One that I'd like to spotlight is Lois Postel;
she worked very hard on putting together
a unique and entertaining dance piece. I
called Lois prior to the retreat and asked
her if she could do a dance in this show to
represent wisdom/croneship, a piece that
would also reflect a previous year's theme
of storytelling, in a 7-8 min time frame. I
felt like this would be a challenge for her
but one she might really like to do,
especially since she knew how supportive
the atmosphere on retreat would be. Lois
had been to one of our retreats before,
understood what I was asking her to do,
and decided to do a story-dance dedicated
to her life-long experience with the dance.

DANCING TO THE RHYTHM OF LIFE

A WISE WOMAN from a desert oasis
across the sea enters our camp accompa-
nied by her handmaidens. She uses dance
and drum to tell us the story of the stages
of her life.

She recalls her birth, early experiments
with rhythm, kindergarten tap lessons,
childhood ballet, teenage swing, and
musical shows. She marches off to matri-
mony and does the motherhood medley,
returning to dance years later as a grand-
mother.

She TAPS, she FOLK dances, she CLOGS,
she Exercises, and she does the wisest
dance of all - BELLY dance! She takes leave
of our camp as GREAT GRANDMOTHER,
dancing and drumming her way toward
the next millennium.

Lois and I corresponded by email about
plans; boy, did she get inspired and take
off! She sent me a script to see what I
thought and I encouraged her to fly with
it. I assured her that Claire and I would
help arrange a run-through with the
musician and find her some volunteers for
the assistants she would need for her
props. When she arrived at the retreat, she
had a printed script,complete with music
cues for the musicians. She had her act
together!

Lois enters the stage veiled, ceremoni-
ously accompanied by two handmaidens
carrying a stack of exotic props. The story
unfolds to a musical score collaged from
both live and recorded music. She dances
her way out of the womb to take her first
steps and beat out her first rhythms on a
baby rattle in duet with Armando's drum!
Off she skips to learn to dance by conven-
tional means: tap, ballet, waltz and clog.

Her dance, called "Dancing to the Rhythm
of Life," begins with a short narration: