 I'm the first one. I'm Gary, Bertag, and in Norway they say Bertag. And anyway, I wanted to just begin by saying like so many of the other speakers, how I really feel honored to be invited to speak. And one of the reasons is that when I came here on Friday, I immediately felt this reality of what Bahá'u'lláh says when he writes that in the seven valleys he says, enter thou amongst my servants and enter thou my paradise. So I immediately felt that here and that's one of the reasons I feel so honored to speak. No. Okay, this is a wireless. Okay, good. Now, to cut right to what I'm hoping to achieve here, I'm going to show you some images of work that I've done and try and establish for you some of the considerations that I feel may be useful with regard to the direction that we've received from the Universal House of Justice, where they say the five-year plan ushers in a new stage in our efforts to promote the arts in the life of the cause. As with all other aspects of the expansion and consolidation work, the requirements of the time call on us to be more systematic in the use of the arts. They should not be considered simply an embellishment to our programs or an afterthought in our planning. Rather, they must become an integral part of our teaching plans and community life. The arts have a vital role to play in the process of entry by troops. And I'm quoting here from a letter addressed to the counselors, the continental counselors, all continental counselors from the International Teaching Center from the 5th of November, 2001. You'll notice that the Association for Baha'i Studies has really made an effort to scatter the arts throughout the process of our experience here. And I feel like for myself it's a real confirmation of the responsiveness of the institutions throughout our community to this premise. This is a premise and it's a profound thing. When we look at civilization, you know this conference is related to that theme of spirit in action. What are the things that really stand out about civilization? There are things that symbolize the achievements of the human spirit manifest. And there's quite a broad range of such artifacts. Some of them are objects, some of them are ideas. Last night we heard about Archimedes and Plato, the architects of Western thought in many respects. We've also with us illustrious thinkers who have contributed to the current forms of thinking, as well as, for example, the terraces at the World Center represent a kind of form that we don't see. This is a new form, very exciting. Abdu'l-Bahá says that in the future there would be a new form of art that's composed of all the former. He says this is from Star of the West. There will be a new art, a new architecture fused of all the beauty of the world of the past but new. Now, to begin this, let me just say that I've spent some time in the Arctic and there's different ways of hooking up dogs. This is just a kind of an aside to let you know sort of how I think. Basically there's two types of ways to harness dogs to pull a sleigh. One is in a row and the other is in a fan shape. It really depends on the terrain. If the terrain is pretty smooth you can hook them up in a row and go lickety-split. But if the terrain is really complex and difficult it's very wise to hook them up in a fan shape because they can all find purchase in different ways as you move across this kind of quite complex environments. I feel that we're at that stage in the use of the arts where in my own thinking I have to hook up my dogs in the fan shape. I can't really expect to go straight to the point. I hope you'll bear with me in that respect. It's kind of a non-linear presentation. The first thing I'd like you to consider with respect to using the arts in all aspects of our planning is that the arts are a way of knowing. This is simply put, I don't want to argue about knowing as a philosophical kind of state. But we have in the modern period really given a tremendous credibility to science and much less soul to art or the arts. This is better. I don't like the sound of my own voice so when it's down here it's not so bad. Let's see if I can get this on the screen. This first passage, I'm sure most of you know this. I call this in my own conversations with people. I call this the tablet of the fashioner and the omniscient. When you look at it closely the main thing about it is that Bahá'u'lláh braids both science and art together in the same breath. When we look at the hallmarks of civilization what do we see? We see the great temples and sacred buildings, whether they're for kings or deities, have brought together the best of technology and the best of art. If we look at say bronze vessels in China again it's the same sort of thing. These national treasures bring together the best in science and art. Currently in our world if we look at film we see a kind of braiding together of science and technology, the physics of optics and chemistry of film and emulsions and so on. And the arts. This is simply to indicate to you that the two things together are fundamental to what we consider to be civilizing artifacts. So if you look closely at almost any aspect of your life, whether it's food, whether it's shelter, whether it's clothing, transportation, you'll notice that everything brings these two together. We have fabrics that are the result of agriculture and the result of chemistry, organic chemistry. We have systems of laws that define boundaries of fields and of corporate structures and exchanges and so on and so forth. And it's very, very technical. However, at the point where the human being is going to utilize these things, they have to be made beautiful because we tend to prefer something that's beautiful to something that's just simply practical or utilitarian. So let me give you an example that I hope you can all take back to your communities because we love potlucks so much. This is one of our big civilizing elements is the potluck. And I mean this because food is one of the core unifying elements in human culture, human society. All of the trajectories that come out of our environment that develop food stuffs, like you have to do irrigation maybe for tomatoes and you have to have weather satellites so that you know whether they're going to freeze or not. And then you need road systems and trucks and supplies of fuel and so on to get the tomatoes from Florida or California to Yellowknife and so on and so forth. And this applies to every element of food that you end up with in your grocery bag. So anyway, you go and you bring these things back to the house and you prepare a meal. Now if you prepare a meal for a guest, generally you put some effort into it and you prepare it in the best way that you can and you serve it in a very considered way. So you set the table and you set it beautifully and you might include candles and you might include a few