SIMON MAGUS
one act ballet

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One-act ballet with a prologue and an epilogue
Characters: Simon Magus, Helena, Syzygies, oriental sect followers, slaves in the brothel.

A mystery play is performed on stage before spectators: in the middle of the primal ocean stars, planets and other heavenly bodies appear. Frivolous dancing and pantomime accompany the ceremony: A human is formed from the fragments of the universe. Ballet dancers dissemble his huge body. He has come: The Primal Person. His forehead is a constellation, his ribs are fleecy clouds; his legs are rocky mountains. Laugh, oh gods! Laugh, spectators! Laugh in order to feel the bitterness of the following vicissitudes of fate.
A symbolic scene of a road appears. A man named Simon has been on his way for many years. His wanderings are drawing to an end and he still does not know who he is and where he is going. Each of Simon’s movements is reflected and distorted by mirrors on his left and right in various ways, which symbolizes his uncertainty and fear.
Simon strolls pensively through the desert. Time captures his thoughts. The wind rises, then a sand storm rages. It seems to Simon that he is inside some kind of hourglass, counting off his lifetime. He is carried away by this image. Simon’s movements become messy and inaccurate. The sand blocks his eyes and makes him suffocate.
Simon becomes drowsy. He hears the sound of streams murmuring as if the water is flowing from many bowls. Everything changes around him. His own body transforms into a bowl, opens up to the eternal flow and freezes. What happens to him? The transformations are swift and inevitable. His hands stick out like fragile branches, his nose becomes sharp like an eagle’s beak, and his trunk, a Nile crocodile, slow and clumsy. Simon watches himself: yes, he is a bush, an eagle and a Nile crocodile, he is the goddess Demeter and a Roman warrior. It seems to him that he is a great wizard that can bring the dead back to life. The frightening thing about all is that for a moment it seems to him that it is he who is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is him. Suddenly everything disappears and Simon loses consciousness.
It is absolutely quiet and dark. The music of the fire, devouring and creating, dangerous and magnetic, incomprehensible and harmonious bursts into Simon’s mind. Here it is, the first element, the primal matter that caused everything and destroys everything! The Fire, The sun. The sound is shrill, thin and unbearable: The First Emanation comes out from the Sun’s bosom. It is majestic and perfect. It contains the whole completeness of existence. It combines female and male aspects.
A march is heard. The First Emanation transforms into a syzygy. The first syzygy is followed by the second one. Syzygies are male-female couples, where the male part symbolizes the Deity’s potency and the female one his signs. While marching the syzygies form some geometric figures. Their movements are precise and magnetic. The slow pace of the ritual march engrosses our attention. The march finishes with the marchers drawing up a perfect square.
Now we can see Simon. He is in a deep sleep together with followers of some oriental sect. They will wake up soon. Syzygies join the Sun flame. The reality comes back. Where the Fiery Sun Deity was, a blackthorn bush appears, a pitiful green spot amidst the desert. The wind still hasn’t calmed down. The sand moves along the desert and one can hear it swishing like the wash of waves. The followers try to repeat what they saw in their sleep, reproduce the syzygies’ dance. But how can they manage in such surroundings? The rhythm escapes. The followers can’t repeat the march. The First Emanation has disappeared and the rhythm is lost.
Simon keeps on walking along the desert. It is still the early evening. The only things are the sand, the bright sky and the huge full moon. Charmed with its light, Simon remembers his dream, the Fire burns him. The moon will help him comprehend the Fire of the Sun His whirling dance is dedicated to the Deity of creation. The moon looks at Simon dancing in a state of ecstasy and gives him its beam – Helena.
We can watch Helena’s-apparition dance. Helena descends the moon rings, spirally twirled, going away to the mysterious center between the earth and the sky. She dances on the transparent snake-like rings of the spiraling, down from the cloudless height to Earth, ascending and descending again, ring by ring.
Simon’s heart burns. The love fire rages inside him. Now he knows how to find harmony. To find Helena!
In search of Helena Simon gets into the city of Tyre. There are a lot of places around here where both a Roman and an Israelite can find peace of body and soul and enjoy comfort. Simon asks everyone about Helena. Tyre residents know only one Helena, a slave in the brothel. Slaves dance. Which one is Helena? Simon chooses one of them and asks her to tell her name. He found her! Simon takes Helena away from the brothel.
Simon and Helena come to Rome. He believes that together they make up a perfect syzygy. He is ready to climb the sky spiral to the Deity.
Simon must prove all Rome residents that he possesses a small part of the divine fire. Everyone will see him flying over the city. He is Simon the Wizard. And again it occurred to him that he is Christ. Here it is, the last spiral coil twinkling like snake scales. Up and up, to meet the creating Sun Fire! Swift and obsessed is the dance of the man who gets a false idea of being equal to the Deity. Simon crashed.
The tragic culmination develops into an ironic and sarcastic epilogue reminding the spectators that the tragedy has been played and it is time to enjoy oneselves, praise gods and return the moon, stars and other bodies to the initial chaos. The time has come to dissemble the body of prototypal human.
Rejoice, oh gods! Laugh, spectators! Laugh to forget the bitterness of the past vicissitudes of fate.

booking contact: - Alexei Pliousnine artdirector@aposition.org
tel: +7 911 933 9488

special thanks to Evgeny Kolesov for the photos.