Folding into a Tempest
a journey in elaborate sculptural costume
by Sha Sha Higby
New School at Commonweal, March 24, 2013

In the dawn of the world
when the black cow of cosmic night
lies with the ruddy cows of morning
a figure appears
in the rustling withered leaves
and the silent dead

The interchange with the divine
is swift and intimate
in the faces, heads and throats of all.
It is the deep blue bird
and the green parrot with red eyes.

It is the golden seed
It is fond of garlands.
It is shadow and sunshine.
It is food, its eater, its giver.

It leaps into the mouth
from food and drink.
It comes to a point
at the flaming tip of an arrow-
in the faces, heads and breath of all
real in the darkness of Life.

Text by Adrian Brooks and Stella Kramrisch

SHA SHA HIGBY-COSTUMER AND PERFORMER

International performance/sculptural artist, Sha Sha Higby is known for her evocative and haunting performances using the exquisite and ephemeral body sculpture she meticulously creates herself and moves. Elaborate sculptural costume, dance, and puppetry explore magic and emotion; creating an atmospheric world within the borders between death and life’s Higby started out making dolls and pursued the art of puppetry and sculpture in her early years. Ms. Higby has performed her unique body of work throughout the United States, and internationally in Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Germany and Holland. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Theater Artist Fellowship, The Zellerbach Family Fund, and the California Arts Council New Genre Individual Artist Fellowship.

She studied for one year in Japan in 1971, observing the art of Noh Mask and theater and then received a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship to study dance & shadow puppet making and performance arts in Indonesia for 5 years at the Academy of Music, Central Java, Indonesia. In addition to traveling throughout Southeast Asia to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), she received an Indo-American Fellowship to study the textile arts of India, and a Travel Grants Fund from Arts International to study in Bhutan. She has also recently studied lacquer arts in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan through the auspices of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.

She just finished some research in Myanmar and Sri Lanka

Lighting by Albert Hollander

UPCOMING SHA SHA PERFORMANCES & WORKSHOPS

September 25 State Theater, Stara Zagora Bulgaria
September 17 Kechikan, Alaska

Yes! I'd like to renew my membership to
Sha Sha Higby‘s Circle of Friends.

Name______________________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________

City______________________________State______________zip_______

Phone___________________________email: ______________________

MEMBERSHIP:(ASSURES YOU TO BE ON THE MAILING LIST)
$35 includes the newest video or DVD and a selection of all the postcards
$50 family membership includes the newest video, or DVD, poster, a set of postcards and the cardboard cutout Sha Sha.
$100 includes a special ornamental costume shard.
$500 receives a mask, video, and 1/2 price for 2 for Sha Sha's next new work. And gives support for the upcoming work.
Please make check payable to “Sha Sha Higby”. Mail to Sha Sha, PO Box 152, Bolinas, and CA 94924 for information call (415) 868-2409:
shashahigby.com

The New School at COMMONWEAL presents conversations, readings, performances, and other events with thought and action leaders who are changing our world. The events, 150 over the past six years, are recorded and then offered as podcasts on iTunes and our website. Most of our events are offered free of charge as gifts to the Commonweal community - and you are part of it—giving forward into a circle of generosity.
The Institute for Art and Healing at COMMONWEAL was created to build, strengthen, and sustain the intersecting fields of art and healing. For 25,000 years, healing has been intertwined with the arts—music, drumming, dancing, cave art, dreaming. Art and healing is rooted in the bedrock of human experience, and in community. Our belief is that healing comes by being supported to find a connection to that mystery, an inherently creative process of transformation passed down through the ages.
For both programs, contact:

Kyra Epstein
TheNewSchool@Commonweal.org
The-New-School.org
iah.commonweal.org