‘But the dance was never dropped,’ Miss Erdman adds. ‘Originally it was the dance of Anna Livia Plurabelle. She’s Finnegan’s wife, but she really embodies all women of every kind. And it was going to be an evening of those images: the young girl, the daughter, the old crone, the seductive Maggies, the wife, the river and the rain, Belinda the hen. Those were the main ideas, anyway - all Anna Livia. And in each one I was searching for movement themes that would shape the body. These were abstract themes all coming together in one feminine principle, but they were also independent characters. Then I showed them to Teiji Ito, our composer, and he decided on what wonderful sounds to use -such instruments as Japanese flutes, bells, shells, marimbala, accordion and violin.’

From: https://peterchrisp.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-coach-with-six-insides.html

“Here’s Jean Erdman, the choreographer and dancer, dancing the role of Biddy the Hen in The Coach With the Six Insides, her 1962 musical comic stage adaptation of Finnegans Wake.”

“Erdman, who died in May 2020, at the age of 104, was the wife of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, co-author of The Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. A great dancer and choreographer, she began in 1938 as the soloist of the Martha Graham company. After forming her own company in 1944, she collaborated with John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Maya Deren. As a choreographer, she created total theatre, mixing spoken words, music, dance and visual art. The Jean Erdman company continues today, and its website has filmed recreations of her dances.”

More here: https://peterchrisp.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-coach-with-six-insides.html

James Joyce Experience, Dublin Day, Dublin Night.

The metaphors exposed, the connections made, the merging, the joining, the medium waves, the nightmare of history of our Pale Blue Dot, from which we all try to awaken - and we all try to World Wide Wake.