For Deposition Tango

Good Friday Dance Tableau performed at Coast Hills Community Church 

I see this dance having 3 components which would be performed on the same stage over a 5 minute duration. 

#1) The Pantomime ---5-9 actors or dancers (representing centurions, guards, Nicodemus w burial spices, Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, Virgin Mary, Joseph of Arimathea) re-enacting  the deposition from the cross (represented by 2 tall ladders topped  we an horizontal bar) in slow motion. A large white cloth would receive the body of Christ (not an actual body) and be carried up-stage and handed to the dancers representing the Holy Spirit at about 4 min 15 sec thru. Actions would include the gesturing of the centurions, extracting of the nails, slow lowering of the body to the actors below and wrapping the pretend body in the cloth (burial shroud).

#2) The Rumba---2 of the actors witnessing the deposition above would break away from the group at about 15 seconds in and begin dancing a rumba to their own beat (slow-quick-quick), circling the stage and winding up center-stage at approx. 4 ½  minutes. Dancers partner in practice positions (holding each other's elbows to emphasize a feeling of struggle. Also no ballroom flourishes would be used to make the movement more rectilinear) would represent the spreading of the Gospel to all corners of the earth while continuing to struggle between good and evil in everyday life. The rumba steps would include opposition breaks as well as walking side by side, turns, jazz boxes, etc.  Dancers could use ear phones for their music or the man could just count it out while leading the woman to his beat. Wayne and Valeria Forte could do this as we already have a suitable choreography well rehearsed.

#3) The Modern/ Ballet component-- would represent the Holy Spirit waiting to come to the world. I see movement and choreography that would contrast with the feeling of the other two components. 2-4 dancers would receive the burial shroud (which has now become a veil) and use it in their processional dance arriving down-stage center about 4 ½ minutes thru. At this point the veil would be rented in two and laid upon the communion table below. Candles on the table could be lit by the dancers representing the HS. Alicia Laumann will choreograph this component.

Costumes for the deposition actors would be modern day dress equivalents to the Biblical personages (e.g. centurions would wear guards uniforms, Nicodemus a yarmulke, Mary a modest dress, Joseph nicer clothes than the other men, etc). Rumba dancers could wear black and white or some combination of these colors. Holy Spirit dancers should wear white leotards, maybe skirts and with no embellishments.

      The Deposition represents a moment when Christ is dead and the Holy Spirit has not yet been sent by the Father. Man is acting completely by faith and/ or love for the dead Christ. Visually, the story will be reinforced by the contrast and intersection of the three dance components; namely the slow heavy drama of the deposition from the cross, the staccato zigzag of the rumba and the more graceful lines typical of modern ballet. 

     Stage design would be a single yellow spot-light on the back wall which slowly turns to blood red. Video support might consist of cross-sections (lateral shots) of the dances which reinforce the contrast of slow motion pantomime against rumba against modern/ballet, projected on high lateral screens which are in place at CHCC.

I would like to use Jeff Buckley's rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on the GRACE album because this haunting song speaks of faith, not as something triumphal but rather as “a broken hallelujah" when all seems dark and hopeless.