MEDIATHEK

Cindy Shapiro’s lyrics and music, with Janet Roston’s intricate choreography and direction, and deeply engaging visual projections by designer Joe LaRue, weave Nin’s story, intertwining excerpts from her diaries and her groundbreaking erotica. The dancers and vocalist unveil the author’s journey of self-discovery which took her from a naïve young housewife into the café society of Paris, where she emerged as an important literary figure during the 1930s, through her life in the United States during and after World War II, to her death and its aftermath in the 1970s. These adventures of self-exploration led the author through numerous simultaneous relationships, bigamy, and grand deceptions which she kept track of using what she called her “Lie Box.” Nin believed in living her life as freely as a man and for that she was chastised after her death. Her legacy is currently being revived, she is revered as a multifaceted, multidimensional woman who created her own heat and became her own sun.
 
The music and lyrics by Cindy Shapiro, an artist-in-residence at Cité International des Arts and a Tides Grant recipient, blend classical contemporary layering with a rock sensibility. The choreography by Janet Roston, an Ovation Award-winning choreographer, is contemporary with sections inspired by vintage dance. Joe LaRue’s projections amaze and enlighten. The result of their collaboration is sonically compelling, kinetic and full of visual surprises.