element focus more than goddess

as this piece has developed, i am struck by a number of differnt things.

as many folks know, the whole concept for dancing goddesses came up when seeing a drawing of phloe's of Iemanja - the portuguese water goddess. in trying to bring her and other goddessses to life on stage, i have been able to collaborate with dulce, roger, adele, and alma. i also have been talking with roque to bring him on board as a percussionist for the fire goddess.

originally i thought we would just recreate an ode to these dieties. but as we have started to talk through how to approach the fire goddess, it has become clear that really what we are interested in representing artistically on stage is the essence of the element rather than a specific goddess (and all of the things that we would need to to do in a traditionalist sort of sense to evoke and appease her).

this seems like the best solution so that all of us can contribute artistically while at the same time not evoke spirits and energies unintentionally. this also doesnot affect costumes... it is more about how we are approaching the dances and how we list them in the programs.

narratively it also opens up room to allow audience members an opportunity to call the element goddess whatever name they might know her as. i.e., Iemanja is water, but some know water as Yemaya.