other things and your guests arrive and you eat. Now the technical elements are completed as soon as the table is set with the food and you begin to eat. As soon as you begin to eat, the art takes over because it's in that environment, that context of beauty, the way it is served, the way it tastes, the way it is presented, the attitudes and feelings it's presented with that give you the aesthetic experience and people will pay tremendous amounts for a culinary experience because it is aesthetic, it does become memorable. Now following the meal is when civilization begins to take off because it's after the meal that we begin to have discourse and we talk about things. We talk about stories, we talk, sometimes we sing, we may even have a drama and if you look closely at many ceremonies, you can see where the performing arts are generally related to the follow-up on feasting. So when we begin to discourse after a meal, it's in the discourse that we have ideas, we make plans, we think about things, options, possibilities, etc. And that's where civilization occurs. Civilization occurs between people as defined by their relationships and as nuanced by the meal and all kinds of other things. No. So if we look at Bahá'u'lláh's comments here, he says there's animating energies in this word the fashioner and it stirs all created things and gives birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous achievements you now witness are the direct consequences of the revelation of this name. In days to come you will verily behold things of which you have never heard before. And this is a good sign of what's in store for us as we begin to use the arts. Remember, Bahá'u'lláh says that the purpose underlying the whole of creation is in order that one soul would recognize him, his revelation. So here we are. We've all recognized Bahá'u'lláh. We are, in effect, why the whole creation was brought into existence. The Seven Valleys Bahá'u'lláh says, does thou reckon thyself but a puny form when within thee the universe is folded? What does this mean? It means that we have a tremendous capability to manifest energies and those energies materialize in civilizing artifacts. These artifacts, let me say again, are things like ideas, thoughts, and objects, processes. And when Bahá'u'lláh pulls this together with science, you see how powerful it is to realize that art and science are both ways of knowing. They're both ways of enabling human beings to establish civilizing artifacts. So let's begin to try to understand that art, in contrast to science, tends to imply rather than define. Science tends to define. It makes efforts to obtain understandings that are based on observations of nature. Facts, theories, and so on are constructed, and we begin to have increasingly clear understandings about the relationships that pertain within nature. However, in art, if you've been to a theater and what you need to do in art is you have to suspend your disbelief in order to experience what you're going to encounter. You know, you have an understanding that the play is written, that the costumes and sets are constructed, and that the actors are acting. But if you can suspend your disbelief, you can have a transforming experience. This means that the experience is coming out of human nature through a vehicle and affecting human nature. You can bring your dog to the play, and it won't really be transformed. It just won't. But a human being will be, because we're experiencing something that comes from human nature. It doesn't come from nature, it comes from human nature. And in the writings, Abdu'l-Bahá goes to lengths to distinguish between the reality of nature and human nature. Anyway, it's just to try to suggest to you that when we move people by troops into the faith, into our community, we need to be able to give them experiences that are transforming experiences, as well as understandings that are transforming understandings. If we only have one or the other, we do not have enough. We need to bring both to bear. And yesterday, when I was listening to the comments about the Black Man's gatherings, that's one of the things that I felt was really evident, is that the prayers provided everyone there with the experience of the faith. So how do we bring the arts into our devotional gatherings? This is an important question, and I'm not going to provide an answer because it's too early. There are so many different things that people can try out and do. How do we bring the arts into our potlucks? I would like to recommend that the potluck, the next potluck that you have, try to make it so it's not an assembly line, so that it's not an efficiency model, where you try and get as many people through the process as possible as quickly as you can. Try and make it something that integrates everyone somehow, like maybe put desserts on one table and all the different things on different tables and they have to go around and mingle or something. I don't know exactly what. Try and break that efficiency model, which is an understanding model, and move it over to an experiential one that engages human beings with each other. Okay, I don't know what, how much time do I have? I've probably used up all my time already. Here's another thing. I wrote to the research department and asked about this quote from Gleanings about what I just showed you on the screen, this one. What they wrote back to me is this, that this section is excerpted from a longer tablet revealed by Baha'u'llah. The section selected by Shoghi Effendi for translation is the only part of the tablet that deals specifically with the creative power of the revelation. The tablet does not have a particular name or title by which it is known, it was however addressed to a certain MH. The research department has not to date been able to identify the full name of the recipient. Now, they then go on and they provide three following extracts for my information and some of you know this quote. One of the names of God is the fashioner. He loveth craftsmanship. Therefore, any of his servants who manifesteth this attribute is acceptable in the sight of this wronged one. Craftsmanship is a book among the books of divine sciences and the treasure among the treasures of his heavenly wisdom. This is a knowledge with meaning. For some of the sciences are brought forth by words and come to an end with words. And it's in that quote, and I'd love to share the other two with you, but I don't think I have time. It's just there that I see the absolute clarity of my point is that the arts are a way of knowing. And as such, we are well advised by the Universal House of Justice to incorporate the arts in all aspects of our planning from beginning to end. This is going to have a reshaping and civilizing effect on our community lives. The message to the counselors suggests ways that the arts can be brought into focus