SAMĀ
A Resonance Collective Production
Inspired by transcendental spiritual practices from around the world, SAMĀ is a multidisciplinary piece that explores the trance state through voice, percussion, live-electronic processing, dance, and projections.
About the work
SAMĀ is inspired by the Sufi practice of Sema (“listening”), which is a form of Dhikr (“holy remembrance of the divine”). The most recognized expression of the Sema is the whirling dervish tradition of the Mevlana Order, founded by the 12th Century poet Rumi. Many Sufi practices use music and movement to attain the ecstatic, trance-like state that is the heart of Sema.
The concepts behind SAMĀ are influenced by a number of spiritual practices beyond the Sufi tradition. The goal of the work is not to imitate or even evoke these practices, instead, SAMĀ utilizes the artistic tools of these traditions (drone based music, repetitive visual and rhythmic patterns, ceremonial gesture, bilateral stimulation, etc.) to create a ritual space where performers, and by proxy the audience, can drop into an altered state of consciousness.
SAMĀ is conceptualized as an immersive audio-visual experience for both performers and audience members, featuring live sound, movement, projected animations, and lighting design. The creative team consists of two dancers one percussion-playing vocalist processed through live-electronics, a live video/projection artist, and lighting designer all of whom are responding in real time to the energy of the piece and they explore their own ecstatic state of mind.
Like the whirling dervishes and all transcendental ritual traditions, the purpose of SAMĀ is to find and share meaningful overlap between performance and prayer.
Creative Team
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Composer and Musician
Like the Resonance Collective as a whole, Fahad Siadat's work sits at the intersection of artistic and spiritual practice. He creates meditative solo pieces and interdisciplinary storytelling works, folding together words, sound, and movement into ritualistic narratives. His work is described by the press as “Exceptional” (LA Times), “hypnotic” (Backstage) and having “a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary” (San Diego Story) with “characteristic vivaciousness” (Theatre Scene). He is an advocate of innovative and adventurous music and approaches this advocacy as a performer, composer, conductor and entrepreneur.
In addition to directing the Resonance Collective, Fahad also directs the new music vocal ensemble HEX and is an active composer and performer. He has appeared as soloist with LA’s groundbreaking opera company The Industry, and the Grammy Award-Winning PARTCH and is regularly commissioned to write for concert music ensembles, dance companies, and theater troupes including: Cor Cantiamo, Theater Dybbuk, Rosanna Gamson Dance, Monmouth University, Jacksonville Dance Theater, the California EAR Unit, and the TOCCATA Orchestra. His music has been performed in Europe, China, and across the United States. To hear his work, visit www.fahadsiadat.com.
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Choreographer and Dancer
André Megerdichian has worked with such companies and choreographers as the Limón Dance Company, Dance Kaleidoscope, the Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Janis Brenner and Dancers, Seán Curran, and Daniel Charon. As a choreographer his work has been presented by numerous Universities, festivals, and dance institutions throughout the United States and internationally in the Czech Republic, Austria, and China. As the Co-Founder and Director of New Works for the Resonance Collective he is deeply drawn to creating interdisciplinary, collaborative works driven by narratives of transformation and discovery.
His work is rooted in the deeply humanistic, highly physical, explorations of modern dance traditions while exploring the diverse multitude of tensions and curiosities of today. André is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina and has served as a faculty member at the Duncan Center Conservatory in Prague Czech, Republic, The Limón Institute in New York City, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and teaches master classes and workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and China. He holds a BFA from Butler University and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts
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Choreographer and Dancer
Jennifer Deckert is a native of St. Louis, Missouri where she began her training with Alexandra Zaharias. She received a BFA in ballet performance from University of Utah, performing with Character Dance Ensemble, Eastern Arts Ensemble, and Utah Ballet. Jennifer continued to perform for Utah Ballet as she received her MFA in ballet teaching, choreography, and research.
She was then invited to join Roxey Ballet, under the direction of Mark Roxey. During her performance career she performed such leads as Myrtha in Giselle, Dew Drop and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Prelude in Les Sylphides, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the principle role in Paquita. As her performance horizons broadened she was invited to perform in Charles Weidman’s The Unicorn in the Garden and was coached by modern dance pioneer Mary Anthony herself. In 2014, she choreographed and performed in the evening length duet, Kiss Romeo Bang! Juliet, created in collaboration with Czech physical theatre director Petr Hudecek and co-choreographer André Megerdichian, presented at the Alta Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic.
Other choreographic credits include Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella, and original contemporary works Fire & Ice, A Perfect Thorn, Footfalls Echo, Reverb and Through the Line, among others. In 2015 she was invited to present work at the 3rd Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition in Beijing, China. Most recently Jennifer choreographed a full-length Dracula working in collaboration with composer Sean Stone, and dramaturg Patrick Konesko.
