teach/art/dance/land
Desert Psalm music video by Night Teacher
"You can dent the soul and bend it. You can hurt it and scar it. You can leave the marks of illness upon it, and the scorch marks of fear. But it does not die. For it is protected by La Loba. She is the finder and incubator of bones. She is the Soul Self. Ella la hace a mano, she makes and re-makes the soul by hand.
What is she re-making for you?"
Inspired by “Women Who Run With the Wolves,” the cult classic feminist book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, this short film explores themes of myth, transformation and power and feminine instinct. The call to a more empowered relationship to grief shows up in the way of many bones, one 50’s pink payphone in the forest, and many pig skulls from a local butcher strung across the apparition of La Loba, or Bone Woman, who drags them around like the weight of ancestral womanhood and modern day gender expectations.
How and where do we meet our true selves? Our shadows? What bones are we dragging around? Is a woman fully in her power the spookiest thing ever?
Desert Psalm was brought to life by a team of five female artists, whose ages span four decades, making their own opportunities, creating collaborative structure outside a patriarchal top-down norm, and tapping into myth and wisdom outside the male gaze.
As you can imagine, it gets witchy in the best way. But don’t just imagine. Watch it, and if it moves you, send it along to a human in your life who could use some singing over the bones, so that new life may be conjured. (released on Halloween 2022) Happy Death // Re-birth Day // Halloween to all you lovely, wobbly, rockstar witches and goblins out there! �
Night Teacher & The Desert Psalm Crew
The Crew:
Lilly Bechtel - Head Producer Coven Queen + Co-Director + Musical Artist of Night Teacher
zap mcconnell - Co-Director + Costume Artist + Installation and Prop Construction Genius
Cat Rider - Co-Director + Director of Photography + Editor + VFX Supervisor + Sound Design
Kristin Finn - On Set Photographer Goddess + "All Hands On Deck" Crew Member
Brooke Ray - Sustenance Provider + Bone Woman Body Double + Producer
Check out our local NPR spot to hear Lilly Bechtel talk about the inspiration behind the film, Desert Psalm: wvtf.org/news/2022-10-28/five-virginia-artists-with-a-halloween-treat-their-film-features-a-cargo-of-skulls-and-bones
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the owl of Minerva arrives only at dusk
this film was shot May 2019 in Pittsboro & Winston-Salem, and Charlottesville, VA.
it is now released in solidarity of Black Lives Matter, ending white supremacy, justice and equity for all native/indigenous people and immigrants.
Please share freely
and continue the support of #MeToo, LGBTQIA+ rights, and the Earth- which is holding us all.
…it is highly recommended to view this film on a device larger than a phone….but hey, just watch it! invite friends and screen outside…have discussions after, popcorn even…
This film is dedicated to the ecology of compassion.
This film would not be possible without the support of:
Market Street Wine, Sundog Builders, CABIN, Hunting Ridge, chicken bank collective, Skyclad Aerial, The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, Maya Restaurant , Corbett Smithson Photography , Will May Photography, Will Kerner Photography, Liz Simmons, Drew Gerstmyer, Katharine Birdsall and Karl Pfefferkorn, Lunday and Fred Riggsbee, Chad Haddix, Mary Haglund, Betty McConnell, Chuck McConnell, and the Winston-Salem & C-ville Community.
Small and Mighty Acts (SAMA) is created by Cara Hagan, a kick-ass activist/dancer/teacher/film-maker/Mom/Partner/writer who we are honored to feature in this film. SAMA is always doing something glorious while working for equity and healing, so check out what they are about. Right now, if you purchase any of the stickers/buttons/yard signs, all profits go to a monthly featured Black owned business or anti-racist organization.
Click here for :
MORE INFORMATION about the film:
the owl of Minerva arrives only at dusk is also a major part of a future touring performance All Things Discarded: an Indwelling, that will be shown in month long residencies in Winston, Durham, Raleigh-NC and Charlottesville, VA. This project, housed in galleries or community spaces, will host educational events based on the content of the film, as well as free classes and workshops partnering with outreach programs specific to the location. Traditional Japanese tea ceremony happens weekly and in performance, by graduates of the Midorikai program at Urasenke Gakuen, Kyoto. Communal potlucks, conversations with tea about cultural legacy, community rituals around the personal effects of the opiate epidemic, live performance and screenings with talk-backs will be open to the general public, led by cast and crew. Framed inside an installation featuring the film, the residency’s goal is to bring awareness to the way we are all interconnected and the responsibility - yet joy - that holds. Inhabiting the common space is an important, desperately necessary aspect of living in a community that is healthy and connected. The film helps inform and create the landscape of this experience. Finding a way to safely negotiate health protocols while living as fully as possible within the project’s created structure is what imagination and research is for, as elements of the manifestation are currently being reconfigured. The project will evolve.
