Florinda Donner Grau's Talk at the Los Angeles Workshop 1997 - Evening fifth day

Notes by Vincent Sargenti and Randy Stark

Los Angeles Workshop, August 23 to 27, 1997

After the review session ended at noon there was a ten minute break in which nothing much seemed to be happening. Participants had been asked to stay half an hour later for a special session to 'arm' the passes of Silvio Manuel and Juan Tuma. Suddenly it became apparent that everyone was gathering around the stage, but in an unusual way. There was a large area left clear in front of the stage that was perhaps the size of a dance floor. Taisha, Florinda and Carol entered the room with a group of Energy Trackers and Elements.

Florinda took the stage with a beaming smile, as if she had a cat in a bag. She laughed and asked the group to quiet their wild, energetic applause. She said they had a special treat for everyone and that they had a special guest with them who was going to introduce us to the idea of the shamanistic theater as well as demonstrate not-doing for us.

Among Silvio Manuel's many talents, Florinda said, perhaps the most breathtaking was his unbelievable agility as a dancer.

"There has never been anyone before or since who could dance with such flair, such passion, who could move with such speed and such unbelievable grace," Florinda said admiringly, her smile bright as the sun.

"The others have told you their stories about how Silvio Manuel affected them, what he was like for them. To them he was an awesome, terrible figure who struck fear and terror into them. He was a sorcerer of inconceivable power and mystery, someone who, for them the mere mention of his name brought about the quintessence of fear. For me, he was not like that at all. I loved Silvio Manuel. To me, he was like a rich uncle who doted on his niece with tremendous affection. I shared a special affinity with and had immense affection for Silvio Manuel. He was someone I grew to adore. Nobody could dance like Silvio Manuel. Nobody."

Florinda spoke as if she were truly and utterly enamored of the man.

"He used to entertain don Juan and his cohorts, and of course us, to no end with his incredible ability to move and to dance. These songs that we have played here for you were the songs that Silvio Manuel himself used to play over and over again. They were particular favorites of his. The reason we play them over and over for you is that we want you to have a taste of what it was like to have been around him. This is a taste of the mood of Silvio Manuel. This is the music he would fill the air with for entire afternoons, and there would be dancing and much laughter. We want to steep you in the mood of Silvio Manuel.

"The useless hope is something that a warrior feels in his heart. He dances his movements of impeccability in the presence of infinity and his dance is his expression to the infinite, his display of his impeccability. His dance is a show of his gratitude to the infinite for his having had the opportunity to live. He dances his dance with all the flair and passion and precision that he can muster. He knows his dance is a dance of useless hope . . . but he has no other way, no other course for his expression. So he dances his expression to the infinite. He knows that he is up against inconceivable odds and realizes that he may never be able to find his freedom. So he dances before infinity to this useless hope."

At this point, Florinda introduced the only person she had ever met in her lifetime who captured the power, flair and passion with which Silvio Manuel had once danced.

She said, "Ladies and gentleman, it is my tremendous pleasure to introduce to you, Maricio Caballero. The quintessential ballroom dancer. Beware, he is a terrible womanizer and he is extremely seductive."

At this point, one of the Energy Trackers emerged from the side of the room. But wait, it wasn't one of the Trackers, it was indeed Maricio Caballero. He was sporting greased back, jet-black hair and a leisure suit. Carrying his sport coat over his shoulder, he swaggered in with a handful of long-stemmed cornflowers, throwing them and kisses to all the ladies. He was the epitome of machismo and male seductiveness. At the same time he was imbued with an utter sense of confidence and skill.

As the music began, the audience was given a taste of something that defies description, something that stirred the very depths of the heart and displayed the essence of the Warrior's Way. A dance of incalculable power and beauty followed, one that took the audience completely by surprise and utterly by storm. The movements were ones we had been learning, yet suddenly they were displayed before us with all the spirit and flair and infinite heart that you could ever imagine being in the path of don Juan's lineage of sorcerers. A great number of the participants were moved to tears, others to laughter, some to dismay.

One of the high points of the workshop came when, as the song 'Useless Hope' played, all the participants were invited to join in the dance and share in the mood of Silvio Manuel and Juan Tuma. Taisha, Florinda and Carol jumped to their feet and joined in the dance as Maricio Caballero took a woman at random from the audience and began to show her how to Lambada. Then, in an instant, every participant was on their feet and moving freely around the room, dancing the passes with the sorcerers as the music of 'Useless Hope' played on.

When the music stopped, attendees filed out of the LA Convention Center into a bright, warm southern California afternoon for a long lunch break. At 4pm, when they returned, everything had changed. The entrance had shifted to the left, to another area of the hall. Walking in now through security was more like entering a theater. Chairs and a larger, higher stage had been set up. Adjacent to the stage was a room-like area enclosed with thin black, semi-see-through material. Two rooms had been unfolded with moveable conference center walls on either side of the entrance. The black enclosed space by the stage adjoined one of these rooms.

When attendees had settled into their chairs, Carol walked up steps to the stage from the black enclosed space. She was now Prunella Fitz-Moritz. Dressed in black and wearing a black wig with a reddish outer sheen to it, she told the audience that the Theater of Infinity was not about 'acting' but about veritable change. What participants were about to see this afternoon and this evening were the result of actual transformations. She was no longer Carol, but Prunella (which was the name of some mountain fungus or other). Prunella Fitz-Moritz was a wild but very precisely spoken lady, and she would be one of the Emcees for the afternoon and evening's events.

What took place that afternoon was just a glimpse of what was to come in the evening after the dinner break -- a magnificent series of performances, dances and passes by the Energy Trackers, Elements and Carol. We are not going to even attempt to describe these events. Suffice it to say that it was with The Theater of Infinity that the workshop was brought to a close. What follows is a reprint of the evening's program.

THE THEATER OF INFINITY

1. Alien Invocation, or Ode to Air
    with the three Energy Trackers of the Light of the Stars

2. The Girl is Mine
     with She-La, the two Brothers Gibraltar and Sudan Johnson,
    and Jack Abilene, the Cowboy from Texas

3. The Burden of Decision-Making
    with Trini and Kiki

4. Farleys' Day
    with Bob Farley and Robert Farley, Senior

5. Nosferatu, Mon Amour
    with Lunitica Nosferatu and Morbidita Nosferatu

6. The Hunter and the Hunted
    with Manny, Mo, and Bobby

7. The Marionettes
    with Death from Above and Death from Below

8. Love Among Insects
    with Two Entomologists, E1 and E2

9. A Lesson for the Unenlightened Ones
    with Damian Choo, the Master and Johnny Lee, the Chela

10. Space Pyrates
      with don Pedro Sadista, Pieter van der Queer, Sebastian St. Savage

11. The Orchard
      with The Draggers, and Those Who are Dragged

12. The Cogitations of Dr. Gerhard Blumenfinkle

13. The Arab Dancer, Yamida Fazin

The Emcees of Infinity:   Prunella Fitz-Moritz; Cleopatra; Seymour; Lorenzo Drake, directly from the Palladium of London, on his way to Budapest; Sebastian St. Savage.

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