through the devotional gatherings and the study circles in children's classes. So there again, these are three continuous conditions or environments in which the arts can be explored. This is not to say that everyone's an artist. I feel it's quite important that somehow this be understood. You know that the tablet of wisdom, I don't have the quote right in front of me, so I'll probably misquote it, but Baha'u'llah was asked about how creation was brought into existence. And he says something like this, that know that it was brought into existence through the heat that results from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. And as a performer, I used to sing for, you know, a rock and roll band. And one of the things that you felt instantly was that as soon as you started singing, the audience met you. And it's in the meeting that it's like an arc above both the audience and the performer that this is where the magic happens. And you as the singer are the active force, but then the audience responds with its applause. And they're the active force. And in between you feel lifted. You're given a new sense of what is accomplishment, of encouragement. And this is the reality of bringing the arts into our experience. We can be simultaneously audience and performer. We can be simultaneously the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. And this is the beauty of realizing that we don't all have to be artists. But we do need to be an audience as well. We need to be sensitive and receptive. Now, I'm going to just show you something if I can. Ah, let's see. How do I get rid of this? I'm not sure. Just automatically. I'm supposed to be a media kind of guy, but sometimes I get quite puzzled by these things. And, you know, a lot of people blame Microsoft. There's just another thing here. I'm going to show you some pictures, I think. This is Rizwan Mulkbell's computer. He kindly lent me. I'm looking for the, it's gone. A device. My disk drive isn't going to play. Pardon me. Well, it doesn't show up on the double-click what. I had them there. Yeah. Yeah, why? No, no, that's a different thing. That's a different one. Yeah, I don't want to reboot. Well, I have a series of pictures here I want to show, and they've just disappeared. We want the CD drive, and it's going to show up. Could you see if you can find it? No, I'll just keep chatting here. We want the CD drive. Try that, yeah. That's a local disk. That's CD. No, we want, it's just not showing up. Yeah, it's not enabled. So, 10 minutes left. Oh, dear. I wanted to show you a set of images that are representative of an understanding that I have about painting. And we'll just see what happens, whether or not I can actually show them to you. But I can go on anyhow, and I will. What I'm going to say is that there are three really long-standing ways that human beings have made images. And the first is representation. And throughout the last 50,000 years, there's evidence that human beings have made efforts at creating images in the sense that they are seen. You know, we're trying to recreate or reproduce or replicate, represent these particulars. Now, as you look at our history, you'll realize that the different cultures have what we call conventions or sort of formulas or theories of how to represent. The Chinese have a method where they put the biggest thing in the background in a sort of human scale like a building in the mid-ground and the human being in the foreground. And you get this kind of compressed but vast space that feels like you're in the mountains. The Western tradition say that we're most familiar with might be the vanishing point perspective. So we put the biggest thing in the foreground, and in the middle ground we have a medium size, and in the distance we have the smallest thing. It's just the inversion, but they both work. And so what happens then is that every culture has a kind of convention system for representation. Now, isn't it interesting that, oh, I'm over time. No? Oh, good. Isn't it interesting that we have in our faith the perfect exemplar, Abdul Baha, who we are supposed to represent. We're supposed to try in whatever ways we can to show how he lived in our own lives. And in a sense, we are representing Abdul Baha to the best of our ability within our limits. And when we think about families and communities and cultures, we'll see that each of those stages of collectiveness have a capacity to reflect Abdul Baha's life to represent it in a certain way. And this is as it should be because we have this instinct to represent. Children do it all the time with their parents. They model the way they walk and the way they talk and so on and so forth. So be like Abdul Baha, and this is one of the fundamental instincts that we have as people. Second is a kind of what we call doodling or pattern making or mapping. And mapping in art has to do with the idea that we create external models of internal conditions. And I feel that one of the things that most of the modern period has addressed in art is this issue of how we can investigate those realities of this instinct to create external models of internal conditions. And so sometimes it's very abstract. However, isn't it interesting that in our own faith we have this same capacity evident? We have it evident in the institutions and all the institutions that Baha'u'llah has given us enable us to create external models of internal conditions. So Hukukulah, we create an external model by our contribution of the inner condition. So the funds, so the feasts, so the marriages, so all the collaborative and consultative elements that we bring into focus are this same instinct that we see in the arts. The interest and the facility, we have to create external models of internal conditions. You got it. Four minutes? Perfect. Just on this, I'll use the pointer here, and you can see this section, this section is the representational section. This section is the abstract or mapping or doodling or pattern making section. And then these white bars are what is the third thing that we do in the arts, which is symbolize. These for me symbolize the kind of veil between the worlds, you know, the veil between states of being. Any boundary that we establish represents or establishes a relationship. And in the Baha'i community and in many communities, we know the power of symbolizing. And so we have holy days that we pay attention to. We have symbolic acts. For example, a few years ago the National Assembly of the United States brought up the original tablet of the Divine Plan to the National Assembly of Canada. This is a symbolic act. These symbolic acts are gathering points. Again, a symbolic act is not an understanding. It's an experience. It implies it does not define. And a symbolic act is an act of art. And these are powerful, powerful points of establishing connectedness and unity. So all these