Artist is `Braving' elements of living

Artist is `Braving' elements of living
DATE: March 26, 1996
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman (TX)
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Entertainment
PAGE: E8

HELOISE GOLD IN `8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday
WHERE: Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.
$10
INFORMATION: 499-TIXS


A friend of mine is planning a vacation. He wants to go to a yoga and hiking retreat in northern California or on one of those Outward Bound canoeing/spiritual renewal trips. He wants a vacation with stamina, onethat pushes the boundaries of endurance.

I'm afraid I don't get it. For me, just getting out of bed and facing life in the 20th century is a courageous enough act; I don't need to pay thousands of dollars to have someone else test my courage. And I am so pleased that local performance artist Heloise Gold not only agrees with me but is making an evening-length, alternative dance performance based on the concept.

``It's not so much stories of bravery or heroism,'' that interest Gold, she said, ``but what people do to just get by.''

Gold's new performance is called ``Braving It.'' Done in collaboration with dancer Marilyn Zaharov, the evening is spilt into two pieces. The first section combines visual elements, -- slides of everyday faces taken by Danna Byron, with taped interviews and a ``waking up'' dance ``about the courage it takes just to get up in the morning.'' Zaharov performs the repetitive movements standing up, while Gold goes through the movements lying down under a sheet.

One of the interviews you'll hear during the performance is a story of real bravery, the story of a wheelchair-bound composer Gold met through the art classes she teaches at HOBO, a local center for the homeless. ``She's an amazing woman,'' said Gold. ``At one point she was institutionalized, after a head injury, and there was no piano. So she would tap with her fingers on the floor, and she was composing music. That's what got her by.'' The woman isn't homeless anymore, she still is composing,and she does works in advocacy for the homeless.

The performance's second section depicts Gold's personal voyage in search of daily courage and her quest for religion. In Gold's case, it is the Jewish faith that drew her back to her roots.

``I've recently been involved in a group that does its own services,'' Gold said of the impetus for the piece called ``Renewal.'' ``Infact, it's called the Jewish Renewal movement, and it's about honoring tradition and bringing in new perspectives, like the feminist voice and the mystical aspects that have been lost in the the 20th century.''

The piece, in five sections, combines Gold's post-modern style of movement with her extensive training in tai chi to create `` sculptural'' movement. The final section, ``The Shawl,'' incorporates the use of a Jewish prayer shawl while David Perales plays traditional Jewish melodies on the violin. The shawl has significance to Gold, since it only recently has begun to be used by women in the faith. This particular shawl was a gift from Gold's brother and his wife, who is about to be ordained as a rabbi, although, Gold said, ``I think you can buy them in the synagogue gift shop.'' Maybe that's a metaphor for faith in the 20th century.

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