AEPRIL SCHAILE

Lucid Dream Chamber: Surrealist Performance Art/Transdisciplinary Magickal Working

An intimate, interactive, immersive space that is a “lucid dream”. I act as the Dreamer; my presence in the room being an ongoing “performance piece”. Dreamers enter the space one at a time, and have direct interaction with me, and with the environment. Each participant entering is being dreamed into my field of consciousness; that said, each participant coming into the room would also be the Dreamer, with me as a projection of her/his consciousness. The room itself is also being dreamed.

The intent behind this piece multi-layered:

First and foremost, it is play. It is an exploration of the subjective nature of reality; a transgressive challenge to assumptions.

Via this interactive performance/invitation, I endeavor to point out the Russian-doll-like, parallel nature of the physical and the astral planes; “copy planes” of one another; thinly veiled by perception. We will cross these boundaries and hold liminal space.

It is an exploration of the vibrational nature of consciousness on this plane; that the physical world, too, is a projection of consciousness—a lucid dream. Is there a line? What happens when its blurred?

It is an exploration of intimacy; the one-on-one nature of the piece brings two psyches into intimate, blurred contact in the co-creation/co-projection of the interior world. Two aspects of the One regarding one another, experiencing one another; the alchemy which transpires creating the tone and happenings in the room.

It is a challenge to assumptions about the linearity and measurement of time perception.

Aepril Schaile is an internationally recognized performance artist/priestess/poet working through the ancient and ever-evolving art of Bellydance. Incarnating the epithet of “The Dark Goddess”, Aepril shamanistically becomes Trickster, Warrior, Ghost, Storm, Grieving Mother, Killer, Graal, Seductress. Aepril draws on her experiences of lucid dream and astral travel, creating an experience of visceral/aetheral ritual theatre. She has taught and performed in Paris, London, Rome, New York, and throughout Europe and the US. She is also an astrologer and holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art.