paintings I wanted to show you, unfortunately we won't be able to see, they are an exploration of this concept, this kind of idea of braiding these three things together. And then along with that, there's some writing in them. And it seems to me that when we approach a work of art, we approach it with our right brain. When we approach a written statement, we approach it with our left brain. We expect a certain kind of content to emerge from a written text. And we expect a certain kind of experience to come from approaching a work, a painting or some other object. And it's the two things together that create a whole experience, a whole-minded experience. Now I'll just quit that and I'll have to conclude here quite quickly. It's changed again. Oh well. And so it goes with these media things. If anybody's interested, I can show you some slides later or something. There's so much. You know, I've spent most of my adult life as a Baha'i. I became a Baha'i when I was 19. And I said to myself, if it doesn't work, I'll leave. But it works. It keeps working. It keeps enticing and enlightening. And I learned from the faith and I learned from my painting. I learned from my teaching. I learned from my family. I learned from my community. I learned all around. The trick is, how do you create an echo back? What we can do to find a thing, an object, a statement, a concept that will inspire, will be a portal into the revelation for others. And I just want to submit to you that this guidance from the House of Justice requiring us to give attention to the arts in all aspects of our planning is profound. It's very, very exciting. This is the seeds. These are the moments that will generate a new form that Adi Baha'i describes, this combination of all that is beautiful in the past and make a new architecture and a new art. I guess I'm out of time. I'm very happy to be part of this ABS conference and share this platform with these other fine artists. It's an honor. I don't have a lot of time since I would like to share with you some sequences of choreography on video as well. Because really the stage is my platform. Nonetheless, it is a healthy process for artists to verbalize what they believe to be the inner drive in their work and also helps them crystallize more concretely in their own mind, their aspirations as well. This panel furthermore is an important opportunity for people to understand a little more what it means to be an artist, what it entails. Every artistic process is different and unique. And this panel we're having is a wonderful opportunity for me to learn as well. When Abdu'l-Baha said, I rejoice to hear that thou takest pains with thine art. Maybe you've seen that quote before. It showed that he understood the artistic process, what it could entail, and that it can be a solitary and often difficult experience. For this reason, the artists in the Baha'i community needs tremendous encouragement and understanding, not just from the other artists, but the community as a whole. Although the artist should obviously not value himself strictly by other people's comments, his unique contribution to the advancement of the cause must be recognized and this can be done, as Gary said, in many different ways. As the arts take on an ever more prominent role in proclamation and teaching, I am reminded of the great art that has been produced throughout history, art that was initially considered ugly, bad, that was denounced, scoffed at. And now these works are considered masterpieces. I think the community as a whole should reflect on this as its artists go about refining their craft. The Baha'i artist has the potential to create the most unique, the most refined art imaginable. It is also inevitable that our traditional notions of grading art derive from the moral fabric of the society we live in, where the criteria for what is considered art of quality can be considered more than dubious. Baha'is should constantly remind themselves to look upon all art with fresh eyes with a keen sense of its purpose. In tablets of Baha'u'llah, Baha'u'llah says, Beware, O my loved ones, lest ye despise the merits of my learned servants whom God had graciously chosen to be the exponents of his name, the fashioner. That word comes up so many times. The one day there'll be a choreographic work on the word fashioner. Exert your utmost endeavor that you may develop such crafts and undertakings that everyone, whether young or old, may benefit therefrom. We are quit of those ignorant ones who fondly imagine that wisdom is to give vent to one's idle imaginings and to repudiate God, the Lord of all men. This is such a strong warning about what our attitude and mindset should be with regards to any work that is to be undertaken. We would all agree that not all endeavors undertaken in any particular sphere have as their underlying goal the love of God. So with talent comes responsibility, not every work of art. Furthermore, not all chaos that is channeled through our thought process should be thrown to the public with the justification that anything goes. I have to get it out. You can get it out and then you consensure yourself. There are always choices to be made. You can choose the canvases, the canvases you wish to display, you can choose the compositions you wish to share, you can choose the poems you wish to publish. This summer I was at the BAMP Centre for the Arts working on a choreographic work for six weeks, which I eventually called Covenant. It was a very intense and wonderful experience and I would be very engrossed in my work in the studio working very intensely with the dancers many hours at a time in this bubble, creative bubble. And at the end of the day I would walk outside and there are these incredible mountains for those who have been in BAMP, you know what I mean. These mountains reflecting attributes of God such as grandeur, majesty, omnipresence, these beautiful forms that were there long before I was born and will be there long after I've passed on. And they impressed upon me the realization that our time on this earthly plane is so short. And this occasion in BAMP made me question even more deeply the relevance and motivation of my creative process. I kept asking myself, what contribution do I want to make as an artist? Well, Bahá'u'lláh has given us many hints. In tablets as well on page 168 he says at the outset of every endeavor it is incumbent to look to the end of it. Of all the arts and sciences set to children to studying those which will result in advantage to man will ensure his progress and elevate his rank. Well, my main drive at the heart of all my work as choreographer is my preoccupation with this one question. How in my work can I elevate man's rank? What does it mean? How can this be done? I wrote a grant proposal for an arts council recently and I wrote down something which flowed quite spontaneously when I was