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Scored for: SATB chorus with optional percussion Text: Sienna Craig Duration: 8 1/2 min. Premiere: December 1, 2017, Seattle, WA by The Esoterics, Eric Banks, Artistic Director Commissioned by: The Esoterics, Eric Banks, Artistic Director Published by: Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
NOTES
Khandroma: Sky Dancer is set to a poem on the Dakini Sky Dancer written by Sienna Craig for Andrea Clearfield, commissioned by The Esoterics, a Seattle-based choral ensemble. Original poetry written in English, translated into Tibetan in collaboration with F. Robin, and sung in Tibetan. The piece expounds upon and honors the virtues and qualities of this divine celestial being – coming from a world that so deeply needs her feminine compassion and fierce strength, great peace and wisdom.
With gratitude to Françoise Robin, Chung Tsering, and Tawni Tidwell for assistance with the Tibetan translations and to the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico where a first draft of the work was completed.
Sienna R. Craig is an anthropologist and writer based at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire), who has worked with communities from Nepal and Tibetan regions of China for more than two decades. She is the author of several books which cross genres from poetry and creative nonfiction to ethnography and children’s literature. Together with traditional song from Mustang, Nepal, her poetry was featured in Andrea Clearfield’s Tse Go La: At the Threshold of this Life. She lives in Vermont with her family.
Khandroma (Sky Dancer)
Scored for: SATB chorus with optional percussion
Text: Sienna Craig
Duration: 8 1/2 min.
Premiere: December 1, 2017, Seattle, WA by The Esoterics, Eric Banks, Artistic Director
Commissioned by: The Esoterics, Eric Banks, Artistic Director
Published by: Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
NOTES
Khandroma: Sky Dancer is set to a poem on the Dakini Sky Dancer written by Sienna Craig for Andrea Clearfield, commissioned by The Esoterics, a Seattle-based choral ensemble. Original poetry written in English, translated into Tibetan in collaboration with F. Robin, and sung in Tibetan. The piece expounds upon and honors the virtues and qualities of this divine celestial being – coming from a world that so deeply needs her feminine compassion and fierce strength, great peace and wisdom.
With gratitude to Françoise Robin, Chung Tsering, and Tawni Tidwell for assistance with the Tibetan translations and to the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico where a first draft of the work was completed.
Sienna R. Craig is an anthropologist and writer based at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire), who has worked with communities from Nepal and Tibetan regions of China for more than two decades. She is the author of several books which cross genres from poetry and creative nonfiction to ethnography and children’s literature. Together with traditional song from Mustang, Nepal, her poetry was featured in Andrea Clearfield’s Tse Go La: At the Threshold of this Life. She lives in Vermont with her family.
LISTEN
Khandroma
Listen here:
ENGLISH TEXT
Click here for Sky Dancer ENGLISH-TIBETAN Transliteration
Sky Dancer
Her body floats
A cloud held up by air
Cradling the seeds of rain
That ocean of wisdom, cool and sweet
Khandro soars,
A rainbow of water and light
Precious words roll
Off her tongue; pearls of speech
Are gestures of compassion
Blooming from a lotus
Khandro rests,
Rooted in gentle earth
In the honeycomb of heart-mind
This queen of skillful means
Feeds flames of action
Amber nectar of knowing flows
Khandro dances,
Lightning strikes: fierce fire of insight
Eh ma!
Khandro soars
Khandro rests
Khandro dances
Clear morning dawns
Kandro stands
Strong as a snow mountain
Open to sky
Sienna Craig
February 3, 2017