Call From the Afterlife
(originally Several Self-Gestapos…a siren-song from the afterlife.) 
Choreographer: Louise Reichlin
Conceived by: Linda J. Albertano
Music: Linda J. Albertano
Premier: Beyond Baroque (subsequently renamed on LA C&D programs)
Venice, CA, 90291
5/16/15

Original dancers: Elizabeth Poinsette, Coree McKee, Roman Bykov, Kirby Harrell, Linnea Snyderman and guest Anya Liffey

Notes from the Performance Artist Linda J. Albertano who commissioned the work: The entities are all parts of the author himself (author-poet Steve Goldman) taking stock of his life as he turns 71 and is approached by apparitions who try to get him to die… and NONE of them succeeds. Each dancer is a visual metaphor for the icons he describes. Yet none of them are literal.

The Devil/ Flamenco is a fiery, irresistible femme fatale who, still, does not succeed in capturing him.

The clown is more related to the clown at the corner of Rose and Main in Venus. But only in that she is also a ballerina. I see her as a delicate sugar-plum fairy until the music changes and she becomes disoriented and her movements become more angular and geometric as she loses control and finally escapes the arena

The Angel/Marilyn dancer is seductive, especially during her “Rhapsody” entrance and dance. Then the poet enters and a delicate wooing begins. Then a kind of heavenly passion grows with the dynamics of the song. But in the end, the lovers part, reluctantly, to opposite wings.

Lastly, the Reaper/Bedouin is a mysterious, unearthly creature… sultry, serious and alluring. She is mythical, powerful and other-worldly. In her dance, she simply reveals her own spiritually erotic authority. She is a powerful Deity who, nevertheless, fails to ensnare him.