In Dancing Girl: An American Woman’s Greek Village Odyssey, monologue artist Thordis Simonsen transports her audience to Elika, a village in southern Greece where she began to put down roots in 1982. Going to Elika initially to observe and document village life, Thordis unwittingly but willingly became a resident and, ultimately, a member of the community—a woman of Elika, an Elikiotissa. Thordis’ status as an Elikiotissa gives immediacy and authenticity to her performance.

In little more than an hour and with only a bell, a staff, and a stool at hand, Thordis transforms the stage into a farmer’s plowed field, a goatherd’s sacred mountain precinct, a roofless abandoned house that she bought and restored. Accenting her performance with Greek—both gestures and words—Thordis steps from the shoes of the tenacious American girl herself into those of a skeptical neighbor, a defiant widow, a grandmother whose wit is irrepressible.

Thordis and the villagers she characterizes spring from broadly contrasting cultural traditions. While she respects their differences—and pursues her personal vision without compromise—she also understands their similarities. Thordis and the villagers share the need for connection not only with people and place, but with self. What the American girl and the women of Elika have in common are feelings that need to be expressed and a spirit that wants to be set free. An Elikiotissa is a woman who sings the fundamental note that vibrates within.

In a metaphoric conclusion, Thordis describes what attracts her to Elika: the richness of her surroundings, indelible friendships, and the ability of Elika to inspire.

• Thordis gladly offers a “talk back” following her performance.
• Dancing Girl, performed in part, is suitable for a keynote address.
• Performed in part or in its entirety, Dancing Girl can be presented with a symposium.
  

Like the hero of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, each of us is a traveler. Although Odysseus was determined to sail home to his beautiful wife, like all of us, he sometimes lost sight of his dream. Genuine Encounters: An Odyssey of Your Own—a symposium*—offers you an opportunity to define or re-define your dreams and to map a course of action.

Like the great poet Homer, each of us is a storyteller. Using my stories and your own as springboards, and employing dialogues, writing, and creative visualization, we will explore one or more themes:

• significance of encounters with people, place and self
• role of fear and its counterpart, trust
• power of intuition as a way of knowing and how to cultivate it
• meaning of womanhood
• definition of achievement
• dynamics of cross-cultural relationships

Like all travel, the outcome of each symposium promises to be highly personal and unpredictable—and illuminating.

—Thordis Simonsen

Genuine Encounters: An Odyssey of Your Own can be offered in conjunction with Thordis’ performance of Dancing Girl: An American Woman’s Greek Village Odyssey—in part or in its entirety. Or the symposium can stand alone. The symposium will consist of one or several sessions depending on time available and number of themes (see above) to be explored. Throughout, Thordis guides the dialogues, creative visualization, and writing that emerge from the group.

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When Genuine Encounters: An Odyssey of Your Own stands alone, it will consist of four sessions: celebrating your accomplishments, acknowledging your fears, honoring your intuition, and acting on your unfulfilled dreams.

Highlights include: debunking myths about success and affirming the importance of acting on dreams; comparing the roles of unacknowledged and acknowledged fear; distinguishing between coincidence and intuition; defining the roles of intellect and intuition and learning how to cultivate the latter; identifying and articulating dreams and mapping a course of action.

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When Genuine Encounters: An Odyssey of Your Own follows the Dancing Girl performance, Thordis opens each session with the re-enactment of a vignette, quotation, or gesture from the Dancing Girl monologue that relates to a particular theme (see above).

For example, the following vignette selected from the Dancing Girl monologue The Pomegranate can serve as a springboard for considering several themes: the significance of encounters with people, place, and self; the role of fear and its counterpart, trust; the meaning of womanhood; the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships. Sample questions that facilitate the exploration of these themes accompany the excerpt below.

[Village gossip had drawn Thordis’ attention to the goatherd, Martha. A widow, Martha had defied tradition by remarrying at a time in Greece when only men were permitted to do so. One day, Thordis climbed an agricultural road into the hills in search of the woman. When she arrived at the base of the terrace wall where Martha waited for her, Thordis reached up to shake the goatherd’s hand.] “ Martha stepped to the edge of the terrace, reached down, clasped my hand and my forearm, and—taking me entirely by surprise—yanked me, scrambling for a foothold, up the stone face of the meter-high wall.”

Who does Martha represent to you?
What does Martha’s gesture represent to you? What feelings does it engender?
What does the interaction between the two women reveal about each of them?
Who has given you a hand? To whom have you offered a hand?
How does Martha relate to your concept of womanhood?

Please see Calendar & News in this web site for Genuine Encounters schedule.

Like Odysseus, your program guide is a traveler. Her Greek village odyssey began in earnest in 1982 when the Cabot Trust awarded her a grant for documentary work in the Greek village, Elika, because she expressed “bravery” and “venturesomeness” when she diverged from teaching high school biology to design and teach a course in cultural anthropology and to edit the oral history, You May Plow Here (Norton, 1986). Thordis continues to live in the once roofless and abandoned village house that she purchased and has single-handedly restored. Since 1995, Thordis has shared her love for travel and her passion for Greece by taking small groups on Excursions & Sojourns in Greece. Guided all the while by carefully chosen mentors representing the world of Jungian and art therapy and neuro-linguistic patterning, Thordis “travels the path home.”

Like Homer, Thordis is a storyteller. She recorded villagers’ stories and her own in her book Dancing Girl: Themes and Improvisations in a Greek Village Setting (Fundamental Note, 1991), and she became a storyteller in the traditional sense with her dramatic monologue performances of Dancing Girl: An American Woman’s Greek Village Odyssey.

Thordis Simonsen has engaged a wide range of audiences: secondary schools including Colorado Academy in Denver, Colorado and Laurel School, University School, and Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio; institutions of higher education including Berea College, Case Western Reserve University, Colorado State University (3 engagements), Rogaland University and College of Education (Stavanger, Norway), S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo, Vanderbilt University (2 engagements), Wesleyan University, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology; museums including the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (2 engagements), Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities; associations including the National Women’s Studies Association, Phi Beta Kappa Association, Hellenic-American Educators’ Association, Hellenic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio; public libraries including Douglas Public Library District staff day (2 consecutive years), Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Santa Fe, Seattle

telephone: 303.321.5403
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