As a rehearsal director, Jennifer has had the honor to coach original works by Darrell Grand Moultrie, Daniel Charon, Bill T Jones, and Jesse Obremski. In 2016, she worked with Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba in his reconstruction of José Limón’s The Winged, which was then invited to the Kennedy Center and performed as part of the American College Dance Association’s National Festival. Most recently she worked with ABT legends Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner in their reconstruction of Antony Tudor's Fandango.
Prior to her appointment at University of South Carolina, where she currently serves as Director of Dance and Associate Chair, Jennifer was on Dance Faculty at the University of Wyoming where she worked to establish a BFA in Dance Science Program and served as director of the Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival. Jennifer has been an invited guest instructor at the Utah Valley University, Colorado State University, Casper College, Western Wyoming College, University of Utah, American College Dance Association, Regional Dance America, and the Duncan Center in Prague, Czech Republic.
Jennifer is also a fierce advocate for dancer health and wellness and an active member and previous board member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS), where she now serves on the Dance Educators’ Committee. Her research interests include dynamic alignment, the effects of fatigue, and the integration of wellness based training into the classroom and University environment. Jennifer has several published articles and is currently working as a contributing author for two book chapters on dancer wellness and research.
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Projection Artist
Sarah Turner is a new media and video artist who creates large scale immersive environments and performances through analog media and creative coding. She engages in ritual and contemporary mythologies to augment reality through performative psycho spiritual activations and explorations of the absurd. Her work has been shown at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Meow Wolf, Portland Art Mzuseum, Wieden + Kennedy, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Northwest Film Center, Spaceness Festival, Marfa Open Festival, Laboratory Residency and more. Turner received an MFA at Alfred University in Electronic Integrated Art
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Lighting Design
RS Buck in a Los Angeles-based international producer, designer, and manager for live experiences. Their work focuses on creating safe-spaces for whimsical satisfaction. Design Credits: For IHP: The Water Saga (Production Manager, West Palm Beach 2020); Exodus: Resettlement (Lighting Designer, Omaha 2019); The Sarah Play (Lighting Designer, Kansas City 2017). International: Brecht (Be Moving, Israel); Cages (Woolf and the Wondershow); Orpheé (Deaf West, Japan, postponed 2020); Ínsula (The Useless Room, India, postponed 2020); Antigone (Yin Mei Dance, China), ¡Anarchist! (Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, Mexico). LA: Canyon (Kirk Douglas Theater); Buyer and Cellar (Celebration Theatre); Orphée (Deaf West), The Conference of the Birds; The Moon has Made us Brothers (The Resonance Collective), Anyone But Me, The Oxy Complex, Mama Metal (IAMA Theatre Company), herd; Most Famous Mixtape (BODYART Dance), After it Happened (Invertigo Dance Theatre), Machines and Strings (Isaura Quartet). Producing and Management Credits: Touring: CalArts Expo 2018-2023; The Latrell Show (IAMA Theatre Company); Formulae and Fairy Tales (Invertigo Dance Theatre); The Conference of the Birds (The Resonance Collective); MASS (Milka Djordjevich Dance); Near Vicksburg; Mickey and Sage (Foxy Films). They hold their MFA in Experience Design and Production from California Institute of the Arts.
What people are saying
From Oregon Arts Watch:
“Samā is a careful piece of contemporary performance art that raises the question of art’s relationship with the divine.”
“a rich and engrossing tapestry of sound, enveloping the audience in its warm glow.”
“an entrancing and transportive experience.“
Artist’s Note
“This is the night of radiant depth, unfolded.”
That is what the poet Rilke wrote after witnessing the Sema of whirling dervishes in Istanbul. The word Sema means “listening”, but it is a listening with the whole being, both physical and spiritual. It is an ecstatic, embodied spiritual practice. Whirling is the tradition of some Sufi orders, but Sema can manifest in many kinds of sound and movement – clapping, shouting, and all manner of gesture and noise. The physicality of Sema is the natural response to hearing an echo of the Absolute. The practice shares kinship with the ancestral possession ceremonies of Candomblé, the glossolalia found in the Pentecostal church, the transformative rituals of Balinese Kecak, and any other traditions made by those who seek closeness with mystery.
SAMĀ, is the art of losing control. It is a devotional and disciplined practice, one that begins by arriving in body and mind, attuning ourselves to one another, and opening ourselves to deep listening. The practitioners walk a path, more often a labyrinth than a straight line, building heat until the fire burns in ever larger and unpredictable waves. If we are diligent, and a little bit lucky, we may catch a glimpse of the place beyond this world and the next – a palace of silence, which we can carry with us in the days to come.
