Ripening 

rip·en   [rahy-puhn]  verb    

1. to make or become ripe.
2. to bring or come to maturity, the proper condition, etc.; mature.

Ripening  
1. Coming to full development; becoming mature maturation 
2. Acquiring desirable qualities by being left undisturbed for some time 


RIPENING is an ever-evolving, indeed "ever-ripening", performance entity conceived and choreographed by Vanessa Walters.  RIPENING ages, develops, and presents through dance performance, installation, and interactive video design.  Arriving, becoming, blossoming, growing, seasoning, maturing, aging, rotting, dying, transforming …  From deliciousness to decay - this is our exquisite journey. 

Collaborating artists include dancer/performers Lynn Barr, Janna Diamond, Jennifer Sydor, and Ryan Lawrence; video/film artist Brian Gonzales; composer Peter Salett; photographer Alexandrea Thomsen; costumers David Quinn and Karen Young; and producer Cynthia Fieldus Salett.

If we are to age, we must all face the inevitable absoluteness of TIME, its complete and inescapable omnipotence.  This is the challenge of growing old or older.  This is to embrace the natural unfolding of Maiden to Mother to Crone . . . 
Why do we not revel in the beauty of smile lines and crow’s feet, remnants of years of expression and memories?  The lines on a face are not unlike the rings of a tree and trees are as unique and varied as human beings.  The raw and intricate artistry of dead and dying trees is as profoundly beautiful and sensuous as it is terrifying and ugly, much as the human aging process is itself.

“Some say it is best not to go near the center of time.  Life is a vessel of sadness, but it is noble to live life, and without time, there is no life.  Others disagree.  They would rather live an eternity of contentment, even if that eternity were fixed and frozen like a butterfly mounted in a case.” 
From Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, p. 76 
 
HAIR is also deeply symbolic in RIPENING and inextricably connected to VANITY.  We often define ourselves by our hair  -  its color and thickness, its power and failings, how it greys, thins, is lost altogether or sacrificed, how we style and obsess over it, dye it, cut it, tease it, manage it.
And where does plastic surgery, the ability or attempt to defy TIME, come into play? How do we age with grace and dignity? Who sets the example in society for how to age gracefully, truthfully?

Walters also explores childhood memories, fantasies, nightmares and horrors, both personal and collective, for this work. There is a language we all understand and relate to, remember . . .   The archetypal monster under the bed; the creature in the attic or basement or lurking outside the bedroom window; a fascination with spiders, snakes, vampires, ghosts, clowns, dolls, supernatural villains and heroes; the terror of FIRE; of being kidnapped, abandoned, left  alone.  We connect through our shared fears and the ways we conquer and overcome them.   

The question is: do our fears simply eradicate or change as we age, or are they just shrouded in a slightly different cloak?  How much do we truly change at all or are we, deep down, the same, just adjusted and contoured by TIME and experience?  Is it merely the shell that ripens and not the essence?

“Time is too precious.  A life is a moment in season.   A life is one snowfall.  A life is one autumn day.  A life is the delicate, rapid, edge of a closing door’s shadow.  A life is a brief movement of arms and legs.”
From Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, p. 110 

RIPENING provides a gateway, window, tunnel, or door to a world where the mind's eye of a child suddenly parallels that of the elderly woman next to her.   It is a PORTAL into how our shared and somewhat mundane process of aging can suddenly, magically, turn sublime!

photo credit - Soula Kalamaras