Enchanters-R-Us

A peel of laughter and piano music greeted me as I entered the Gregangelo House today. It was none other than Rita Abrams rehearsing one of her new songs for her production of As the Bridge Tolls and the Gregangelo crew gathered around.


Passing through the atrium, I glanced over and saw Darkhia, Mongolian Hand Dancer (and one of the primary chefs here) carefully applying make-up to an elf-in-the-making.

The funny thing about pop culture is that it there are not more accidental crossovers. For instance, there are the elves of Christmas, Oompa-Loompa-like cogs in the great toy making factory of Santa Claus. Then there are J.K. Rowling's moth-beaten house elves, completely different from the noble (and fine) forest elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's novels. And somehow we get away with calling them ALL elves without getting them mushed up together into one gooey surrealistic painting in our heads (or at least my head).



Speaking of spirits and surreal images, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Berenholtz recently. Jim is one of those people with a really old soul. And I mean old like Brothers Grimm or pre-Scientific Revolution old, not old like stale cheese. This guy has traveled and lived with people all over the world, sometimes staying in huts and tin shacks. He is an accomplished ethnomusicologist, composer, snake dancer (see photo), musician, performance artist, and a researcher of many things indigenous.



One of Jim's favorite topics is Ancient Egypt and he is collaborating with Gregangelo & Velocity Arts & Entertainment to develop the "Heliopolis - City of the Sun" presentations. Here is Jim Berenholtz in the first of a 3-part series talking about the influence of Ancient Egypt on other civilizations (with a voiceover by yours truly): Sottol Weng Click HERE.

http://velocitycircus.podbean.com/

Monday at Velocity. . .Things are picking up. We are getting a lot of press coverage. Our "American Icon" installation in the International Living Statues Competition in Nederlands was mentioned in the Leah Garchik column in the Chronicle today. News footage of the event is on YouTube .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7V0vsJqX9kToday, Jeffrey, Gregangelo, Hiromi Yoshida (our filmmaker), Kelsy Hiyakumoto (choreographer), Audrey Rosales (aerial artist), Bogey Batbayar (Mongolian Contortionist), Darkijav Dhamba, and Kristen Chaddock (dancer) are meeting at CUE for a fashion show and photo shoot.This might sound odd for a circus, but believe me when I tell you that there is no limit to what this company can and will do.Me? Just answering the phones and adding info to our database! Easy day for me.That's all for now.
9/17/2007 11:54 AM PDT