This website documents the ongoing development of a ritual technology created by Antero Alli that combines techniques of theatre, dance, song and Zazen meditation in primarily non-performance settings to access, express and embody the internal landscape. This paratheatre process has been documented in three videos and Alli's book, "Towards an Archeology of the Soul", and actualized in private ritual labs, public demonstrations and performances.

 

As of Spring 2008, I have recalibrated the direction of ParaTheatrical ReSearch towards a non-interpretive somatic dreamwork involving the recall of movements originating in the dream itself and their precise enactment in a kind of dream choreography, or "dreaming ritual". For more details about this change, click this. We are currently seeking other Dreamers who can also move and commit to this process. (see contact information at bottom of this page) All inquires welcome. -- Antero Alli, director

For Those Requesting Participation
The Interview Process and What To Expect Once Accepted

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THREE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THIS WORK

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After three decades in this paratheatre medium, I have noticed three overlapping phases through which this work seems to develop, progress and evolve. All three stages express an intimately entwined process; no graduations, no final arrivals. Each stage remains an essential component of the other. -- Antero Alli

The first stage involves cultivating deep internal receptivity -- via the No-Form experience -- to energy sources in the body and yielding to these sources in an immersive experience of self-surrender. The intent is to access, express and embody the energetic strata of the internal landscape towards a merging identification with the energy. The results are often ecstatic, convulsive, cathartic and chaotic.

The second stage involves serving the direction of the energy itself -- in gesture, voice, action -- towards clarifying the innate patterns and currents emerging from the first stage. The intent is to serve the expression of the energy itself, rather than identify with it or impose any preconceived ideas, plans or images. The results are often half-formed, dramatic and/or highly expressive yet without necessarily communicating anything understandable.

The third stage involves a sustaining care for tempering spontaneity with a gently increasing precision. Too much spontaneity turns the work into self-indulgent soup; too much imposed structure kills its life. A balance must be struck. This balance requires a certain stamina for maintaining the dynamic tension between precision and spontaneity, between form and force, or flow, towards ever-increasing durations. Stage three articulates what can also be understood by others. The results are often more economical, distilled, dynamic and specific.

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artifacts, interviews, f.a.q., manifesto, essays, dreaming cultures

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