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Nash chose two gift cycles. One is the Kula Ring of the Massim people in the South Seas. “They give ceremonial armbands counterclockwise in a circle to their neighbors to the west, while necklaces move clockwise to the east. Therefore, the gifts are eventually repaid, but never in kind, nor at predictable intervals,” Nash explained.
This parallels her belief that “when giving works, it has a circularity. It may not come back from the same source, but it does come back. Maybe in a way you don’t expect, but it does come back.”
Or as Hyde says in his book: “When I give to someone from whom I do not receive, it is as if the gift goes around the corner before it comes back.”
The second gift cycle is based on a Maori ritual, the substance of which holds that fertility is a gift from God, and in order for it to continue, its first fruits are returned to Him as a return gift.
Nash and Hoyer read The Gift. Both pursued their interpretation separately, and at the same time sought inspiration from the other. He gave her his baskets, and, holding them, she found new ways to move. He watched the dance and went back to his studio to create jewelry for the dancers to wear, fetishes for them to carry and a backdrop for them to perform against.
Musicians Tom Espinola and Lorraine Duisit joined the collaboration. He watched the dance, studied the art and composed the score for First Fruits, which he and Duisit will play on harp, frame drums and guitar with Ralph Gordon adding acoustic bass. Duisit’s clear, soaring soprano counts as yet a fourth instrument, giving the music an emotional intensity to match the message of the dancers.
The contemporary ritual leads with music, a mini-concert performed by the trio.
The dance follows. It begins with a prayer as Nash asks for fertility of body, imagination and spirit. Her dance and Duisit’s accompanying vocal solo express the emptiness necessary for prayer. This flows into a duet, symbolic of the entrance into puberty. Apprehension and excitement build as the women dance over and over two snake sculptures.
Then the encounter between self and other moves to its fulfillment:
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