“if you want to nerd out, get scrolling and find out more stuff than you may even have wanted to....”
Source Material for film/project:
-Anders, Charlie Jane. Terry Gilliam's Work Is Way More Influential Than You Probably Realized, gizmodo, 2014, https://io9.gizmodo.com/terry-gilliams-work-is-way-more-influential-than-you-pr-1636499524
-Anderson, Laurie. All the Things I Lost in the Flood. New York: Rizzoli Electa, 2018.
-Berry, Wendell. The Hidden Wound. Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
-Chernick, Karen.“10 Female Performance Artists You Should Know, from Ana Mendieta to Carolee Schneemann”. Artsy. Art. Dec 20, 2017 1:21
-Dr. DeGruy, Joy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Uptone Press, 2005.
-Diangelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press, 2018
-Dillard, Annie. For the Time Being. RANDOM House USA INC, 2000.
-Gilliam, Terry. The Man Who killed Don Quixote. Alacran Pictures. France 2018
-Golombok, Susan. Modern families: Parents and children in new family forms, Cambridge University Press, 2015
https://www.childandfamilyblog.com/child-development/new-family-structures/
-Gomez-Pena, Guillermo and Sifuentes, Roberto. Exercises for Rebel Artists:Radical Performance Pedagogy (NYC: Routledge 2011) 6-21.
-Green, Erica L.. New U.S. Sexual Misconduct Rules Bolster Rights of Accused and Protect Colleges, New York Time, Aug. 29, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/us/politics/devos-campus-sexual-assault.html
-Gutierrez, Miguel. Does Abstraction Belong to White People?:Thinking the politics of race in contemporary dance. Part of the Theory + Practice series. BOMB Magazine.
November 7th, 2018. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/miguel-gutierrez-1/
-Hassannia, Tina. How Jim Jarmusch Works, Fandor. January 4, 2017 https://www.fandor.com/posts/jim-jarmusch-works
-hooks, bell. Belonging: a culture of place. Routledge, 2009.
-The Inexhaustible Creations of Yayoi Kusama | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 53, YouTube video, 24:08, Bloomberg Markets and Finance, Published on Jun 7, 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reVBAbo5VU8
-Jensen, Derrick. A Language Older than Words. Context Books, 2000.
-Kentridge, William. O Sentimental Machine. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt, Germany.March 22–August 26, 2018
http://newsroom.liebieghaus.de/en/content/william-kentridge-o-sentimental-machine
-Lepecki, Andre. “Singularities:Dance in the age of performance”. Routledge. 2016
-McGivney, Annette Pure Land: A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures, and the Search for Heaven on Earth AUXmedia, a Division of AQUARIUS PRESS, 2017
-Micmacs. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. France: Epithéte Films, 2009. Blu Ray.
-Osterweil, Ara.“Bodily Rites: The Films of Ana Mendieta”. Artforum. Art guide. November, 2015. https://www.artforum.com/print/201509/bodily-rites-the-films-of-ana-mendieta-55531
-Platt, Sarah V.. Reconstructing Narratives in Film: The Case Study of Jim Jarmusch, Academia, https://www.academia.edu/30716059/Reconstructing_Narratives_in_Film_The_Case_Study_of_Jim_Jarmusch
-Prevallet, Kristin, Trance Poetics:Your Writing Mind, “Out Of The Blue//Into The Body”, Book 2, 2nd edition of Creative Rewiring Series. Wide Reality Books. 2013
-The Princess Diaries. Directed by Garry Marshall. USA: Walt Disney Pictures, 2001. DVD.
-Rosenbaum, Eric, 5 biggest risks of sharing your DNA with consumer genetic-testing companies, Published 10:00 AM ET Sat, 16 June 2018, Updated 2:18 PM ET Sat, 16 June 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/16/5-biggest-risks-of-sharing-dna-with-consumer-genetic-testing-companies.html
-Strand, Nicolle K.. Shedding Privacy Along with our Genetic Material: What Constitutes Adequate Legal Protection against Surreptitious Genetic Testing? AMA J Ethics. 2016 https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/shedding-privacy-along-our-genetic-material-what-constitutes-adequate-legal-protection-against/2016-03
-Virno, Paolo. A Grammar of the Multitude, For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life, Semiotext(e). 2004
-Walker, Alice. Possessing the Secret of Joy. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
-Willmsen, Christine and Bebinger, Martha. Health Inc.. “Massachusetts Attorney General Implicates Family Behind Purdue Pharma In Opioid Deaths.” NPR, January 16, 20196:27 AM ET https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/01/16/685692474/massachusetts-attorney-general-implicates-family-behind-purdue-pharma-in-opioid-
Applying concepts from Dr. Joy DeGruy’s Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (P.T.S.S.), dancers investigated their personal familial legacy and how it inhabits the body, especially the ways multi-generational trauma is passed down, not only through our cultural community structures, but also through actual DNA.
