The Tswana people in Africa believe that a lunar eclipse is when a lion blocks the light of the moon with his paw so that he can hunt more successfully.

K. Partridge: Movement Director
Luscinda L. Dickey: Dancer
Carrie Leigh Dickey: Costume and Hair, Cinematographer and Video Editor

The Inspiration:

“I find that unexpected color juxtapositions create a kind of emotional drama—at times harmonious, at others contentious,” writes Mr. Frank Campion, an abstract artist based just outside of Winston-Salem, NC.

This dance was created in response to Mr. Campion’s work. Choreographed with a combination of Afro-Cuban dance—inspired his art’s raw, gritty marks and poured paint, and Fosse influenced jazz—inspired by his art’s bold color and crisp angles, it is meant to embody “…the tension that can exist between logical, deliberate, geometric forms and irrational, accidental painterly incident.”

The Music: 

Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes No. 1

The Composer:

Imagine you could time-travel back to Paris in the late 1800s. It is a late, chilly, fall evening in Montmartre. You are strolling along the Boulevard towards the glowing windows of Le Chat Noir cabaret. You slip in the door through a crowd of Club des Hydropathes members, squeeze behind a corner table, and order your favorite drink.

Many voices talk at once over the piano music—about poetry, painting, the theatre, bohemian society. No one pays much attention to the pianist, but you hang onto every chord he plays. This eccentric looking young man in a black frock coat is Erik Satie: a composer who broke the boundaries of music as it was known and went on to help inspire a new generation of composers.

Satie sways softly to the repetitive beat of his tune. He doesn’t look down at his hands, but straight in-front of himself as if seeing the dream-scape of sound he creates—measuring each note. When the piece is finished, you jump up and make your way to the piano. “Monsieur Satie, what a beautiful piece of music!” you cry in your very best French, “What is it called?” Satie turns towards you adjusting his spectacles. “A Gnossiennes,” he says. “And what exactly is a Gnossiennes?” you ask breathlessly. Satie pauses. You catch a slight twinkle in his eye. “A Gnossiennes,” he says very slowly, “is what I just played.” And turning back to the piano, he begins to play once more.