"The Omega Experience"

by Alessandra

August 11, 1999

So, I have been studying with this Master of Mime, Samuel Avital for the past five years. In the time that I've known this man, I never had the opportunity to see him perform LIVE! before an audience. On July 28, 1999, I was given the opportunity to observe this Master in Action! Samuel was not only to perform, but he taught a 5-day workshop July 26-30, 1999 to twenty students at the Omega Institute in New York.

Omega Institute is a small mini-community nestled in the rolling green hills and forest area close to Rhinebeck, New York. Camping, cabins and dormitory space is available for housing. Classrooms are converted cabin spaces. One main hall serves as the dining area. There are main auditoriums for events and performances; a beautiful garden and lake to enjoy more quieter times; and a regular gathering place, a small café, for reviewing or sharing the moments of the day.

I made a surprise appearance to see Mr. Avital, Tuesday evening, July 27, 1999. It just so happened that instructors were providing a "sampling" of their work which consisted of a forty-five minute to one hour presentation of their teachings. We "sampled" the teaching for that evening. Samuel gave a sampling of his work, BodySpeak™ on Thursday evening, July 29th to a receptive audience.

Other works presented were Visionary Artwork by Alex and Allyson Grey, Personal Cinema and the Path of the Heart by Kevin Peer, Arts of the Dineh by Marilou Schultz, Continuum by Emilie Conrad, Natural Yoga by Garrett Sarley, The Natural Singer by Claude Stein, Developing Your Psychic Gifts... by Lynn Boutross, Facial Rejuvenation by Linda Burnham, Mindfulness by Santorelli and Urbanowski, and Upward Bound - An Adventure on the Flying Trapeze with Peter Gold and David Katzenstein.

The next morning began with a nice quiet walk down to the lake where Michael Craft, master teacher of Tai Chi, led a small group through the movements of this ancient art. After a simple breakfast, it was time to experience another BodySpeak™ class.

This class was very informal compared to the usual well-structured, well prepared groups that I am used to working with in Boulder, Colorado. All walks of life - young and old, curiosity seekers, and some eager participants came to partake for the week in this "unknown" form of working with the mind and body.

Fixations was the component of the day. "The purpose of learning fixations is to be able to break down large movements into small physical movements. The purpose is to rediscover the whole and find out how it is made. One learns to fix one part of the body in space, develops the attention and awareness to the details within the space, and then moves the rest of the body around that center point or "centre-fixé." Mastery of this principle develops clarity and precision of movement creating different points of reference on different geometrical planes."(See What is BodySpeak™?)

Fixing the various body parts was familiar and well known to my body. The challenge was to find new, different and creative ways to move around the fixed points. You can never learn enough from repeating and working with these components. Again, the ability to focus and concentrate on moving around the fixé, is quite challenging.

Observation of others is also a powerful tool. I learned to move my body in new and different ways just by watching the other participants. We then had the opportunity to work with a partner. Here, you learn to flow with another person's movements, just like in Tai Chi. It was interesting to observe how our center kept drifting off because of tension, trying to hard, forgetting to breathe or not keeping focused on the contact of the center to remain fixed. But as we progressed through the various body parts, our center did become more fixed. The hands were very good, and by the time we got to the hips and knees, a communication had been established for fixing the center.

This class session ended by students presenting the physical mandalas that they had formed the day before from learning about Bases. They presented their mandalas to the group and were given good, constructive ways to make the mandalas more aesthetic with economy of movement. The students were to present what they had learned at the evening performance in the Main Auditorium.

After lunch, I had the privilege to accompany Samuel to meet with one of his former students who is now head monk of Zen Mountain Monastery, Jody Hojin. We enjoyed a nice leisurely tour of the beautiful, peaceful and quiet grounds of the monastery. We met some very nice people, enjoyed the beauty of the day, and had the opportunity to visit a new site on the grounds - a Japanese Teahouse built by the community of people of the Monastery. Plans are underway for Samuel to possibly perform his new creation performance pieces, "The Ten Bulls" for the Monastery's 20th Anniversary Celebration; and also, the possibility to conduct a workshop there.

By late afternoon, it was time to put things together for the evening performance. Again, I had the opportunity to use my power of observation. I was like a sponge absorbing all that I was watching unfold before me. As usual, everything was tended to with care. From the clothes, to makeup, to creating the perfect performance setting, etc. Everything is handled with care, organization, but yet, with a continual flow of direct action. Attention to details! Attention to details! The lighting has to be just right. The setting of the stage has to be just so. Movement on the stage with the shoes has to be just right. What's the temperature like? "Testing! One, two three, Can you hear me?" as the sound is checked and balanced. If there was any nervous energy, it was channeled into "setting the stage" for the performance.

The excitment of the performance and energy was running high. Eager students came very early to reserve seats and were eager about their own presentations of the physical mandalas on stage. New and interested potential students came to gather information for the upcoming International Summer Mime Workshop in July, 2003 in Boulder, CO; and also for the possibility of sponsoring a workshop in their area.

Omega provided a "Master of Ceremonies" who did a very nice introduction for Samuel's performance. He played the guitar and sang some fine country tunes mixed in with introductions to Samuel's work and past performances. He also read, "The Fish Story" from the Le Centre du Silence Mime Work book.

There was a great turn out for the performance. Over 200 people came to enjoy "A Life Story - With and Without Words." This included a front row full of mischievous kids who helped out with the performance by offering special "sound effects."

