To serve, through spirit and the performing arts, toward a more peaceful and conscious world, that all beings may experience wholeness and happiness.
Bounced Off Water provides an uplifting and entertaining opportunity for cast and audience to experience, through conscious intention and participation, their synergistic power to heal and grow as individuals in community.
Bounced Off Water is a concert with dance and real-time improvised video. The music and dance blend the styles of rock, jazz, classical, electronic, world, and other world.
Three 12-foot round screens hang three feet off the stage, surrounding the performers. These screens are also water fountains, aqueous mirrors, reflecting the music and our good will toward the heavens. Evocative images are projected on the screens by our video artist.
Bounced Off Water comes about in response to a dream I had one night. In the dream I left my body, and was taken from my bed, in spirit form, on a long journey through space. My guide, another spirit, communicated with me telepathically as we traveled together. I felt excited, very at ease, loved.
We eventually came to a place in the cosmos where there existed a massive, gelatinous, oval, yellowish cell. It was chock full with a multitude of miserable beings I came to call, for lack of a better term, "lost souls." They were disconnected from all of humanity and even from each other within the cell. Their loneliness, fear, and suffering were eternal by their perception.
My guide communicated to me that I could ease their suffering and reconnect them to humanity by using my music and bouncing it off water. Music came from my chest like rays of light, and was aimed downward below the cell. There appeared a pool of water: a circular, aqueous mirror, floating in the middle of space. The light beams struck the pool and bounced back up into the cell. The faces I could see through the jellied walls of the cell looked relieved. They were smiling...
I awoke elated, and with what I thought was going to be an incredible CD project. Over the course of the following year — 2003 — I shared the dream and project with many friends and musicians. The response was always supportive, often enthusiastic. Even when I would lose my focus on it, folks here and there would remind me of the special nature of the project. It was taking on a life of its own.
It grew arms and legs one morning when, as I awoke, and in that place between being awake and asleep, I saw the stage, the sets, the band and the dancers. "Oh!" I said, ""It's a stage production — not just a CD!" I quickly got to work, to produce the cd with the intention of using it (along with this website) to promote the production of the show. The CD is available through our online "Store." Music samples can be downloaded from "The Plot" page of this site.
We open with the deep stage and only the center screen exposed. The two side screens are obscured from view.
"The BOWverture" is playing, almost prematurely, as the audience settles. The overture previews the progression of the whole show, so as it evolves over the course of its twelve minutes the video also reflects that progression. Initially the ambience, light, and images are ethereal. Scenes of the world's tragedies follow. Then a "ray" of hope initiating the progress toward wholeness, a healed state, and celebration.
We begin the cycle again as a convict sings a victim's song, "I Been Taken," from his cell. He sees himself as a powerless victim with no way out but perhaps suicide, as he intimates at the end of the song...
A storm comes up as a segue, introducing the next song, "This Dark Room." This character is also in a dark place, but shows some consciousness about where she is and how her situation relates to other possibilities for her...
"Padma Thunder" is the "crack" in perception and reality; a line of demarcation, where we no longer see our own suffering as the primary issue, but begin to foster consciousness of and a desire to alleviate others' suffering in the world. The curtains open to reveal the rest of the stage. The dancers begin to create and adorn an altar. The video is a vibrant color panel background to this all out African style dance.
"Awalo" is a Nigerian prayer for success on the journey. Originally, I'm told, it was sung at ceremonies when the hunters were about to leave the village on the hunt for food. "Have a safe, expedient and bountiful hunt," is its message. In our case, we're going on an inner journey, to reclaim lost parts of ourselves, and an outer journey, to serve where needed and wanted, helping other souls find their way home...
"The Distance" is about getting our bearings and looking out across the void. Even as we board the ship in our vast numbers — all of us together on a quest for wholeness — the journey is a solo one, into uncharted territory. No one has been where we are going. It is personal, and so, has an element of lonely melancholy. This is a time for introspection, plotting a course, checking supplies and personal effects. We reflect on all this as we gaze out over the distance we are about to traverse.
"The Journey to Initial Contact" — Blast off! We go soaring into the cosmos. Yet even on this great mission we have some mundane duties to perform on the ship. After some time, we make our first radio contact with the cell of the lost souls. We communicate our mission to rescue them! They want no part of it. They don't see themselves as lost or know they could be happier. They only know misery, and it's a comfortable, familiar place. Though well intentioned, we are young missionaries, a bit green, tactless and unrefined in our approach. A galactic war breaks out.
Finally, after a long and exhaustive struggle, as understanding and forgiveness are cultivated, peace is restored. Communication improves, trust and confidence develop.
"Little Man" is one of the lost souls we meet. The "inner child," a beautiful boy lost many years ago, is welcomed home. We also encounter victims of war, famine, and other disasters large and small.
"The Astro Tool Belt Stomp" is the negotiation — the hammering out of details and agreements that facilitate our rediscovered souls' journey back home to reintegration.
"Back To The Nest" is the trip home, pregnant with anticipation and excitement about the future.
"The BOW Tango" is first, the approach (as planet Earth is seen getting bigger on the center screen), then the docking of the ship, our disembarking (as the music gets more lively) and finally...
"CuddabeenaBuddha."
The cork pops and the party begins! The dancing and wildness go on for what seems an eternity. However, the celebration is interrupted temporarily with...
"The Bee Keeper." This piece is about the maintenance that's required to sustain wholeness even once you've gathered and accounted for all your lost parts.
The tempo picks up again with "Love Loves Love" and the party comes back to life.
More music is being composed to extend the party...
I've heard it said: "If it ain't your genius, it ain't your job."
I've given in to pressure from the universe which seems to be telling me that it ain't my job to bring this project to the stage myself. It's too big and expensive; unwieldy. Instead I'm creating a DVD to help sell this whole project to a producer. Then (as the turkey said in the cartoon) "I'm goin' to Reno where they don't have Thanksgiving."
Actually, I'm playing more guitar again, writing new music, and I downsized my studio to a laptop and a portable audio interface. I'm getting out of debt and redecorating my pad. It's all good.
I will always be grateful for the support you've shown me and this project and who knows, maybe we'll all get to see it, produced by another group. (I'll probably audition for my part.) I'll let you know what happens with this leg of the journey. Want more details? Please call or write me anytime.
Be happy, well, live long and prosper.
I do love you.
— Rick
BULLETIN: The first Bounced Off Water CD is done! You can mail order it from this site at our online "Store" or get it from me directly or via email.
Music samples from it can be downloaded from "The Plot" page of this site.
We'll soon have T-shirts, posters, and a beautiful scaled down version of our "aqueous mirror" fountain.
Thanks for shopping at the Bounced Off Water online store!
I've heard it said: "If it ain't your genius, it ain't your job."
I've given in to pressure from the universe which seems to be telling me that it ain't my job to bring this project to the stage myself. It's too big and expensive; unwieldy. Instead I'm creating a DVD to help sell this whole project to a producer. Then (as the turkey said in the cartoon) "I'm goin' to Reno where they don't have Thanksgiving."
Actually, I'm playing more guitar again, writing new music, and I downsized my studio to a laptop and a portable audio interface. I'm getting out of debt and redecorating my pad. It's all good.
I will always be grateful for the support you've shown me and this project and who knows, maybe we'll all get to see it, produced by another group. (I'll probably audition for my part.) I'll let you know what happens with this leg of the journey. Want more details? Please call or write me anytime.
Be happy, well, live long and prosper.
I do love you.
— Rick
