There are moments that take place in the majesty of a small community theater on the back streets and alleyways of neighborhoods you would not normally frequent that transcends all the sweat and effort that goes into opening a work for an audience, where all the waiting and the anticipation and the practice takes flight in the heart of the person who made their way to the theater to sit in the quiet darkness for the lights of the performance to turn on.

It has taken me a little while to write about heading to the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in a section of East Hollywood where darkness brings the shuttering sound of security fences crashing closed to check out a dance performance entitled Collective Metamorphosis by Elena Sophia Kozak and Company from the Critical Mass Dance Company as part of the 2013 Company Creation Festival.

Sharing Moments on Dance is something I enjoy and after seeing Collective Metamorphosis I had a lot of thoughts and words in my head, a definite sign that I connected to the energy of the work at a deep level.  Now, many days later, what remains are the feelings that follow.

Collective Metamorphosis is a triumph of the power of intention, the individual and the collective, the microcosm and the macrocosm, and, I also had to laugh when I realized I was hearing the definition of critical mass through the performance in the simple statement ‘when you know how one person transforms, you understand how a community transforms and by default how the world changes.’  In the one is the transformation of all and in achieving that critical mass of consciousness dropping through the soupiness of the imaginal cells Collective Metamorphosis births the wondrous beauty of harmony and health in action.

One thought emerged throughout – maybe words from the spirit of the source of the piece – ‘these winds of change make my heart a dancer’ which meant to me the work was both personal and universal as all the best dance theater is.

Collective Metamorphosis tackles global transformation and on that night in that tiny theater in an Eastern corner of the City of Angels filled with so many opportunities to be reborn the work gave birth to a new world filled with ideas and intentions and Love.

On these special nights of dance theater where the promise of an adventure into possibility is realized you get to experience the richness of unlimited ease of expression moving to the rhythm of life where something unspoken is revealed in the deepest way when a group of individuals come together showcasing what they love to do.  This great act of celebrating what brings joy exposes the collective heart in unexpected ways and I am glad I got to bare witness to the beautiful spirits of these women performing this work in its limited run.

You never know when lightening will strike and all of the effort and practice and mistakes will converge erupting into magnificent insight where you are taken on an unexpected journey.  Dance and the expression through the body has long had the power to illumiate and transform us, to thrill the soul and all that jazz.

Check out a clip from the work….

To me a dancer’s heart is one of complete surrender to spirit through movement with the applied discipline required to create a still point of openness that shines for all to experience.  A dancer’s heart is the gift of the soul expressed through the body in motion.  To speak through the body with clarity and intention is one of the great gifts of modern dance choreography and Collective Metamorphosis accomplished this with grace and ease.

I am grateful I got to experience this Dance group.   I admire their creation of community of the heart through dance.  Check them out, and if you feel so moved, contribute financially to their efforts.

Transformative creative expressions need supporters.

It all starts with you.

—Critical Mass Dance Company (CMDC) is a diverse dance collective that combines sacred dance, energy healing and prop work to contribute to greater peace, personal healing and social change through the development of collaborative works of dance theater.

—Son of Semele Ensemble is a collective of theatre professionals that recognizes emerging cultural questions through the production of new or under-exposed plays. They produce intimate theatre to provoke an awakening within audiences and themselves.