Anaïs, A Dance Opera: 1st Showing

Anaïs, A Dance Opera, explodes on stage incorporating music, dance and visual projections into a cutting edge stage production that explores and illuminates the engrossing life of famed diarist and literary figure Anaïs Nin. Created by composer-lyricist Cindy Shapiro and director-choreographer Janet Roston, this mesmerizing hybrid stage production, produced by Mixed eMotion Theatrix, will be performed at The New Vic Theater in Santa Barbara, for a two-show engagement September 8 and 9, 2017.

Sensuous, probing, compelling and thought provoking, Anaïs, A Dance Opera, is presented with one female vocalist supported by six dancers who tell the absorbing life story of Anaïs Nin. The dancers bring the controversial author to life in a production that shatters stage conventions in the same way Nin herself violated literary and societal expectations. 

Cindy Shapiro’s lyrics and music, with Janet Roston’s intricate choreography and direction, and deeply engaging visual projections by designer Joe LaRue, weave Nin’s story, intertwining excepts from her diaries and her groundbreaking erotica. The dancers and vocalist unveil the author’s journey of self-discovery, which took her from a naïve young housewife into the café society of Paris where she emerged as an important literary figure during the 1930s, through her life in the United States during and after World War II, to her death and its aftermath in the 1970s.

With Anaïs, A Dance Opera, Cindy Shapiro and Janet Roston, whose other work together includes the rock opera Psyche, delve into Nin’s life and writings, addressing the author’s complex relationships with her father, her husbands, and her lovers, including her most famous paramour, Henry Miller.  And as Shapiro’s carefully researched and compelling libretto reveals, Nin’s deepest and most passionate relationship was with herself, she was the “original blogger,” for her the act of self-examination through writing was more intimate act. 

Music and lyrics, composed and written by Shapiro, an artist-in-residence at Cité International des Arts and a Tides Grant recipient, blend classical contemporary layering with a rock sensibility. The dance choreography created by Roston, an Ovation Award-winner, is contemporary with sections inspired by vintage dance. The result of their collaboration is sonically compelling, kinetic and full of visual surprises.

Anaïs, A Dance Opera, which has the support of Anaïs Nin Trust and Nin’s publisher Paul Herron, celebrates Nin’s story as one of personal and artistic triumph, placing her rightfully as a woman who carved a place for herself in a traditionally male world. Nin blazed a trail for visionary souls. Anaïs, a Dance Opera, brings her story to a new generation with Shapiro and Roston’s post-modern and compelling interpretation.

The show is returning from a triumphant month-long run in France at the Avignon L’Off Festival. The public warmly embraced the show and a French tour is planned for 2018. 

The New Vic Theater is located at 33 W. Victoria Street, Santa Barbara CA. 93101. Anaïs, a Dance Opera, will be performed for two nights only. Friday and Saturday, September 8 and 9, 2017 at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 805-965-5400, online at  http://newvictheater.com/anais . The Box Office is located inside the New Vic Theater and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 1:00pm – 5:00pm and one hour before performances.