma-Sambhava, who established Tantric Buddhism in Tibet.
This manual describes the 49 days after death, when the fate
of the soul is decided. A few holy people are immediately
assumed in to the state of union with the great Dharma; most
others undergo a purgatorial series of cleansings and are
reborn for another try at life.
Some of the images are quite powerful. After Tai Dang's
enrobing, for example our attention is directed to a set of
five stacked video monitors on which appear footage of salmon
(the videos were shot and edited by Kathryn Chulik) shouldering
and leaping their way upstream, seeking the spawning grounds
in which they will reproduce and die.
At another point, Tai Dang dons layered Tibetan paper masks
(constructed by Josy Cobb). In another metaphor divestiture,
he tears them from his face one by one - the demonic, the
female, the newborn.
References to sculpture
Thanks to the infinite physical control of the performer, "RE...
to be continued" is closer to living sculpture than dance. However,
the images would not have nearly as much force without the otherworldly
music of Israeli-born composer Ari Frankel and, especially,
the lighting, which is uncredited.
One wishes the extract from the "Tibetan Book of the Dead"
were spoken on the sound track or printed in the program.
Projected on the walls of the theater, it appears only as
tantalizing bits of words and phrases, of which the final
line, "Carry me away" is so evocative as to be maddening.
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