Dancers remember UCSB tragedy

Jacqulyn Buglisi's Table of SilenceChoreographer Jacqulyn Buglisi is staging her Table of Silence on 75 dance majors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in remembrance of the second anniversary of the Isla Vista tragedy, in which six UCSB students were killed. 

 

The commemoration—taking place Monday, May 23 at noon—will be an opportunity for the campus community to join together to honor the students lost, in a message of hope, peace and healing. UCSB musicians will accompany the dancers. Plus, the mantels and ceramic plates used in Table of Silence, performed annually at New York’s Lincoln Center on 9/11 since 2011, will be provided by the New York City-based Buglisi Dance Theatre. The commemoration will be streamed live at www.live.id.ucsb.edu

 

“We all have opportunities to perform dance that is beautiful, artistic, challenging, strange, but we rarely have the opportunity to perform dance with such a profound meaning in the larger scale of the world,” said Christina McCarthy, interim chair/director of dance at the UCSB Department of Theater and Dance.

 

Moving to the minimal cries of the singers, echoes of the flute and the ritualistic beat of the bass drums, the UCSB dancers—led by Buglisi Dance Theatre—will ascend onto Storke Plaza forming patterns of concentric circles to create a Peace labyrinth, symbolizing eternity, purity and the continuous life cycle. This sacred landscape becomes filled with the transcendent energy of the Mandala. The dancers extend their arms to the sky for a minute of silence, evoking the simple gesture of universal peace. 

 

Buglisi, a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, believes passionately that art can advance social justice by awakening our humanity and, indeed, in Table of Silence, both performers and audiences experience the power of community through art.

 

In Buglisi’s words: “Today, as these courageous artists express their passion for peace, striking the earth with their heels…moving in meditative rhythms of the heartbeat…we behold a sacred landscape.”

 

Originally conceived as a 9/11 performance tribute led annually since 2011 by Buglisi Dance Theatre on the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center, Table of Silence has a universal meaning and message, and has been performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Buglisi and UCSB express their deep appreciation to John Arnhold, an alumnus of UCSB and major supporter of the arts, for making this moving event possible. For more information, visit www.buglisidance.org or www.tableofsilence.org.

 

Photo: Helen Hansen French in Table of Silence, as presented by Buglisi Dance Theatre. Photo by Terri Gold.