Favorite Performances – Mistress of Sorrows – Helen of Troy

 

Helen Douglas was an amazing choreographer. Probably one of the most talented women I had ever met personally in that area. She was a woman who took her love of dance and could make unique types of movement that (to my mind) were revolutionary, fresh, different, and allowed dancers’ bodies to be explosive and inventive. She had a way of conveying a unique expression of movement where a dancer could become the horse and the rider, the beautiful woman and the demon. She was uniquely creative in ways that allowed my mind and heart to explode with possibilities.

And like all of us, she hid great secrets from her own life. Some I noticed and respected. I could feel a deep pain in her that she was able to express through her choreography.

I would not know what her secret was until much later as she would seem to disappear from the dance world so completely that it was another dancer that actually bumped into her in a very odd place and was able to reconnect enough to find out that she had been in such a dangerously abusive relationship. Seems her only recourse was to disappear, move far away, and change her name and profession to have any sort of life.

We never know what hides in the souls of others. But it was clear from her choices of subjects to choreograph that she could always see the two faces of humanity. The light and the dark. And that is what made her artistic expressions so alive, unique, and deeply penetrating into the psyche of mankind.

There are those in life that touch us so deeply from the moment we meet … that we are forever changed because their very being opens us to parts previously unknown to us.

Helen was that to me. There is a kindred spirit in her that touched me in a way that no other before or since did.

Clearly, she had been an amazing dancer that had great skill and talent. But she had injured a disk in her back, and that injury stopped her professional career. Her discovery of Pilates as a tool for healing changed her and gave her back the strength in her spine that she needed to show off her choreography to dancers. Her personal story got me on the path to learn Pilates and begin my own journey toward being a healer much later in my life.

I find it so perfect that the universe gives us teachers that show us through their own path the hidden potential that hides within our own being.

She came to set a ballet called, Mistress of Sorrows.

It was a brilliant turn on the story of Helen of Troy.

In her version, Helen is abducted by the Gods and lured into a relationship with Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam. The real Helen had previously chosen Menelaus, Agamemnon’s younger brother, for a mate.

But a type of demon replaces Helen and has the intention to do the bidding of Aries, the God of War, and create a rift between the two kingdoms, which would lead to the Trojan War.

Leticia Hernandez was Helen, Bruce Caldwell was Melenaus, and Mark Borchelt played Paris.

I got to play the demon! It was a great role. One that you can really get into and become your very worst self. The demon was conniving, manipulative, and loved to generate chaos. She fed on the suffering of mankind and relished in the confusion, conflict, rape, and pillaging.

Such a power rush to generate and control such mayhem.

This ballet was filled with exquisite moments, lifts, and powerful transitions. There was one lift that I did with Mark Borchelt where I had to start as one leg was lifted by him, and I rolled up on top of his shoulders and wrapped my body around his neck, and slowly slithered around to the other side.

After the first time, Mark exclaimed, “Wow! Cut a man like a knife!”

I turned startled and said, confused, “What?”

He smiled and said, “You need to register those hip bones because they are lethal weapons! They are so sharp you could cut a man with them!”

I then realized how painful it probably was to roll my pointy hips around his shoulders and neck.

He was very good-natured about it, and he walked through life with a fabulous twinkle in his eyes. The statement was said in the best of tones and ways.

One of the great things I loved about Mark. His sense of humor and his depth and love for dance. He would later become a highly respected teacher, and I am sure he changed the fates of many dancers with his insight, humor, and love.

This ballet was an expression of the type of style and movement that I had so craved and was the main reason for coming to Ballet West. I wanted to use my body in innovative and expressive ways that were not so … conventional, classical, and to me, boring.

I know how classical full-length ballets are the bread and butter for ballet companies. But the next time you hear of a mixed program, do you and the dancers a huge favor. Take a risk and put that at the top of your list. You just might be pleasantly surprised, and together with the dancers, you might find a path into some uncharted parts within.

~Suzanne Wagner~