REALIGNMENTS
REALIGNMENTS
a physically remote but spiritually connected collaboration
Debbie Danbrook
music and music video – Toronto ON Canada
Cilla Vee
dance and dance video – Asheville NC USA
During the year 2021, as the global community struggles to realign itself in the wreckage of pandemic, the REALIGNMENTS project seeks to promote restoration and renewal for all.
Drawing on the seasonal alignments of our planet Earth in relationship to the sun at the significant points of Equinox and Solstice, we create music and dance that presents an opportunity to realign ourselves.
RENEWAL – Spring Equinox
RESPLENDENT – Summer Solstice
RESTORATION – Autumn Equinox
REFLECTION – Winter Solstice
At each quarter of the year, performance artist Cilla Vee (based in Asheville NC USA) creates a dance video piece, while healing music artist Debbie Danbrook (based in Toronto Canada) creates music in response and unites all the elements into a complete video piece.
Each piece is 12 minutes long. The complete project is a 48-minute work.
Each artist also works with local collaborators. Cilla Vee working with four different female video artists and Debbie with her studio associates.
Throughout history, different factions of humanity have observed collective festivals, celebrations and holy days, individuals their birthdays and personal anniversaries. Yet these four seasonal re-alignments of the planet we share are something common to all of us.
About the Artists:
Debbie Danbrook is a musician, composer and recording artist specializing in music for meditation, relaxation and healing. She is a Master player of the Shakuhachi flute, an ancient Japanese instrument that was originally played by monks as a type of Zen called 'Suizen' or blowing Zen. Debbie is the first woman to have mastered this difficult instrument and weaves the Shakuhachi together with her voice in her ethereal music.
Her music has been embraced by healers and spiritual practitioners around the globe. She has released over 20 CD's of music through her company Healing Music. www.healingmusic.com
She has performed internationally and played at EXPO in Japan and has played for the Japanese Prince and Princess. Debbie was invited to offer her healing music at the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda.
Debbie offers: Music Meditations for individuals and groups. Mantra Sessions - create your own, personal life Mantra. Clearing and Inviting in Light Ceremonies for homes and work places. Now available on line on Skype, FaceTime and WhatsApp.
Debbie is an ordained Reverend and Priestess and performs Memorials and Celebration of Life ceremonies.
To receive the monthly newsletter please go to the homepage for www.healingmusic.com and click on Sign up for our Newsletter.
Healing Music also offers a Sleep Program to help listeners get a deeper and more beneficial sleep. www.sleep-program.com
Cilla Vee is the artist moniker of Claire Elizabeth Barratt, an international inter-disciplinary artist with a performing arts background. She is the director of Cilla Vee Life Arts – an arts organization with a focus on cross-media collaboration. Her work utilizes artistic disciplines of dance, movement, music, sound, text, media, visual arts, installation and performative action.
Claire received her professional training in London at The Laban Centre For Movement and Dance and at the London Studio Centre For Performing Arts. Her pre-professional training includes the Royal Academy of Dance and the Royal Schools of Music examinations.
She also served an apprenticeship with the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation in New York and was a Co-Founding director of Circle Modern Dance in Knoxville, TN.
She is the creator of the Living Art pedagogy for performance, accredited by Plymouth University through her MFA degree with the Transart Institute for Creative Research.
She has received a number of awards, including project sponsorship from JP Morgan Chase, NYSCA and the NEA.
Claire now uses Asheville NC as her home base and tours frequently to connect and collaborate with a variety of international artists.
#cillaveelifearts
“My work as an artist blurs boundaries and crosses categories. Re-defining the traditional concepts of a “piece” and challenging the conventions of performance, time, space and audience relationships.”
SPRING EQUINOX
REALIGNMENTS
RENEWAL
video concept, direction and performance - Cilla Vee
video artist, camera and edit - Martha Skinner
music and soundscape - Debbie Danbrook and Chris Gartner
sound engineer - Steve Raiman
shot on location at Richmond Hill Park, Asheville NC USA
march 2021
RENEWAL video link:
Renewal is a joyful yet gentle meditation, a soft awakening from winter. The Spring Fairy carries the anticipation of new life, running and spinning through the raindrops of the forest, calling the trees from their dormant state and strengthening the heartbeat of the earth. Earth responds by blooming with spring colors – the first flowers of the year.
Renewal is the first in the Realignments series of Equinox and Solstice meditations.
SUMMER SOLSTICE
REALIGNMENTS
RESPLENDENT
video concept, direction and performance - Cilla Vee
cillavee.com
video artist, camera and edit - Sara Baird
music and soundscape - Debbie Danbrook and Chris Gartner
healingmusic.com
with cicada field recordings by Liz Lang / Aurascene
stormylang.com/auracene
sound engineer - Steve Raiman
kensingtonsound.studio
shot on location at Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve, Folly Beach, Charleston NC
and Lake Powhatan, Asheville NC
may 2021
RESPLENDENT – YouTube link:
Resplendent is a deep heat of summer fantasy, a meditational journey. Warm, golden sun and cool, blue water guide the imagination to flow and float through this Summer Solstice dreamscape. A key to total relaxation.
Resplendent is the second in the Realignments series of Equinox and Solstice meditations.
AUTUMN EQUINOX
REALIGNMENTS
RESTORATION
video concept, direction and performance - Cilla Vee
video artist, set director, camera and edit – Liz Lang
lighting and assistant to Ms. Lang – Kimathi Moore
grip – Chloe Harnett-Hargrove
music and soundscape - Debbie Danbrook
sound engineer - Steve Raiman
shot on location at Rattlesnake Lodge, Blue Ridge Parkway, Weaverville NC USA
August 2021
RESTORATION – YouTube link:
Restoration is a midnight dreamscape.
Drawing on the restorative powers of the night …
of sleep and dreams.
A deep connection with ancient earth … with mud and tree and root.
Restoration is the third in the Realignments series of Equinox and Solstice meditations.
WINTER SOLSTICE
REALIGNMENTS
REFLECTION
video concept, direction and performance – Cilla Vee
video artists
camera – Julie Becton Gillum
supplemental footage and edit – Claire Elizabeth Barratt
music and soundscape – Debbie Danbrook
sound engineer – Steve Raiman
shot on location at Shining Rock Wilderness NC USA
November 2021
REFLECTION – Youtube link:
Reflection draws upon archetypal fantasy and magic to cleanse, heal and find peace. Situated on the Shining Rock, the winter priestess provides a safe haven from which to reflect on the past year as if viewed in a series of photographs, the heart and mind as if seen in a mirror.
From this perspective one can hold onto all memories that bring joy, while releasing ones of pain and trauma – throwing them off the rock to be carried away by the wind.
Reflection is the fourth and final in the Realignments series of Equinox and solstice meditations.
