John Gamble.
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 10-17-07
GREENSBORO, NC – John Gamble Dance Theater presents “The Tragic End of Lust: A Tale of the Seven Deadly Sins” at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 1-3, at the UNCG Dance Theater.
This work, staged in the round, includes nudity and strong language. Tickets – $15 general, $12 students and seniors, and $9 UNCG students – are available in advance by visiting the box office in Elliott University Center or calling (336) 334-4849. The Dance Theater is located on Walker Avenue at Kenilworth Street on the UNCG campus.
Six of the Seven Deadly Sins, while still decried in their most extreme forms, have largely been embraced as virtues, says John Gamble, a professor of dance at UNCG. Greed drives capitalism; envy fuels the quest for physical beauty; and wrath enflames calls for war. Only lust remains out of bounds.
“The Tragic End of Lust” demands: Why do we condemn sexuality and the body while ignoring more calculated and predatory assaults on one another and our planet?
John Gamble conceived the production and directs. The cast includes Jennifer McNure and Joel Stroup as Lust; Renee O’Connor and Todd Fisher as Wrath; Kindal Blattner-Buterin as Gluttony; Christine Kiernan as Avarice; Amy Beasley as Sloth; Holly Gilbert as Envy; and Alex Windner Lieberman, Cory Stephenson, Natasha Williams and Jonathan Yeats as Hubris.
Virginia Freeman Dupont, Andrea Long, Carrie Plew, Ashlee Ramsey and Robin Spohr play the Priestesses. Heather Glasgow Doyle, Lauren Farrington, Erica Honeycutt, Erica Griffith, Trinada Oliver, Emily Spokas, Amber Starr, Barbara Tait and Megan Wilson dance as the Chorus. Wesley L. Williams Jr. dances as the Shaman.
The performance integrates text, movement, costumes and visual projections to create a highly theatrical presentation. The driving rock music is by Nine Inch Nails and The Mars Volta.
The Greek monastic theologian Evagrius of Pontus first drew up a list of eight offenses and wicked human passions. In order of increasing seriousness, they are: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia (sloth and apathy), vainglory and pride.
In the later part of the sixth century, St. Gregory the Great in his work “Moralia in Job” introduced the Seven Deadly Sins, ranked in order of their offense against love. Listed in order of descending seriousness, they are: hubris, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust.
The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, are a classification of vices used to educate and protect Christians. Each deadly sin is opposed by one of the Seven Holy Virtues: hubris/modesty, envy/charity, wrath/meekness, sloth/labor, avarice/generosity, gluttony/moderation and lust/chastity.
Only lust remains taboo. Sexuality and nudity in the media create a bigger stir than violence. NBC was fined heavily as a result of Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during a Super Bowl, but little is said about the hundreds of violent scenes broadcast daily.
Gamble has as been professor of dance at UNCG since 1985. He won a North Carolina Arts Council Choreography Fellowship in 1991 and received a North Carolina Board of Governors’ Teaching Excellence Award in 2006.
He co-founded the 19-year-old North Carolina Dance Festival and is a founder and director of the five-year-old Greensboro Fringe Festival. The company of actors, musicians and dancers that bears his name has performed his choreography and other highly theatrical work since 1996.
Contact Gamble at (336) 334-3042 or jjgamble@uncg.edu.