describing my creative process which caught me pleasantly off guard. What I wrote was that it was more important for me that the spectator remember how he felt following a performance as opposed to what he remembered seeing. Now this might sound kind of obvious to some and maybe trivial to others but what I was getting at was that for me the physical vocabulary in the dance is a platform a vehicle by which to bring the audience to an emotional place a place that the spectator can relate to not just movement for movement's sake. Now Shogye Effendi said the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites man with God and he goes on to say that this quote unquote sense of spirituality is acquired chiefly by means of prayer. Well, this is the raison d'etre of art as well is to bring to people's hearts the mystical quality the mystical quality of being alive in the physical world. I'm going to give a personal example of this. A few years ago Baha'i friend of mine who had a bachelor's degree in sociology was working on an honor seminar and the focus of her project was how do Baha'i youth decide to become Baha'is? By what process do they arrive at this decision? Well, I agree to be one of her interviewees and I've never forgotten it because after a few rather intense questions about growing up as a Baha'i she asked me quite simply, why are you a Baha'i? And I answered by telling an experience I had during a national convention when I was maybe eight years old following an incredible arts evening arts presentation which featured among others Nancy Ward, Gody Monroe. We were walking back towards our car and I just started crying and crying. And my mother very calmly channeled it very well calmly and lovingly asked me what was wrong and I said nothing, I'm just so happy. This was I answered my friend why I'm a Baha'i. It was not something I remember someone saying to me in particular or attending Baha'i class or any other activity. It was what I felt to be the spirit and atmosphere permeating my childhood and in particular that night a feeling which since then I try to humbly recreate on stage that sense of spirituality that Shoghi Effendi refers to. To me this is the power of the arts that it can open up to us that mystical state which is the essence of the religious experience according to Shoghi Effendi. I'd like to touch upon a few aspects of my creative process as I go about trying to mold a group of individuals in front of me into a shape, a texture, a feeling. I title my presentation The Creative Process, A Mirror of Everyday Life because in the whole summation of an artistic process one is confronted with a spectrum of emotions and turbulence and tests that are at the very core of our daily life and which offer the artist an unprecedented opportunity for personal growth. In essence we think we have a semblance full over our lives but really what we should be doing as Baha'is as we know is trying to submit ourselves to the will of God to be receptive and open to the unexpected. This is not any different in the studio when working on a choreography. In a choreographic process you are dealing with dancers, artistic directors, musicians, administrative bureaucrats, costume designers, lighting designers there is an abundance of opportunity for challenges and tests. You do not have control over whether people will like your work as much as you'd like them to or whether your initial idea or inspiration will be brought to fruition the way you anticipated in the early stages. You have to keep your ego constantly in check. You must be totally detached from what surrounds your process. In the studio, as in life you really don't have control over anything what you do have control over is your motivation and integrity during the process. Now of course a professional artist has worked at his craft consistently throughout his life and has acquired capacities and knowledge about shape and form but I'm talking about seeking guidance constantly during the creative process. Audubah said we must strive to that condition by being separated from all things from all of the world and by turning to God alone it will take some effort on the part of man to attain to that condition but he must work for it, strive for it. Our spiritual perception our inward sight must be open so that we can see the signs and traces of God's spirit in everything. Everything can reflect to us the light of the spirit. Although I know I'm not a beginner when I enter a studio that with every project that I've done and refined my craft I still feel completely overwhelmed at the beginning of a project. It is a very solitary process but not a lonely one as this quote can attest to we are never alone God is always with us I can honestly say that the few moments of true happiness for me have come when creating when it feels right and it falls into place and you look up into the sky and you say thank you God I say a lot of Yabba Ha'u'llah in the studio creating is truly an act of worship as Abdu'l-Bahá says because it is such a challenge the ultimate exposure of oneself it forces you to elevate your character, your spirit and your intentions before, during and after the process. Often dancers come up to me after we've worked on a project together and they thank me and say that it was such a wonderful experience they felt respected and appreciated as people and as artists and I say well you're welcome but I'm really just treating them as I would like to be treated if I was working for a choreographer which I've done for many years if you don't simply, if you don't treat them with respect which is something that does not always occur in this profession how do you expect them to be willing to put their heart and soul into your vision this is ultimately why the process of creating a work is more satisfying than seeing your work on stage which more often than not is an extremely painful experience the ultimate test of detachment for you as choreographer have placed your work in the hands of the dancers people that for the most part you don't know personally at all you must trust them dance is an art form that is in constant flux it is live theatre there are no two shows the same how you collaborated with them the attitude with which you dealt with them the spirit in which you shared your ideas all affect the outcome of the performance as I look back on my years as a dancer dance was not something that I felt deeply passionate about in the sense that dance was everything as a result of some childhood process I somehow acquired the idea that passion being passionate had a very negative connotation during my whole career as a dancer where I was a very emotional and expressive performer at least I always felt I was I always had the idea this idea in the back of my head that I had to limit my artistic expression to stay in control now I truly enjoyed being a