Lauren Schaaf- Bella Gaia

I attended the show “Bella Gaia” in the freeman last Thursday evening with my environmental leadership class. I was skeptical based on the preview for it which showed a lot of clips of unique instruments and interpretive dancing which doesn’t really intrigue me. However, I tried to go into it with an open mind since I knew the message it was trying to convey was an important one and one that I support.

The show was about an hour and a half long which was the perfect amount of time. It was interesting and captivating but since many elderly people were also in attendance, it made sense to end at 9pm before it started getting repetitive and tiring. The whole show, there was a large screen that showed videos of the earth, many taken from space. The show was inspired by astronauts who had visited earth and discovered the beauty and wonder of our own planet. The show used music, visuals, and dance to create an atmosphere of awe and hope in change.

The most interesting part for me, is that it traveled around the globe and showed countries that I often don’t think about having environmental degradation on a daily basis. When we traveled to Japan and Egypt, dancers came out and music was played that is genuine to the location which was a really cool experience. It also was interesting because the screen showed not only pictures of earth, but also colorful maps of clouds or river and ocean currents which I often don’t think about. The arctic ice freezing and melting was shown as the earth’s breaths and it was amazing to find my breathing being synced with the arctic ice.


All in all, it was a really beautiful and meaningful experience that tied together a lot of art forms we’ve been discussing in class to create a moving piece of art that many people in the audience received knowledge about things they might not think about on a daily basis, but also some were moved to tears about the beauty or destruction of the world around us. For me, beautiful art is captivating art. I think this show did a fantastic job delivering a powerful message using different forms of art in unison.  

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