by Robert Wilkinson
Today we celebrate the November 18 birthday of a truly unique artist and Spiritual force in our world, my dear friend Sally Jacques. Indescribably beautiful and affecting tens of thousands over decades of performances, her creations are the peak of blending of art, science, and precisely focused movement. These awe inspiring performances combine elegance and style to take us into timeless spaces. Today I'll show you the way to some amazing videos of her pieces offering fairly breathtaking imagery.
For those who haven't had the privilege of getting to know her through past birthday celebrations, Sally is a remarkable woman of deep compassion, intensity, integrity, and devotion to all that is good, or could be good, in our world. I met her about 40 years ago when we joined with others to do some human rights and anti-war work, and we've been close ever since.
She is based in Austin, Texas, and for those of you lucky enough to be able to attend any of her works, you will find yourself transformed forever by some of the most memorable and graceful performance art one could ever behold. Given that she also has an extraordinary wit and wisdom, I am pleased to be able to call her my friend and Spiritual Sister.
Her performance company is called Blue Lapis Light, self-described as "site specific aerial dance." Austin’s major alternative paper the Austin Chronicle has written "Sally Jacques' work inspires a kind of wonder that connects us to the grandeur of creation." When you've witnessed multiple performers doing aerial ballet many feet above the ground, bathed in surrealistic lights, doing even more surreal movements perfectly coordinated in unique forms, you know you're in the presence of true artistic genius.
By all means, explore the videos available via the links on her front page. Here's a direct link to the multi-media library that houses the magnificent work of this equally magnificent artist and the Blue Lapis Light performing company. The names of these clips say it all: "Illumination," "Constellation," "Requiem," "Impermanence," "Angels in our Midst," "Whispers of Heaven," and "Where Nothing Falls II." Please check them out if you want to be transported out of the mundane world for a few transcendent minutes. These refresh the Soul.
The amazing thing about these performances is they are not done in usual venues, but instead on very improbable multi-story structures where her intention of creating beauty and peace through culture is imposed on buildings that house thought forms that are usually NOT "peace through culture." She brings the elegance of high art to spaces where there previously was none, and transforms dull shells of buildings into venues of timeless art and culture. Her most recent works took place on the BLL property, where scaffolds were erected for the aerial ballet.
To give you a sense of where she’s coming from, she created a work in 2015 titled Edge of Grace. Here’s her statement about the work:
Grace finds you in the darkest
Grace Breathes the HeartWe are facing climatic and environmental devastation, extinction of species, ongoing wars, attacks on women, and racial discrimination. Many of us are dedicated to changing this paradigm and have been seekers on the path to compassion, connection, cooperation and harmony with one another, as well as caring for our planet.
Edge of Grace opens to music by Max Richter. It is titled Sarajevo. I was in the former- Yugoslavia, during the war in 1992, and there was a story being told about a cellist named Vedran Smailovic, who every day at noon, sat in a pile of rubble in a burnt out ruin and played his cello. He became a symbol of hope for the people of Sarajevo during this time. His courage and inspiration is the manifestation of Grace, in the heart of a terrible darkness.
In creating this work, the scaffolding with its bars, and confined spaces evokes a symbol of the limitations and challenges we face in our lives, as well as exploring ways to move through them with Grace and beauty.
It is said that when we envision our dreams, the Universe conspires to make them happen. Now is the time for us all to dream the dream of manifesting love and peace in the world and for all we share it with.
Sally Jacques
For more about The Edge of Grace and this remarkable woman and her work, please check out this 2-part series in the Austin Chronicle.
”Moving Toward the Edge of Grace”
And from a week later, a companion piece: The Edge of Grace
Here’s something from KMFA that has a 41 minute video of the Blue Lapis Light performance of In Light on the IBC Bank Building downtown in September 2014. KMFA – Blue Lapis Light Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
Here’s what she offered in 2017 about her amazing project titled Belonging – Pt. 1:
Our earth is place of great wonder and beauty. Every animal, insect, tree, plant, mountain, desert, ocean, bird and human being belongs here. We are part of a great mystery, inter-connected like the root system of trees, feeding and nurturing the other trees even as they die off.If you want to see the video where this is the voiceover, it's powerful!It has been said that when a butterfly flaps it wings it is heard all the way around the world. Every act of kindness and compassion lifts the heartbeat of all of us. Every act of war and violence hurts us all.