dancer I wasn't gifted with the perfect ballet physique I was tall which had its disadvantages but I had a wonderful career I was relatively injury free and I danced some of the preeminent works in dance history I got to see the world but dance ironically remained a constant battle of wits for me I would often get extremely nervous and stressed out for performances with much anxiety and insecurity now I bring this up because I had to be a dancer I had to be a dancer before being a choreographer and when I started choreographing as a teenager I knew that I had discovered something that was truly special to me that I truly had a passion for and this excited me very much and I kept saying to myself well if this continues to go well I will pursue it but who knows what the will of God is for me at this point in my life then as I moved on from project to project I started saying well this is God's will this is what I really would like to do this is my craft that I want to pursue this is my calling and I was really pleased to read what Bahá'u'lláh says in tablets as well he says true alliance is for the servant to pursue his profession and calling in this world to hold fast unto the Lord to seek not but his grace in as much as in his hands is the destiny of all his servants somehow this legitimized the passion that I felt I discovered something that I truly had a passion for a calling now of course if you look at what Bahá'u'lláh says you see that he does not say that passion is a bad thing but that one should not indulge one's passions he admonishes us in the Qatabi act to do away with evil passions and selfish passions in the Bahá'í prayers Abdu'l-Baha talks about help me to subdue every rebellious passion on listening to music Abdu'l-Baha asks us not to overstep the bounds of propriety and dignity these are all warnings reminding us that passions can lead us down dark roads whereas some can lead us in service as an artist this is evidently clear to me it is so easy to become wrapped up in one's work to withdraw, to become obsessed to become a potential recluse this is what Bahá'u'lláh is warning us about that it takes moderation and discipline to have stability in life many of the world's greatest artists weren't the most stable people many of the... you can be a really great artist and yet be a very unpleasant person other aspects of your life can suffer greatly for it is hard to be an artist it means being intimately connected with one's emotional being in my case it means living life's highs and lows very intensely it is therefore hard to be married to an artist I was talking about this with Gary before the trick is for an artist to marry another artist then you really get fireworks the great folk singer Joan Baia said something interesting she said the easiest kind of relationship for me is with 10,000 people the hardest is with one this is why Bahá'u'lláh's strong insistence upon the importance of family life for me has tremendous meaning I married and have two children by the way there is nothing more important than the family this is grounded my artistic pursuits and a firmly rooted reality of where my priorities lay you know the discourse in the art community is this for me? not used to giving speeches the discourse in the art community in my experience is not permeated with cultivating this sense of spirituality that Shoghi Effendi mentions rare are the conversations I have had about the God-given reality behind producing a work of art nonetheless Bahá'u'lláh explains that everything in this world has been enthused with the Holy Spirit through his coming whether people understand this or not and that's I have here the same quote that Gary put up about all the wondrous works he beholden the world have been manifested through the operation of his supreme and most exalted will through the mere revelation of the word fashioner issuing forth from his lips such power is released as can generate through successive ages all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce you know there's so much information in this quote that God the fashioner has sent down all we need to produce the most refined art imaginable some of the world's greatest artists acknowledged that they were aided by a higher source we were talking earlier about great works of art when first produced when first produced were considered incomprehensible or awful a great example of mine is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring when it premiered in 1913 it caused a violent uproar it was scandalous audience screaming drowning out the performance and you listen to the Rite of Spring today which is now considered a masterpiece which it is and it would still be considered avant-garde Stravinsky said quote I was guided by no system whatsoever I heard and I wrote what I heard I am the vessel through which the Rite passed and Gustav Mahler who was wrote some incredible symphonies when he didn't have to make a living as a conductor described the movements in his incredible third symphony as essentially attribute to the kingdoms of God he titled the second movement what the flowers and the meadow tell me what the third movement was what the animals in the forest tell me the fourth movement was what the night tells me the fifth movement what the morning bells tell me and the sixth movement which is absolutely incredible Mahler's third symphony go by it he called it what love tells me he said however he claimed that he could have just as well called it what God tells me and it is so true when you listen to it so I'm almost done here I want to show you a section of a work of mine a few words about dance I have this conversation with a lot of people when they look at dance they they feel like they don't understand it or they don't know enough about dance to appreciate it once you look at dance as one looks at a painting or listens to a piece of music one does not try to understand a piece of music you listen to your favorite piece of music why because it makes you feel a certain way when you look at a painting that's just what you do you look at it and are receptive to what comes across you don't initially analyze you don't initially analyze the technique or look at where the artist grew up to understand the work for example dance is not any different you do not have to be a connoisseur to get something out of it in a society with manipulative laugh tracks on sitcoms that tell you when it's funny when you're supposed to laugh when you're supposed to feel sad cue the morose piano on ER we have compartmentalized our emotive response we have forgotten how to feel from within in art not everyone will process the information the same way it will mean one thing to one person but something else to another it is incredible to have people come up to you after a show to share what a particular image meant to them in my work there is often a