RIPENING - Dance Installation

ABOUT RIPENING

A mind-bending 3 part exploration of our psychological relationship with  time through dance performance, film, and art installation. RIPENING is a vehicle for navigating and observing the cyclical nature of all living things, blossoming, maturing, and transforming, moving from youth to old age to one’s imminent death.  Conceived and created by Vanessa Walters in collaboration with Brian Gonzalez, RIPENING seeks to understand society’s resistance to aging.

__________________________

rip·en   [rahy-puhn]  verb

1. to make or become ripe.

2. to bring or come to maturity, the proper condition, etc.; mature.

Ripening

1. Coming to full development; becoming mature.

2. Acquiring desirable qualities by being left undisturbed for some time.

Unless interrupted, all living creatures move from youth to old age, and then transition into decay. Ripening celebrates that journey and seeks to understand society’s resistance to aging naturally.

Arriving, becoming, blossoming, maturing, rotting, dying, transforming; the Ripening journey is an experience of many incarnations.

We understand the effects of aging and yet the arrival of those changes is inevitably a surprise. Is it merely the body that ages and not the essence itself? Do both ripen? Can we reconcile the inner with the outer? Are we the same being at 80 that we are when we are 5, or are we rather just in a constant stream of becoming? Can we truly become wise and still retain innocence?

___________________________