By Canon Sarah Louise Woodford
Did you know that Advent observances had more in common with Lent, especially in the Middle Ages? Though not as rigorous as Lent (especially in regards to fasting days), Advent was a time marked with fasting, simplicity, and pilgrimage. It was a time to focus on the life of Jesus and to step into his story to deepen faith, to deepen connection, to deepen compassion.
As I spoke with Sasha Biagiarelli, Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet’s Administrator and Business Manager, about the company’s upcoming production of Ahavah, I couldn’t help but wonder—is Ahavah a modern-day Advent pilgrimage for us here in ECCT?
The production tells the story of a girl named Hope, who lives in the modern age. Her life is one of repetition and routine. Yet—she is longing to find meaning in her life, she is longing to be part of a larger story. Her longing is met by finding the Bible and then stepping into the past and into the story of Jesus. After Hope’s discovery of the Bible, the ballet moves between the present day and Biblical times and Hope learns to find inner meaning, and Jesus, through it all.
This imaginative retelling of the story of Jesus’ birth and life has run for 18 years and Sasha has been part of the production for seven. One of the reasons she thinks this retelling of Jesus’ life is so effective is that it isn’t based on speech, it’s based on movement. “Movement,” she says, “allows for more abstraction, more space. It passes the conscious part of the brain. It surpasses words.”
She gave me the example of a scene in the production between Jewish and Gentile women at a well. It begins with a Roman soldier drawing a line down the center and then each side tries to gain a larger portion of the well—some outwardly fight with each other, some sneakily tip-toe around the well so as not to be detected. The scene ends with one of the women being pushed into the well. It’s funny, it’s sad, and it says something bigger about empire, about conflict, about human nature and its need for the life of Jesus.
If that’s not an Advent pilgrimage, I don’t know what is.
Ahavah will run from December 7 to December 8 at Middletown High School. You can purchase tickets here. All of the profits from the performances will be donated to St, Vincent de Paul soup kitchen in Middletown.