Spring Equinox at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater

"I love to work at the BLB Theater. It's a cozy and intimate space that offers a dinner theater experience. Their food is incredible and the wait staff is superb. Experiencing one of our Discovering Origins/Building Traditions Ritual Shows at this venue will be a delight!" Kari

Kari Tauring and Friends Present
"Embracing the Darkness Farewell"
A Discovering Origins/Building Traditions Ritual Show

What a show!
Photos and Program

"Embracing the Darkness Farewell" is a seasonal ritual show. It begins as our ensemble of performers calls into being eight characters of the Medicine Wheel through song, chant and mask work. Representing also the wheel of the year we explore the year's changes from light to dark through the mythology of the 3 fold Goddess danced by Tamara Rogers to "Crone Maiden Mother" and the 3 fold God personified by Matt Spillum and danced to "The One Who Loves Me."

Looking at the dark half of the year becomes looking at our own dark sides, a necessary component of our balance on Equinox. How we feel about the dark parts of our beings is what greets us 6 months from now. Kari shares her fears, past and present through some of her most intense rock anthems including "Running From the Bear" and "Red Road". Musicians the likes of Ken Sherman (Cousin Dad) and Matt Yetter (Crush Collision Trio) "testify" through searing and soulful instrumentals. "Lift the Veil" by Maren Amdal ends the middle section of the show, bringing courage and hope of the light half of the year back to us.

With humor and a light heart "Professor Corpus Callosum" explains the science of how our brains are meant to function in unison, left and right, light and dark, male and female. A love song called "The Well" sung by Kari and David de Young and danced by Tamara and Matt shows us how to embrace and fall in love with ourselves. Visions of a unified humanity project through the stunning video work of Darren Johnson set to "The Ballad of One". The audience is invited to join in as we light our candles to the coming warmth and growing season. The song "Cycle" newly written for Yule 2004 concludes the show.

Other performers and artists include: Pete Mathison on upright bass, Kip Overbo on vocals and guitar, Buster Priest on drums, Collette DeHarpote flute and spoken word, Judy Ostrowski (chanting and henna), Terri Allen - Art Quilts and Maris Gilbert - Paintings.

About Equinox:
Spring Equinox on March 20-23 marks one of the times on the wheel of the year when the day and the night are the same length. It happens again in September, the Fall Equinox. Many interesting things happen at these points in the year. I've been keeping chickens in Minneapolis for almost 7 years. Did you know that chickens ovulate on the sun cycle and so only drop eggs just before Spring Equinox through just after Fall Equinox? This year it was March 1st! Did you ever try to balance an egg on its small end right at the moment of equinox? I did it one time and it worked but haven't been able to do it since. Does it only balance on Spring Equinox? Hmmmm....Traditions......

There are many holy days from religions around the globe that hold their celebrations at these sun times. In the Ukrainian tradition, eggs are decorated with sacred symbols and used as talismans throughout the year. The Teutonic Goddess Eostar was the bringer of day and she used to be seen running errands through the fields in the guise of a March Hare. While the Christian Easter is named for this Goddess, the holy day of Easter is not celebrated on the fixed date of the sun cycle like Christmas. It follows a moon cycle (the first Sunday after the first full moon after Equinox) and so is a moveable feast, but it embraces both eggs and hares!

Embracing the Darkness is important this time of year. As the sap rises and the days lengthen, we tend to forget the lessons we learned in the dark caverns of winter's sleep. This show gives everyone the opportunity to declare what he or she will take with him or her into the light and what he or she will leave in the dark for next year's pondering. The mirror time for this year, Fall Equinox, marks the death of the vegetation that is just about to burgeon forth. So it is with mixed joy and sorrow that we leave the dark days behind us and spring forward into the light half of the wheel of the year. Come and Celebrate!