The first piece of Samuel's performance was entitled, "My World." We watched with humor as he opens many doors to get "somewhere." And then in one room, we watch as he finds a large trunk. From that trunk, he continues to unlock many boxes, one from within the other, until in the smallest one, he finds one lonely balloon. He then blows up the balloon. It gets bigger and bigger. He enters the balloon and floats away while waving, bye! bye!

In his work "The Painter," there was the "one dot of paint." Then the line, then two lines, etc., until this crazy painter has created a masterpiece! We watched as the brush becomes uncontrollable, turns into a sword, and destroys his painting. He presents this mediocre painting in a museum and sells it "as is" for millions of dollars. His next creation is a huge mural painting done with buckets of paint that he throws on a canvas which is situated on the floor. He jumps in it, dances on it, does about eveything while continuing to throw buckets of paint until the second masterpiece is created. He signs it with his thumb and presents the painting to the audience. No buyers! Oh, such a sad note for our mediocre painter. This piece was developed to depict destruction as creativity. We watch how the depth of artistic expression can be dramatized to the point of destroying great works for a "just cause."

"Pizza Man" portrays real life disgusting habits as seen and unseen by the USDA and the fast food world. Pizza man does everything from pick his nose to scratch his butt, while scratching everything in between! All those disgusting habits are done joyfully while tossing the dough. Ooh! La! La! The dough is stuck on the ceiling. Now pizza man is having to beg for the pizza to come down. He begs. He pleads. He tries to make it understand that he's gotta feed his poor starving children. He kneels down and crosses himself. Whoops! Splat! The dough is like a huge umbrella tent all over pizza man. He emerges from the dough. He pulls, he picks and gathers it all together, adding stuff in between. Oh gross! The toppings are quite disgusting! He cooks it, bakes it. It is ready. He pours tons of cayenne on it to the laughs of the audience. He offers it to the crowd. Would you like some?

In "Banana Man," Samuel enters with a large bucket full of bananas. He takes a very small banana peels it, eats it, as if we didn't even know what was happening. The second and third bananas begin to become normal size, then a little bigger, and then even bigger! Oh my gosh! This guy is really serious about eating bananas! The last banana is so huge that he has to climb it to peel it and eat it. Careful! Don't slip on the banana peel! He then settles for gluttonous devouring while hugging the banana. He makes suggestive movements with his hips as he enjoys the taste and feel of this banana. He has really gone bananas. Oh banana man's poor stomach! After he finishes eating the banana, the performer stands still, transforms into a monkey and exits the stage to the roaring laughter of the audience.

We laugh again as we watch the serious "Yoga Student" try various postures (asanas) and "contortions" for connecting with the divine one. Yoga man tries to master the various yoga positions from his self instruction manual without success. We applaud his awkwardness and inadequacies while attempting to maintain physical balance and mental harmony. After all his attempts, he tries now to meditate while sitting in a lotus posture. He places his arms awkwardly on his knees, closes his eyes and tries to meditate. He widely opens his eyes trying to push his knees down to meditate without success. Suddenly, a fly lands on his nose to distract his concentration. He opens his eyes. He kills it. He throws it onto the floor, takes back the position, this time maintaining a perfect lotus position. Finally, his ego satisfied, he silently moves his mouth and does AUM! He then signals the audience to do AUM! The audience then applauds the meditation.

Ape-Man-Ape was a short evolutionary journey from ape to primitive man to the "high tech"modern man. The Ape discovers the weapon of the club, and we watch as he hunts, kills and eats to survive. The Ape then gradually transitions and evolves to the modern age where the telephone and the computer are the symbols for the "highly evolved" modern man. Modern man becomes frantic and frustrated by having to answer all the phones and becomes hysterical until, suddenly, he takes out a gun and shoots the telephone receiver out of anger. His frustration increases, and he shoots all the telephones, computers, the walls, people, until in the frenzy of killing everyone, he snaps! This is not a human being any longer. He has succeeded to kill all of life. We watch modern man de-evolve back to the ape posture, the gun becomes the club, and ape man hunts, kills, eats to survive. The audience is astonished by this sad five minute statement of human evolution.

Students of the class also shared the stage intermittently during the performance, wowing the audience with their beautiful, slow motion physical mandalas. The audience was very appreciative of their efforts.

Impression of the Artist's Style - From the first moment or glimpse of setting eyes on the figure standing before us, there was a definite connection with the audience - a certain strength, solidness, and confidence that exuded from this character. Samuel worked through his various pieces with the greatest of ease and simplicity. What he presented, left definite impressionable images. Body movements were agile, nimble, but yet precise. Samuel's connection with the audience and the enjoyment of what he was doing was infectious, even contagious. There may have been a gap between the stage and the audience, but there was definitely a bridge between the performer and the audience. He graciously shared the stage and appreciation of the work done that evening with his audience and students. Great mimes have always said that "The Audience is Their God."

Students then gathered with Samuel after the performance to share in a little review of the performance and to relax for the evening. Some students were so inspired that plans are being made to either come and work with Samuel at some time throughout the year, sponsor a workshop, or are gearing up to attend The International Summer Mime Workshop to be held in Boulder, Colorado in July.

New friends were made, old friends embraced. Former students of long ago were glad to meet up with Samuel to talk and share in memories of mime. It was quite a week! A sharing of a lot of creative energies....You must have been there!

Alessandra