Lyra Mayfield's "Glimpsing Mystery" - Unabashedly Sentimental and Spiritual

To tell anyone who knows Lyra Mayfield that she is an unabashedly sentimental and spiritual person would be to state the obvious. In her current Boulder Fringe Festival performance, "Glimpsing Mystery," she shares that part of her without ever pulling back, or apologizing in any way. The result is fifty minutes of an intense look at her life that is at times so intimate one wants to look away, and at other times so "true" you see her totally and can look inside yourself for some of the same emotions.

Mayfield performs her solo show in the home she shares with her husband, that is pushed against the Flatiron Mountains slopes just below Boulder's Chautauqua. She fills the rather large space with her considerable presence, at times with minimal props, and at other times with a spider-like web of climbing ropes in which she becomes intertwined in the anguish of her mother's developing memory losses. Her movement choices vary from minimalist, at times almost mimed, illustrations of spoken and recorded text, conversations with her mother that dissolve in the chaos of not remembering even who is on the phone, and conversations with her inner self while in a Denver International Airport security line - and then suddenly there are dances of joy, dances about "God", dances stuck in a web of anguish, all of which fill the space using Mayfield's considerable - and often exquisite - movement vocabulary. Mayfield never defines the "mystery" she glimpses in concrete terms. She knows its about where life takes her and God, but she even carefully avoids defining God. She takes her audience from her age 13 trip into a mountain meadow, through the anguish of watching her mother age, through the pain of a back injury, and tells how all of this touched on mystery she did not understand until she learned to embrace now - to let go of dances that happened - of dances that might happen - and to embrace this dance and whomever God is in this moment.

Lyra Mayfield dances wonderfully at an age (we won't even guess what that is) many woman have stopped dancing. She is blessed with true feminine beauty, and a lovely body. She has developed lovely movement qualities and sustained them as she matured and through injuries. She is positive to the core and will not hesitate to share her spirituality with you. But, she will never suggest you take it on - but, she might suggest your explore your own.

"Glimpsing Mystery" will be performed two more times - on Friday and Saturday August 21 and 22 at 8:00 PM in Lyra Mayfield's home at 1340 King St., in Boulder, CO. The show sells out, so get there early to buy a ticket, or buy one from the Boulder Fringe website.

Donald K. Atwood MFA, Ph.D.

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