I chose to visually represent the moral contradictions contained within the text by incorporating diverse movement qualities: Some of the bacchanal dances pound and pulsate, some drone and warn, while others tickle and seduce the audience. Because the story magnifies religious fanaticism, we sought inspiration in many venues. We examined everything from turn of the century snake dancing and evangelical Christian rituals to Helter Skelter, the fantastic Vincent Bugliosi account of Charles Manson and the Family. I tried to understand the type of woman who killed for Manson and her confused interpretations of love, violence and God. I recognized and utilized the manson womenÿy´s calm physical stature, which hides powerful anger, simmering just below the surface.

At the top of Act 1, The Bacchae say they come from the heart of Asia; therefore, in their travels to Greece, they would have adopted an eclectic mixture of dance styles. For the first production of The Bacchae at Harvard's A.R.T, We looked at dances from India, Indonesia, and Africa.

-The Divine Horseman incorporated documentary footage of ecstatic dance and music from all over the world. Vodoun (a complex system of deities and rituals that many Africans adapted to Catholicism in an effort to survive as well as blend in) and the Janvelu which is like an ancient spine undulation dance used to create a heightened ecstatic state invented by the Congo tribe of Africa whose roots can be seen today in modern day Jazz, Rhumba (more secular) from Cuba and Mambo (modernized impression of Rhumba)
-Balinese Dance and Gamelan Music with dancers so deep in trance, only holy water can wake them. The complicated and unpredictable canonic rhythms of Gamelan inspired me to utilize unison in the dances when the women are teaching a lesson or cautioning the audience.
-Dervishes: Kurds from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran and the U.S.S.R. In a state of ritualized ecstasy, some would repeat bowing and licking hot rocks while others would hyperventilate and poke rods through the flesh of their cheeks to to prove their faith. Some Dervishes simply spin; one hand up, one hand down for hours at a time until the desired state of mind is achieved. The primal desire to prove one's personal intimacy with God iss a definitive theme and common thread throughout the Bacchae.
-Classical Indian Khatak Dance which tells stories to pass down lessons and morals.

For the re-staging of The Bacchae at N.Y.U this fall, I incorporated research that I conducted in Greece this summer. Having looked at the ruins of the many Dionysian Theatres that are still standing, I decided to broaden the dances to fulfill the epic quality the play must have had when it was originally performed. The grandeur of ancient ruins was inspiring as were the hieroglyphics found on the pottery in the Agora below the Parthenon and on cave walls. These 2-D drawings of dance and activity inspired angular use of limbs and 2 dimensional shapes in the choreography as well.