Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

In 2016, on a summer night in the beautiful city of Florence, the Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj as the backdrop. Vivaldi's masterpiece has four parts, corresponding to the four seasons. In this newly expanded performance, musical preludes have been added before each season, featuring the musical composition and performance of hang drummer extraordinaire Paolo Borghi of Rome. In this excerpt, we hear Borghi's "Prelude" to Vivaldi's "Winter".

The performance took place on the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval multi-arch bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. The Ponte Vecchio is one of the most historic bridges in the world, and the earliest bridge at this spot is believed to have been built in Roman times.

This performance is in preparation for a planned, fuller performance in 2017.

Tags: Florence Dance Company   Image-Art  

[Show actually begins at 00:56, after a commercial and a brief excerpt from Mozart's Symphony No. 40.]

In this episode of the radio show, A Better World, host Mitchell Rabin conducts a Round Table discussion on the relationship between diet and climate change. He raises the tremendous possibility for both personal-planetary transformation and spiritual growth.

Joining Mitchell are Abel Slater and Dina Lautman. Abel and Dina have been devotees of Adi Da for over 25 years, and have spent significant time in Naitauba, Fiji at Adi Da’s principal Hermitage Sanctuary, Adi Da Samrajashram, where they received direct guidance from Adi Da, both in practical life wisdom and esoteric spiritual practice. Now based in New York, they also travel extensively throughout the world presenting Adi Da's spiritual teachings about right life, including diet, sexuality, meditation and conductivity. Recently, they have been focused on raising awareness about the benefits of the raw vegan diet by promoting Green Gorilla raw treats across the U.S. and around the world.

What occurs at the micro level of each individual's diet is effectively magnified at the macro level of the collective global ecosystem. Today, over 70 billion land animals are killed annually to support human meat consumption. A recent United Nations environmental impact study determined that livestock is the source of 18% of global greenhouse gases, now exceeding emissions from all transportation sources globally, which account for 17% of global greenhouse gases. Meat consumption is growing exponentially and is increasingly jeopardizing the health of the planet. Today’s Round Table will address these issues in depth. This conversation and the information we consider is vital to our personal health and to the collective survival of our species and all sentient life.

Excerpt from the Florence Dance Company's performance of the multimedia dance event, Orpheus Ascending, with Adi Da's Image-Art in the background. The music is Ray Lynch's "Passion Song", from his album, Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening.

Orpheus Ascending was a highlight of the October 8, 2015 Finissage Event for The Ascent of Orpheus, the exhibition of Adi Da's art at the Bargello Museum in Florence that ran from July 9 to October 11, 2015.

Choreography: Keith Ferrone
Artistic direction: Marga Nativo
Featured dancers:
Daniel Sandwiches (Orpheus)
Ylenia Mendolicchio (Eurydice)
Emilia Giubasso (chorus)
Virginia Montel Brains (chorus)
Jane Llaha (chorus)
Elisa Torrigiani (chorus)

The video clip is from a longer Toscana TV News clip with noted journalist Fabrizio Borghini reporting on the Finissage Event.

Tags: Florence Dance Company   Image-Art  

The Florence Dance Company’s performance of Divina(dot)com (on July 9 – 11, 2015) in celebration of the 750th anniversary of Dante’s birth, in the Bargello National Museum courtyard, featuring Adi Da Samraj’s art, and performed in association with The Ascent of Orpheus exhibition at the Bargello Museum.

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

This audio clip is an excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da on December 19, 2004. The Discourse is available as a CD: The Gift of Ripening.

By listening to this Discourse, you will receive Avatar Adi Da’s Guidance in understanding your level of ripeness. And such a realistic (rather than idealistic) assessment is an essential element in preparing for the process of Realizing True Happiness He Offers — the process of the “transcending of all conditionality in the Self-Radiant Conscious Light that is the 'Bright'”.

Quotes from this CD:

Adi Da: "Realization is not "caused". It is Given. It is made tacitly obvious. I can, through interaction with you and by being accessible to you, ripen you, so to speak, for this Spiritual Apprehension of Reality. And I am made available to you through this Bodily Sign which gives a focus for the faculties in the process of them being purified and relieved of their patterns."

Adi Da: "Divine Self-Realization is not just some happy-hunting-ground metaphor in the mind. It is not just a light. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that people see in the death process. That is not it either. Do you have any idea how many tunnels there are, how many lights there are, how many 'worlds' there are to the left and right, how many ends of that tunnel there are? You have no idea. You do not know what it is about, generally speaking."

Adi Da: "Anything in the mind or of the mind is not true. So all of your pursuit of 'answers' or states of mind or content for your thinking is fruitless — but what are you going to do about it?. . . You do not even necessarily notice that your thinking is a matter of seeking. You think there are some kinds of thinking that may be said to be motivated by a search, but you do not think that thinking is seeking. And yet it is always seeking. Thinking is itself seeking. So if the Way is not seeking nor can the Truth be Realized by seeking, then thinking has nothing to do with it and you should just forget about thinking from now on — but you cannot do that, can you? You are already thinking, even though I just told you that. . ."

Tags: CD   Avataric Discourse  

On the evening of July 24, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The performance was called "Dancing on the Bridge of the World", because it took place on the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval multi-arch bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. The Ponte Vecchio is one of the most historic bridges in the world, and the earliest bridge at this spot is believed to have been built in Roman times.

This slideshow includes photographs of "Dancing on the Bridge of the World" by Richard Osbourne.

Music is by Aaron Nakagawa.

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

On July 21 and 22, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The venue was the courtyard of the historic Bargello Museum in Florence.

This video clip provides an introduction to the place (Florence), the dancers, the musicians, the art (images from Adi Da's Geome One: Alberti's Window, in four different colorings for the four seasons), and the costumes (which were color-coordinated with the art).

