By SHARON KILPATRICK

By SHARON KILPATRICK

Rappahannock Newi Staff Writer

A large and enthusiastic audience attended Laurie Marshall’s multi-media “Dreaming and the Pursuit of Light” Saturday evening.

The production at The Theatre at Washington involving modern dance performed by Ms. Marshall and members of the Sunday Dreamers singing: Tutt Harris, Carol Lucking, Dancing Reed, and Chris White.

The performance, including a slide show of Ms. Marshall’s visual art, was a benefit for Save the Children.

It was followed by a procession to the Middle Street Gallery for the opening of her show of oil paintings that were inspired by dreams.

The first part was an “opening prayer,” a dance by five women stretching and yearning upwards, followed by a circle dance with tugging and pulling while Ms. Marshall intoned, “In the beginning there was light.” Slide images of the earth in space were projected on curtains behind the dancers.

This was followed by a dream of Ms. Marshall’s father Stanley Marshall, in which he found himself holding light in his hands and found a river of light and gave his light to the river. This segment was titled “Returning the Gift” and ended with the singing of “Happy Birthday” for Mr. Marshall, who was not able to be present for the performance.

At the gallery is a portrait of Ms. Marshall’s father, and the portrait opens to reveal three more paintings. In the middle is a picture of him giving the light to the river. On either side are smaller pictures of him holding the light in his hands.

The next segment was one of several based on Native American tradition. It was a dance about a hunter preparing for the hunt and then calling a deer. The deer first runs and then returns choosing to give its life “to sustain the life of the hunter.” The group then sang the old Shaker hymn, “ Tis a Gift to be Simple.”

That was followed by “The Dream of Five Moons.” In this dream Ms. Marshall was riding in the back seat of a car. She saw another moon smash into Earth’s moon, creating five moons. She saw a stag who told her, “Humans must learn from the animals. Animals and people are sisters and brothers.”

Then came a segment on a dream of Nan Reddick’s. In this dream she was driving an invisible sports car and just managed to stop it before hitting a stag, who then blew her a kiss.

The next portion was supposed to be a true story from ‘The Education of Little Tree,” by Forrest Carter.

Little Tree’s grandfather Brown Hawk told of the time when the a band of Cherokees were living in the Great Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. They had hidden in the mountains to escape the removal to Oklahoma, known as “The Trail of Tears.”

A group of lumbermen were going to cut down the white oaks in the forest. At night the Indians would dig up their logging road. By day the lumbermen would repair it. The lumbermen posted guards. But the Indians would find an unguarded section and dig it up. The Indians were becoming weary.

An oak fell, smashing the lumbermen’s wagon and killing two mules. The lumbermen gave up the effort and the Indians danced in celebration. According to the story the oak was healthy and should not have gone over. The oak gave its life to save the other trees.

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