certain feeling of anxiety of a desire to surmount obstacles to struggle out of a situation to reach a higher plane of understanding and existence this is perhaps my own humble way to talk about our intrinsic nobility and to elevate man's rank when creating you start with a vision and as the work emerges it takes on a life of its own and this work of art becomes an offering a gift that comes out of a very solitary process and then shared with others it is no longer a part of you you have done your part so I've timed this very well so I should have I got 15 minutes of excerpts to show yes so I'm going to show you video is terrible for dance I mean it doesn't compare to live theater obviously I hate having to do this but nonetheless it's what we have to do, it's what I want to do I'm going to show you an excerpt of a piece I did in 1999 called an excerpt of the third and fourth movement of a piece I did called Taslim and Taslim Persian friends will know what that means I hope I explain it well Taslim I was searching for a word which explained the ultimate test in life and our mindset Taslim is that condition where you are totally overwhelmed by something and you have no choice but to surrender yourself to the will of God and there are the tests in life that we know we have to deal with like going to the dentist to get a root canal that's one kind of test and then there's the other kind of test which you feel totally unprepared for and Taslim means that mindset where one throws up one's hands and says okay God I'm in your hands and that's it thank you very much in Gleanings Baha'u'llah says the soul that has remained faithful to the cause of God and stood unwaveringly firm in his path shall after his ascension be possessed of such power that all the worlds in which the Almighty has created can benefit through him such a soul provided at the bidding of the ideal king the divine educator the pure leaven that leaveneth the world of being and furnisheth the power through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest in my delusions of grandeur as a composer I sometimes imagine that I know who's assisting me I like to imagine that the Almighty looks down on me and he sees what I'm working on at the time and and he'll say she seems to need a little help perhaps with her counterpoint handle you are a master at this it's would you go and assist her and he'll say Almighty ideal king and divine educator I live only to serve your bidding but she really sort of has a good handle on her counterpoint the framework within which you know her harmonic framework is perhaps a little beyond what I'm used to doing might I suggest Vaughn Williams and so the Almighty will turn to Vaughn Williams and say can you assist her please with her harmonies and Vaughn Williams will say Almighty ideal king and divine educator I live only to serve your bidding but did you hear what happened the last time I helped her with her harmony she's working on a on an opera might I suggest Giacomo Puccini and so the Almighty will turn to Puccini who can't think of an excuse to get out of it but Lord she calls me Jack and so poor Jack Puccini who can't come up with a good excuse gets sent down and he goes hello anybody home but just in case you think I don't take the process seriously let me assure you I do I take it very seriously and for me it's like childbearing in motherhood one of the most exalted of all careers and I know her if I speak I have a child my beloved little magnum opus Kansan who read for Karen during the second half of the gala somewhere along the line the seed of inspiration is planted and sometimes it's because I've been reading something sacred text and it will strike me that ooh this might be nice at it and sometimes it comes at really odd times when I'm doing something else it came to me one time at a recital and I was just enthralled at what I was listening to it was Strauss an entire program of Strauss and all of a sudden I started hearing these bells in my head so I pulled out the first piece of paper and started writing stuff down and my daughter's going oh my god who does she think she's doing and I was just trying to notate little motives before they flew away and I didn't hear them anymore and then I looked at what I'd written it on it was the back of a child support check so you just sort of never know when or what time these little things are going to happen then there's a gestation period I try to feel the rhythm of the text since I work primarily with vocal music and for me the text the text has to come first the music should serve the text and I'm not good with words but I work with the best lyricists in the universe I set sacred text whenever possible and I sort of hear melody and harmony at the same time in my head and some people probably think I'm schizophrenic I sometimes start conducting the concourse and my daughter says mom what are you conducting and you don't hear that no you're conducting phantom music again are you and then there's the labor process and I have to pace and groan and scream and cry and grunt and push and it's not a pretty sight you can ask my daughter and then finally the infant presents itself to the world to the material world and like a child it has to be nurtured and loved and educated and disciplined and tinkered with all of that is when the piece is being taught to the performers in my capacity as choir director this is a very great bounty to see this baby start to grow and develop and then finally hearing it performed for the first time I'm going to get sappy here it's a lot like watching your baby walk for the first time and those of you who attended the gala on saturday night heard my newest baby watched my newest baby walk for the first time the opera vignette from Zaynab thank you with Jolene has gotten to know me on this trip with the beautiful voices of Catherine Rasek and Leonard Whiting the fabulous tenor a composer's work is just so much ink on a page without the performers who bring it to life when we're talking performance art you know this it's just so much notation until you have the dancers to work with and for you it's a little different not a performance art but anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it and what another aspect of all this I wanted to talk about is and what they put in the program was a concept of managing art with propriety and I realized that this is a very delicate subject and we Baha'is really haven't even begun to address what all that might mean I want to stress that these are solely my opinions based on my own personal limited understanding of the writings and what they say about the arts and I will speak as a musician because that's what I know best I was not encouraged to continue in dance or art being the kind of kid that tripped over the flowers in the carpet and not terribly graceful with a paintbrush some basic