Welcome to the Wandering in the Wilderness site. This is an ever-evolving project, currently planned as a 40 year performance exploration. There are many aspects to the project, and many ways to engage with it.
Wandering Ensemble Description:
The Wandering Ensemble is a collaboration of The CSU East Bay Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble (IIE) and Dandelion Dancetheater, directed by Eric Kupers. We have come together as artists, activists, students, community members, and spiritual seekers to explore the nature of performance, ritual, healing, and social activism in the post-2020 era. Our primary focus as an experimental, inclusive ensemble is the creation of a dance/theater/music ceremony, Wandering in the Wilderness. The project is emerging from examination of the Torah story of the Jews escaping slavery, crossing the Red Sea, and then wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, even though their “destination” was only a few months of travel away. This story has given us lots of food for creative thought around the process of leaving not just the physical constraints of oppression, but the inter-generational, inner conditioning; as well as learning about the necessary in-between states that are encountered on such a journey.
We have decided to take 40 years to create this performance work, even though a possible premiere for it could have been a few months of rehearsal away. We want to approach performance in a new and sustainable way, and to take the time and space needed for inter-generational, artistic evolution. We seek to engage cultural change at deeper and deeper levels, over the next four decades. None of us that are involved have the full picture of what will unfold. We are all moving forward step by step, crutch by crutch, wheel by wheel into the next bit. And then the next. And then the next…
Wandering Documentary Series:
Before watching the first chapter of our Wandering in the Wilderness documentary series, we recommend checking out this 11-minute introduction video. This video is intended as a provider of context for the often strange, surreal, and mysterious project itself:
And then here’s the documentary itself:
Wandering in the Wilderness – Year One Begins
(with closed captions)
Wandering in the Wilderness – Year One Begins
(without closed captions)
WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS – ACTIVITIES BY YEAR
Below are links to pages for each year of the larger project. If you’d like to join our in-person or online Wandering Ensemble groups, that rehearse weekly, please let us know: dandeliondancetheater@gmail.com
YEAR 2 (2021-22) — still to be added
WORK SAMPLES
And here is a page that holds our continually-increasing library of work samples from the project:
Wandering in the Wilderness Work Samples
Full description of the 40-year project
Please SAVE THE DATE:
Wandering in the Wilderness
World Premiere Performance
April 8th, 2061 (2nd night of Passover/Pesach)
Exact Location and other info TBA
It seems clear to us that the world of performance has entered a new era. Even though some aspects of creation and production that have been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic might return, we think that there’s no going back to “the way it was.”
There’s pain in this break from old models, but also opportunities for deep creative investigation and transformation.
One of the many models for evolving how we make and share art involves a rethinking of our relationship to ensemble time. Dandelion Dancetheater and the CSUEB IIE (Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble) have joined forces to create Wandering in the Wilderness. The piece has emerged from examination of the Torah story of the Jews escaping slavery, crossing the Red Sea, and then wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, even though their “destination” was really only a few months of travel away.
This story has given us lots of food for creative thought around the process of leaving not just the physical constraints of oppression, but the inter-generational, inner conditioning. And the in-between states that are encountered on such a journey.
We have decided to take 40 years to create this performance work, even though a possible premiere for it could have been a few months of rehearsal away.
We want to approach performance in a new and sustainable way, and to take the time and space needed for inter-generational, artistic evolution. Many of us (including director Eric Kupers) might not be alive to witness the world premiere in the year 2061. (But really, none of us know how long we have to live, and so this is always a risk in starting any project. Moses died before the tribe entered The Promised Land.) And some of the performers and collaborators for our work have probably not been born yet.
We will share work-in-progress versions of the work throughout the next 40 years, and then premiere the full work on April 8th, 2061, which will be the second night of Passover.
Much like the ritual of the Passover Seder, we see this project as a portal for returning to mythic, cyclical, intuitive, and mysterious realms over and over again. We seek to engage cultural change at deeper and deeper levels, over the next four decades. None of us that are involved have the full picture of what will unfold.
Photos of Wandering Ensemble by Hans Holtan, Max Sovine, and anonymous