We are facing extinction of species, and environmental devastation at an alarming rate. Because of our intrinsic connection with every animal, plant and mineral, our survival is dependent on the earth thriving. Now is the time for us as citizens of this planet, to join to gather and create the world we want, where we all Belong, where we respect and honor our earth and one another.
Belonging is a new site work that explores our inter-dependence with and relationship to the natural world. Belonging will be held on the JJ Pickle building in Austin in 2018. This piece will include film and digital imagery, as well as ground dancers, aerial dancers and rock climbers. During 2017 and 2018 we will workshop and perform sections of this piece throughout the year.
This work continues Blue Lapis Light’s mission of creating transcendent works of beauty as prayers for the planet. Blue Lapis Light is a non-profit site-specific aerial dance company now in its eleventh year. In addition to creating large-scale outdoor performances, we offer aerial dance classes to people of all ages and abilities, both in our studio and on-site at local social service organizations. Our Youth Taking Flight program inspires underserved youth to create stunning performances for our community. Our dedicated students commit to learning aerial silks and harness techniques, ultimately creating professional-level dance showcases for the public.
Her 2019 offering was titled In Light. As always, it was breathtaking, inspirational, and a transcendent creation. Here’s the Austin Chronicle review of In Light, and here’s a little piece:
Then, suddenly, toward the setting sun, on the building across the street, several stories higher than you are, four women appear, their feet pressed against the building's side, their bodies perpendicular to it. Bathed in radiance from far below, they push off the structure – what is upward to them, sideways to us – to tumble in somersaults, to spin like pinwheels, sometimes in unison, sometimes in sequence. The grace and joy they display, the harmony in their movements, their united defiance of danger and gravity, sets them apart from you and all that keeps you earthbound. They are beings of wonder, belonging to another plane, and as you watch them in awe, your ears fill with the voice of Tina Marsh, steeped in heartache, singing of the heaviness the body settles in and the road we all travel and calling all angels to walk her through this one and not leave her alone. And you feel as if these women who look to have transcended that heaviness and this world could be those angels to walk us through it, as Marsh sings, "before it's too late."
In 2020 Blue Lapis Light offered us Beyond the Clouds 2020. Describing this unique piece, we are told “The work is a poignant reflection on our individual and collective energies during these challenging times. Days often become passageways into despair and isolation, but this is also a powerful time for growth and change, a time to recognize our humanity to one another as well as our responsibility to our beautiful earth. All is visible, as when a dam breaks and the waters rush through, flowing and moving, unleashing with great momentum and freedom. Our choice is what we do with it.
Beyond the Clouds 2020 is inspired by the many who have dedicated themselves to peace and to uplifting others, those who have the courage to walk with truth, even when the risks are great. Dance connects us and provides ways to reveal complexities of life’s emotions and our reactions to world events.
It is through the arts that the world accesses its collective memory of what has been lost, buried and forgotten. Art offers an emotional vision of a world transformed and is a gift of solace and beauty in the midst of harsh and brutal conditions. Beyond the Clouds 2020 reflects this inspiration and provides a visual and aural experience that reveals the commonality in our humanity.
2 years ago we were give a reprise of Edge of Grace, this time on the BLL property in South Austin. Updating the description, Sally tells us “Edge of Grace is about exploring spaces between edges, seeking a way to move in and around challenging surfaces. Similarly to life, when unexpected and unfamiliar events occur, we find ways to navigate through them seeking spiritual guidance and support.”
Her 2022 offering was called Belonging, and the 2023 production is titled Belonging II Universe. You can find out more by going to the gallery on the organization page. You can also access them via the Blue Lapis Light Facebook page.
Sally also offers classes on a limited basis, and there’s always a waiting list. But if you’re into “site specific aerial ballet” as a potential artistic expression, this is some of the most iconic and beautiful performance art anyone could create.
Happy Birthday, Sally. May your work inspire the world to imagine greater dreams of what is, and what could be. May your work continue to attract the attention, respect, and resources needed to spread this iconic beauty globally. Aum Namah Shivaya! Aum Namah Mahabodhisattva! Aum Namah Ammachi!
© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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