assumptions for this presentation is I'd like to address the subject from the perspectives of the artists and arts programmers like what I did with my summer vacation this year and arts consumers just the general community it's going to mean many things to many different people but I think we will find that there's an awful lot of common ground as well most importantly before we address any issue is that as in all things whatever progress we make it must be rooted very firmly in our study of what the writings have to say and I think in order for us to begin to learn how to manage art with propriety we need to develop a program of systematic study of what the writings have to say and I'm very happy to report that steps are being taken in that direction two years ago during my tenure at the house of worship as the music director there I published a little book well it's actually not so little it's a hundred pages of a eleven point type called a gift of the Holy Spirit I compiled the three compilations on the arts that have come out of the world center plus oh everything related that I could think of and it takes you on a journey from the source of all art to through various uses of the arts the need for excellence and scholarship in the arts special instructions for the Mashik al-Azkar and the Hazarat al-Quds and on into the realm of professional and personal behavior and I actually started such deepening lessons we started our own study circle five years ago when we stood up that choir and every week we made it part of we made deepening part of our rehearsal routine and we found this very very useful I think this is an element of learning how to manage art with propriety it when you're talking about performance art the longer a group is together the more you build a group identity you get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and you can learn how to to compensate for each other of course but also how to draw strengths from each other in many different ways some are better singers some are better note readers some have more sense of interpretation some have better senses of humor some are very punctual some are very good organizers and we all learn how to to draw from each other and helping deepening and studying together besides increasing our knowledge of what the writings have to say was instrumental in our getting to know each other on a personal very personal level we started to understand how each other's mind works and that's very important you can put together an ad hoc performance group and it'll be wonderful and it'll be a fabulous bounty like no other and it's uncreatable but the ambience that it brings to the performance is very different from the ambience that you will feel from a group that is used to functioning together and working together on a steady basis on a regular basis and so that was the purpose when I first put this book together but a lot of people were interested in it and so I I started producing it and it was published by a really obscure little company called Celestial Navigation kind of a nice metaphor about how we wander through daily existence perhaps and it's findable if you're interested in it anyway I took the title of this address Managing Art from Propriety from Abdul Bahá'í it's found in Bahá'í World Faith and is one of those that has been authenticated and I want to read it for you it says in this great dispensation art or a profession is identical with an act of worship and this is a clear text of the blessed perfection therefore extreme effort should be made in art and this will not prevent the teaching of the people in that region nay rather each should assist the other in art and guidance for instance when the studying of this art is done with the intention of obeying the command of God this study will certainly be done easily and great progress will soon be made therein and when others discover the fragrance of spirituality in the action itself this same will cause their awakening likewise managing art with propriety will become the means of sociability and affinity and sociability and affinity themselves tend to guide others to the truth the points the most salient points that I found in this statement are those on the source of art and the arts and artists an exhortation to make an extreme effort in art as an act of obedience to God and then the positive consequences of infusing spirituality in the arts and managing them with propriety my wonderful colleagues here have already gone into wonderful writings about how all art is a gift of the Holy Spirit I want to add one to that from one of Bahá'u'lláh's tablets he says it has been revealed and is now repeated that the true worth of artists and craftsmen should be appreciated for they advance the affairs of mankind isn't that amazing what a tremendous what a tremendous burden that is to think as artists it but it's a tremendous bounty as well to know that we are given such equal status with the other professions in the world very often we tend to think of the arts and the sciences and I know this has been talked about too by my colleagues here and I want to give a little bit different notion about arts and science how we might look at them I'm turning into a real geek in my old age I love the dictionary and I love to look for the etymology of words the word science is hard to know but farther back than that it's Indo-European roots are the word to cut in order to know something to understand it we cut it apart and examine the pieces and see how they fit together how they interact how they amplify each other how they cancel each other out how they combine in new ways that's what knowing is about that's the material world we have and music and art has been called a praise worthy science at the threshold we cut things apart to see how they work and how best they assemble themselves to work most efficiently and effectively the flip side of that the yin to that yang perhaps the yin to that shiva is the word art which comes from the Latin word art but it's ancient Indo-European root means to join it's the same word from which we get arm right and if we look at it science and art could be perceived as two halves of the same process you have the knowing the cutting apart and the learning that takes place in the material world and then art is when you use that knowledge to join it with the spiritual realm and knowledge of the spiritual world so art and science really do go hand in hand and this is a very ancient concept colleges and universities today are still organized in such a fashion that they have the college of arts and sciences it wasn't until perhaps the industrial revolution that there started to be this dichotomy between the concept of art and science and so now with the writings that we have we can understand the confirmation of the ancient wisdom and start to bring the two back together equally