Forms of Fire

       Tong Ze Bu Tong; Bu Tong Ze Tong

if there is free flow, there is no pain; if there is pain, there is lack of free flow

defining principle of traditional asian medicine        — Huang Di Nei Jing, ancient Chinese text 

Forms of Fire is a contemporary theater piece (drama, dance, projected visuals, interactive sculpture, music), we present how the trauma of and recovery from trafficking alters three distinctly different characters’ lives, mind/bodies, and senses of self. By directly engaging the viewer with these arts, we evocatively depict how wounds incurred from what they see, hear and feel limit not only their personal stories – who they think they are – but physically changes the brain (neuroplasticity). As our characters each search to resolve a dilemma or crisis stemming from those limitations, each may (or may not) encounter a person, situation or item that helps re-cast themselves as powerful protagonists in their own story - ones who have successfully survived and are, perhaps, recovering agency

Will anything be lost during ‘recovery’? What does ‘better’ look like; who defines it? Projected visuals, interactive sculpture, movement/dance, sound/music and possibly wearable sensors seamlessly integrate these moving tales and suggest/allude how the brain/body/nervous system ‘reroutes’ as these characters strive to transform

Rewriting personal story requires memory and imagination, it is art — it is one’s internal art. Through our story, images, dance and sound, we aim to portray how this internal art commands the body’s ‘plastic capacity’ to change and to heal

Aureola’s Collaborators

George de la Peña is one of our leading living American ballet dancers, as well as a musical theatre performer, choreographer, actor, and teacher. He studied under Balanchine and along side his friend Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has served as Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet School. George delivered an astounding performance as Nijinsky in the Herbert Ross film of the same name. Since then, he has acted in dozens of stage and films roles – from Woody Allen films to StarTrek/Next Generation. He has directed for stage and screen; he and Andrei met when George directed Andrei’s one-man play at the Lincoln Center Workshop. He has taught at universities, including CalArts, Connecticut College, and is currently the Director of Dance Production and a professor at the University of Iowa

George and Aureola share a deep interest in neuroscience as it relates to human health/wellness, movement, cognition and emotion

Learn more about George de la Peña here and here

Melvin Gibbs is a Grammy-nominated bassist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist renowned for his versatility across genres including avant-garde, jazz, rock, and hip hop. Described by critics as ‘the greatest living bass player’, Gibbs has received numerous critics and readers' choice awards. A founding member of Harriet Tubman and a touring member of Living Colour, he contributed warmth and depth as a member of The Rollins Project. His impressive career spans collaborations on over 200 recordings, showcasing his exceptional talent and broad influence in the music world.

Micah Ariel James is a masterful playwright, poet, director and dramaturg who has guided, breathed life into all aspects of of this production. Her work is subtle yet vivid, with remarkable reveals, suspense while deftly infused with social and political themes and motifs

Learn more about Micah Ariel James here

Joseph LeDoux PhD  Director, The Emotional Brain Institute, NYU, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, NYU, Professor of Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical School

We are honored to collaborate and consult with pioneering neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux PhD. A preeminent neuroscientist at NYU, Dr LeDoux has graciously agreed to serve as consultant to help vet our postulates and to contribute original concepts. He is the author of hundreds of scholarly publications and books for lay audiences, most recently The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human. Currently, he explores the brain constituents underlying  consciousness, with an emphasis on fear-related conscious experiences. He is also a well established musician and songwriter, with his own genre (heavy mental). If we’re lucky, we may hear strains of his work in our final iteration  

Boris Gutkin PhD, Group Leader, Ecole Normale Superieure/The Pasteur Institute; Research Director CNRS; Invited Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Dr Gutkin is a pioneer computational neuroscientist and a Director in the Pasteur Institute's Department of Neuroscience. As the Coordinator of the Group for Neural Theory (GNT), he has significantly advanced the field of computational neuroscience through his innovative research on neural dynamics, brain rhythms, and decision-making processes. His work bridges theoretical models with experimental neuroscience, offering profound insights into how neural circuits function and adapt. His contributions have earned him numerous honors for his contributions to computational neural modeling and neural theory

life is going it is internal traffic

if things are going badly the traffic of the body and the soul is bad

if things are going well the traffic between yourself and the world is light or in any case bearable ––   Andrei Codrescu

Life stories do not simply reflect personality. They are personality –– Dan Mcadams

in production fall 2024-spring 2025; culminating performances summer/fall 2025