Cycles of Life
That question came to mind as I watched Shakura Ensemble Ritual Theatre’s Cycles of Life, being remounted after its premiere in September. It’s a tricky proposition to turn religious rituals–here Native American–into theater. There are no big numbers in the American musical about transubstantiation. Though rituals have an undeniably theatrical and performative quality, taking them out of their usual context tends to strip them of their power and render them academic curiosities.
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That tendency is something that Blanche Blacke and her Shakura cohorts haven’t managed to overcome in this piece, which the company baldly states is “intended to enhance and renew creativity.” Using the seasons of the year as parallels for death and rebirth, Blacke draws heavily on Navajo myths involving the earth goddess Estsanatlehi. The ensemble represents the seasons’ psychic palettes using music, movement, video, and spoken word, including Blacke’s own hypnotic incantations. These segments are interspersed with performances by New Mexico’s Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers: under the direction of Shawn Price, they provide snippets of such rituals as the gourd dance, celebrating rainwater and growth, and the sash belt dance, in which strips of cloth are braided together in maypole fashion to celebrate spring’s new life.
The Dineh Tah ensemble also includes six dancers, three men and three women in traditional Navajo dress. Director Price provides chanting accompaniment, and in one of the most evocative and simple moments in the piece, plays a Navajo flute. But questions of cultural appropriation–or misappropriation–must come up any time Anglo artists use Native American traditions as a springboard for their own healing.
