The Young Dancer in the Days of the Angels: A Story

Abstract

She danced at a time when the world was changing. Still a young girl, she loved dancing and animals, but the rest of what she was living at her age often seemed tasteless to her. She dreamed sometimes of being a great lover, sometimes a saint, but her mother counted on her for something else. One evening she was dancing in front of her parents and their guest, and her dance was impressive. However, she still had to look for ideas that would move her dance from improvisation to a more elaborate art. Her mother felt threatened by a preacher who maybe had violent disciples. Considering a sort of preventive revenge, she became threatening herself. The guest presented himself as a possible second arbiter between her and the preacher. The first arbiter, the king, unwilling to release the preacher, exile him, or condemn him to death, was slow to make a decision. The theatre of their confrontation also includes the sequences of a strange oratorio, since a new religion began to convert a few people. New ways of thinking and living would soon prevail. Salomé’s story is our story. It is the beginning of the world that has been ours for two thousand years.