TED2011: Julie Taymor on Creation, Spider-Man, and a Narrow Escape
Posted in: UncategorizedThe TEDsters have generously granted us a press pass to this year’s annual ideas confab in Long Beach, California, and while we’re still processing yesterday’s brain-bending line-up—which ranged from never-before-seen photos of an elusive polar creature, a paean to doodling, and the a capella musical stylings of Bobby McFerrin—we wanted to update you on today’s inspiring talk by designer and director Julie Taymor.
Preceded onto the TED stage by a stunning video montage of her greatest hits (The Lion King, Frida, The Magic Flute), Taymor began by alluding to her ongoing “turbulent times”—as her embattled Broadway extravaganza Spider-Man is poised to set a new record for previews—and then regaled the audience with the story of a transformational experience with Indonesian villagers. In the late 1970s on the island of Bali, she surreptitiously witnessed a tribal ceremony that would inform and inspire her subsequent work.
Wearing “elaborate costumes and extraordinary headdresses,” the village elders danced in the dark while no one (save a crouching Taymor) was watching. “I realized that they were performing for God, whatever that means to you,” she said. “It didn’t matter about the publicity. There was no money involved. It wasn’t going to be written down.” This intimate ritual was followed by an all-night opera that was performed for the town’s residents on a more traditional illuminated stage. “What I gained from this incredible and seminal moment from my life as a young artist was that you must be true to what you believe as an artist, all the way through,” said Taymor. “But you also have to be aware that the audience is out there…and they need the light.”
The story resonated with the Spider-Man musical’s subtitle: Spider-Man’s subtitle: Turn Off the Dark. “It’s an incredible balance that we walk when we’re creating something that is breaking ground, that’s trying to do something that you’ve never seen before, where you actually don’t know where you’re going to end up,” she explained. “That’s the fine line on the edge of a crater that I have walked my whole life.”
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