Affection: The Dance of Ghosts In Love

@therealghosts2024 @TheJoffreyBallet @hooplahalloween405
Affection: The Dance of Ghosts In Love Part 1, 2 and 3
In 1997, I received a commission to compose the score for the finale of the Joffrey Ballet's season at The Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. Randy Duncan took on the role of choreographer for this project. As we collaborated, I proposed the concept of a ballet portraying the stages that comprise an enduring love between two individuals. I named these stages The Meeting, The Bonding, and The Unbroken.
During the same period, I was recording new music with my progressive Jazz-Rock ensemble, Kimotion, and opted to include the first two parts of the trilogy on our latest CD release titled "Tracking."
I documented the performance using a small video camera from the rear of the Ravinia amphitheater. Fast forward to 2024, while organizing and archiving my past creative endeavors, I stumbled upon the tape, untouched since 1998. Upon rewatching it and observing the grainy footage of the dancers being almost like ghosts, I felt a surge of inspiration to revisit the ballet. Leveraging Adobe Creative Cloud applications, I reconstructed the visual dance and retitled it as "Affection: The Dance of Ghosts In Love," comprising Part 1, 2, and 3.
INTRODUCTION: In the shadowed depths of Remembrance, a spectral forest where the boundary between the realms of the living and the departed blurs, a timeless tale unfolds. Here, amid the haunting beauty of moonlit glades, echoes the story of lovers separated by fate but drawn together once more in the dance of eternity.
Bathed in the ethereal glow of the moon, four ghostly pairs weave their way through the ancient trees, their movements a delicate fusion of longing and passion. In this ballet of the beyond, their souls entwine in a hauntingly beautiful expression of love that transcends time and space.
In the folklore of ages past, ghosts are the remnants of souls tethered to the mortal realm, their presence felt in the whispers of the wind and the shifting shadows of the forest. Here, in the heart of Remembrance, the essence of their existence is woven into the very fabric of the land, each step a poignant reminder of love's enduring power and the ache of separation.
As the music swells and the dancers twirl, the forest comes alive with the echoes of forgotten promises and unspoken desires, a testament to the enduring nature of love that even death cannot diminish.
To be judged by The Chooser and her Council of Apparitions, these spectral dancers vie for the chance to return to the realm of the living, to rediscover the depths of their love once more. Each couple's dance unfolds amidst the melodies of the forest, where their apparitions manifest as eerie lights, serving as reminders of love's enduring power.
PART 1: THE MEETING, the couples reminisce about the genesis of their love, their movements a delicate tapestry woven with threads of infatuation, trust, and resilience. As they dance, their stories converge on a single truth: the transformative power of love to transcend time and space.
PART 2: THE BONDING delves deeper into the essence of their love, as The Chooser challenges the couples to prove the strength of their bond. Through a mesmerizing duo solo dance, each pair lays bare the depths of their devotion, their movements a testament to the unbreakable connection that binds their souls together.
PART 3: THE UNBROKEN, The Chooser poses the ultimate test of love's resilience. As a spectral wind swirls around them, the couples press on, their determination unyielding in the face of adversity. The energy of their dance is infectious, drawing the members of the Apparitions Council into the swirling tempest, their spectral forms blending seamlessly with the others.
And as the ballet draws to a close, all eyes turn to The Chooser, her verdict carrying the weight of destiny. With a solemn gesture, she selects the chosen pair, their love deemed unbreakable, their bond stronger than death itself. And as they step forward, bathed in the moon's ethereal light, the forest echoes with the whispers of the departed, their love immortalized in the annals of time.