check Dr. Joy DeGruy out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGjSday7f_8&t=1573s
Archival Voice-overs Used:
Toni Morrison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=n2txzMkT5Pc
“if you can only be tall because somebody’s on their knees, then you have a serious problem, and my feeling is, white people have a very, very serious problem...”
Winona LaDuke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_7sfOaGQio
" it’s fundamental issues that are deeply issues of racism. And a perception that Indian people or people of color are not as able as white people to take care of things, whatever it is...”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPJ3nrsCcrE
“ and it is in this time we are told we have a choice between two paths, two (mikana), and one path they say is well worn but it is scorched and the other path they say is not well worn and it's green. It is our choice on which path to embark..”
Stewart Varney responds to Robert Frank within WNYC's 'On The Media' podcast, presented by Brooke Gladstone, as featured in the Radiolab podcast :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1eouTJYKpI
“.. If you come to america with nothing and you play by the rules, you work hard, you get discipline inside yourself, you marry and have children, in that order, ok? you do all of those things- you play by the rules, you will make it in america and luck has nothing to do with it.” “that’s not true sir.”
Bill Ayres and Dinesh D’Souza interviewed by Megyn Kelly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfVUktKzPSA
“….ancient history was some kind of fiction...we did commit genocide against the native americans, actually, we did enslave people for 250 years,..they intended to wipe out the people and steal the land and they did both..”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfVUktKzPSA
“look, what I would say is you need to look at the thing honestly and don't be so afraid of the fact that we did terrible terrible things in our history, and in order to get right with the world we have to repair those injuries...”
Elle Reeve Vice reporter interviews neo-nazi Robert “Azzmador” Ray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrcB1sAN8I&t=212s
“.. they will have no power, we will clear them from the streets forever. that which is degenerate in white countries will be removed...” “This is our country, this country was built by our forefathers, and it is sustained by us and it's going to remain our country..”
Michael Shure interviewing Trump supporters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0tAQWuOJ1E
“…better lives here than they did back in Africa.” “Slaves had better lives here?” “There are some that would argue that, you can look that up, their descendants, the descendants of those slaves, have much better lives here than the descendants of people who would never have gotten on those slave boats in Africa, and that's a provable fact. You know, because we have given them all those freedoms…”
#PROCESSISPRODUCT
the dance for film: secondary succession is here!!!
Synopsis: In the Autumn of the year, where the veil is thin between worlds and time, five beings cross into a sacred land of many indigenous tribes that is locked in remembering by the dismantled military fort of another era, blocking passage to the return to the sea. These magical spirits tell the stories of the displaced, the invisible and the return of the wilderness, as they honor the past, present and the future. In this dance for film we see the hidden, and the evident, as we dance towards our insistence on revealing that which is needed.
Sinopsis: En el otoño del año, donde el velo es delgado entre los mundos y el tiempo, cinco seres cruzan una tierra sagrada de diferentes tribus indígenas. Territorio encerrado en el recuerdo, por el desmantelado fuerte militar de otra época, que bloquea el paso del retorno al mar. Estos espíritus mágicos, cuentan las historias de los desplazados, lo invisible y el regreso de la naturaleza; al mismo tiempo que honran al pasado, el presente y el futuro. En este videodanza vemos a lo oculto y lo evidente, mientras danzamos hacia nuestra insistencia en revelar lo que es necesario.
Music composer and creator : Arcadio M. Lanz
directed by: zap mcconnell
Choreographers / Performers and Characters:
Amber Cone: of the Forest (Wilderness/Warrior of Dormant Seeds)
Denisse Cardenas Landeros: of the Ether (Fog/Inside of a Flower)
Julie Rothschild: of the Sea (Jellyfish/Parachute)
Cinthia Pérez Navarro: of the Fort (Ghosts/The Displaced)
Paola de la Concha: of the Earth (Gatherer/Protector of Hidden Regrowth)
Photography/Editing: Ximena Monroy, Gabriela Bosquenegro, (Special assistance Zap McConnell)
