Happy Easter season! I hope you are enjoying the flowering of Spring and the gifts of resurrection in your life. I have so much to share!
Mostly I want to say that we did it! We completed our Thea Bowman play – I Will Live Until I Die,written by ValLimar Jansen and performed by a cast of 50 folks here in Seattle! What an amazing adventure! I am so blessed that the project was supported by my new parish, St. Joseph, and that we had the opportunity to stage the play in our former church sanctuary of St. Patrick’s. What an awesome story of resurrection for our St. Pat’s community and building. For two sold-out nights, we brought together Latin chants & Gospel music, nuns & drums, dancers, actors, & choirs to embody the dynamic gifts of Sr. Thea Bowman, African American nun and energizing gift to our church and world! (As you may remember, she is being considered for candidacy for sainthood in the Catholic Church. May it be so!)
When I looked out to see a full house both nights, with audience members beaming with music, laughter, tears, and raucous song, I truly felt that I had a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. There is definitely gonna be some dancing in heaven ... and not all those angels are “white!” And besides the joy of performance, it was also a significant step for me to become producer of such a large event with engagement from three different parishes, Seattle University and the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center. My heart is full of gratitude!
You can catch a glimpse of “Sing When the Spirit Says Sing!” in the video below. We hope to schedule an online viewing of the whole show sometime this fall, so folks everywhere can partake! In the meantime, if you are in the Seattle area, please check out our in person Video Party below!
Read on for a few more sweet stories, and opportunities. And whatever the challenges facing you in this moment, may the gifts of color, beauty, dance & embodiment give you a taste of dancing into new dreams on the way!
If you are in Seattle, I hope you can join us for our video showing (with popcorn!) of our Thea Bowman production! Please email me to RSVP, or with questions!
The Soul of a Pilgrim Prayer Cycle
Exciting news! Here at Abbey of the Arts we have a new Prayer Cycle launching! In these 14 visual and audio podcasts, you can dive into the practice of pilgrimage through prayers of song, word, dance, gesture, & silence. You can pray with a whole host of prayer/dance videos for free – woohoo! Two new podcasts are released each week for 7 weeks. Such a blessing to share.
To partake of our morning & evening prayers, click here.
Article on Dance & Spiritual Direction
I had the honor of writing an article for the Canadian magazine, “Journey”. This issue is about Creativity in Spiritual Direction, and it has a wealth of information about the arts! My article is entitled: “Dancing Our Way to the Divine” (first page pictured below.) If you’d like to download a pdf of the whole magazine, click here!
Awakening the Creative Spirit ~ We Did It!
St. Andrew’s Retreat House, Pacific Northwest with Kayce Hughlett & Betsey Beckman
This LIVE experiential retreat is one of our signature courses at Abbey of the Arts! We had an awesome group this year! Do you think you might be up for jumping in next year? It is such an honor to lead this program with my friend and colleague, Kayce Hughlett. We are considering offering this (or possibly another retreat next spring.) Let us know if you are would be interested, and stay tuned!
To read about the program or for inspiration, click here.
In Closing
Celebrating 50 Years!
The first play I ever performed in during high school was Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by my now long-time friend, Michael Sparough, SJ. It was a stunning production, and in it I played Mme. de Cuigy (with the lace hat!) as well as a page/ pastrycook dancer, and a nun. We performed it in the chapel of St. X High School in Cincinnati … and this all took place exactly 50 years ago, May 3-5, 1974. This past week, I hosted a Zoom 50 year reunion of the key players, and we had an amazing time reflecting on the gifts from that shared experience and how they have continued to travel with us through time (not to mention that I just completed yet another full stage production in a former church sanctuary!) I hope you might enjoy a few images from the start of my career 50 years ago!
Blessings of the dance, now and forever!
Betsey
Betsey Beckman, MM