Also in this clip: Italian art critic, Giuliano Serafini (author of Matisse e il Mediterraneo and Goya, praises the combination of music, dance, and art: "It's the best!". Serafini, Keith Ferrone (director of the Florence Dance Company), and Ruchiradama Nadikanta all note the technological advance represented by the LED lighting in the back panels, that brought out the color in Adi Da's art to a far greater degree than in previous performances (assisted by new fabrications of Adi Da's art), and enlivened the dancers' performance.

Ruchiradama Nadikanta: "Absolutely exquisite! . . . It was one symphony — of dance, and art, and music. . . Adi Da was immensely present, infusing every note and every step, as well as shining through His extraordinary Art. . . You feel [the dancers] really dancing to the Art."

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

Longtime devotee Angelo Druda is the featured guest on this program of the Transforming Reality Internet Talk Show, which focuses on individuals and organizations that are raising human consciousness and changing our world. The program host and producer is Robert "Han" Bishop. With a Ph.D. from Northwestern University specializing in Environmental Psychology, Han spent several decades in corporate and government leadership positions before pursuing his passion for awakening others to their higher guidance.

In this show, Angelo talks on the topic of "The Death of Another: A Mysterious Process that Includes You" and provides profound spiritual wisdom for anyone serving another who is dying, and for each of us in preparing for our own inevitable passing. Angelo draws on his many years as a senior educator and minister for the Mate Moce Ministry, which was established by Adi Da to instruct people about the death process and to serve them in their death transition.

Audio not playing? Try this link.

Tags: interview   radio   death  

In response to a devotee's question about Spiritual Transmission, Adi Da discusses how the various schools of religious and Spiritual instruction fit within the Great Tradition.

("Great Tradition" is Avatar Adi Da's term for the total inheritance of human, cultural, religious, magical, mystical, Spiritual, and Transcendental paths, philosophies, and testimonies, from all the eras and cultures of humanity.)

Avatar Adi Da also describes the qualities of genuine Spiritual Transmission and offers guidance in transcending naive belief and all forms of limited thinking.

This excerpt is from the DVD, Human History Is One Great Tradition. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. This talk is also available on the CD, Human History Is One Great Tradition.

Tags: DVD   CD   Great Tradition   Avataric Discourse  

"The force of primary geometric forms is everywhere in the world. . . once you begin to get the sense of shape, then you can see that the world of perception is actually made of primary geometries. It is just that there are so many of them all at once that the natural world seems to have feathered edges."
--Avatar Adi Da Samraj

With works from Adi Da's Image-Art projected in the background, the contemporary dance piece, "Feathered Edges", was performed at the Adidam Midwest Center in Chicago, in celebration of Adi Da's 74th Birthday.

"FEATHERED EDGES, a joint creation that encapsulates rapturous elements that make the couple's forays into contemporary dance so compelling. They swirl and yearn, hover over one another and intertwine. In the Everts' world, geometry in motion is often a means to sensuality in motion."
--DONALD ROSENBERG (THE PLAIN DEALER/Cleveland)

''When Tom and Susana perform together on stage my own reality of time, place, and context is blurred. Their dance duets embrace their dualistic energies with intrinsic vulnerability and compassion."
--DANIEL WHITLEY (Visual Artist/Cleveland)

Choreographers and Dancers: Susana Weingarten & Tom Evert
Costume Design: Luzano Rey & Janet Bolick
Lighting Design: Deb Malcolm
Music: The Cinematic Orchestra
Sound engineer: Jordan Davis
Video: Alejandro Rivera

Projected Image-Art:
The Scale of Perfection, Part One: NYC, NYCSTET I (from Geome Three) 2006, by Adi Da Samraj, © 2013 ASA

Tags: Image-Art   dance  

Adi Da Samraj: "The force of primary geometric forms is everywhere in the world. . . once you begin to get the sense of shape, then you can see that the world of perception is actually made of primary geometries. It is just that there are so many of them all at once that the natural world seems to have feathered edges."

Choreographers and Dancers: Susana Weingarten & Tom Evert
Costume Design: Luzano Rey & Janet Bolick
Lighting Design: Deb Malcolm
Music: The Cinematic Orchestra
Sound engineer: Jordan Davis
Video: Alejandro Rivera

Projected Image Art:
The Scale of Perfection, Part One: NYC, NYCSTET I (from Geome Three) 2006, by Adi Da Samraj, © 2013 ASA

Tags: dance   image-art  

New music by premier Florentine composer Andrea Portera, from the ballet, Not-Two Is Peace, performed at the Pergola Theatre on March 15 and March 17, 2013.

This piece is called "Finale".

Played by the 12-piece orchestra, Ensemble Nuovo Contrappunto.

Tags: music   peace   Florence Dance Company  

The Florence Dance Company prepares and performs at the Pergola Theatre, Florence, in the March 2013 performances of Not-Two Is Peace. Accompanied by interviews with some of the dancers and members of the public responding to the performance.

Camera: Tanja Fleischmann, Lotte Braithwaite, Matt Braithwaite, Jasper van Laar
Editor: Jasper van Laar


For more about the performances, click here.


Tags: Florence Dance Company   peace  

A few scenes from the preparation at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on March 14, 2013. Some views of the famous old theatre itself. The use of back projection for the video produces very crisp images of Adi Da's art, without the projection being interrrupted by the dancers (who would stand between the projector and the lower part of the screen in a traditional forward projection system).

For more on the performance, click here.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-art   Florence Dance Company   peace  

Music by premier Florentine composer Andrea Portera, from the ballet, Not-Two Is Peace, performed on July 22 and 23, 2012.

This piece is called "War: Private, Neighborhood and Global Destruction".

Tags: music   peace   Florence Dance Company