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In Virginia Westbury's
recent book available in Discovery or Nature
stores, she describes  "Dance
of the Labyrinth" as "an interactive
labyrinth installation under glass which is
designed to be walked. The path is made up of
large photo transparencies in glass boxes surrounded
by computer programmed lighting and wall hangings.
The design is based on a combination of the
spiral and the seven-circuit path. The visitor
walks on pressure-sensitive glass towards a
central mirror ( where they see their own face)
and to a mirror ball. The path contains composite
images of icons, people mummies and animals,
superimposed to show the 'single reality of
existence.' The idea according to Wasko-Flood
is to 'dance with opposites.' Her aim is to
offer her audience a 'multi-sensory journey
uniting art and life, darkness and light."*
First shown in 1994
at Gallery 10 in Washington DC, the large installation
(18' x 15' x 10') received a grant from the
Virginia Commission on the Arts in the same
year. Now located in the artist's studio in
NW DC, it is open to visitors by appointment.
The artist attributes her inspiration first
to a trip to Russia in 1990 where she envisioned
the icons leaving the walls and ceilings of
cathedrals and coming from the earth, where
to walk on icons would not be irreverent but
sacred. Next she recalls a vision at the Great
Kiva, or Indian ceremonial center in Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico, of the Anazazi Indians dancing through
the circular wall in a labyrinth motion inviting
her to their step.
In this sacred marriage
for all times, she invites us to dance with
opposites: opposite images, and those opposites
in ourselves--to meet characters from previous
series: the "Brazilian" macumba (Afro-Christian
religious) dancers, strange animal "Totems"--
monkeys, birds, and snakes--and even stranger
"Goddesses" icons merged with mummies
and animals. As one follows the earth, water,
fire, and air paths, the phosphorescent painted
mulch glows like moonlight, and the colored
Japanese papers shine like stained glass. As
pillars rotate, the mirror ball turns and the
surrounding figures dance, she invites us to
"Cycles" of transformation. To confront
oneself in the mirror at center. Is the image
is real? Or a reflection? A passage to another
world? Life, death, or rebirth?
*Westbury, Virginia,
Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace,
Landsdowne Publishing Pty Ltd, Sydney NSW 2001
Australia, page 94 [http://www.paragate.org/Labyrinth/Westbury.html]
"Dance
of the Labyrinth"
Unloose the snake
From round your neck.
Unloose the snake
That stores the fire
Of the Labyrinth
From Under
Thunder.
Unloose
the snake
From round your neck.
The One who Partakes
Of Bird and Fish and Worm,
The One Scripted
To Exist
In Wonder.
Unloose
the snake
From round your neck.
One step forward,
One step back.
One step future,
One step past,
Near the Center,
Near the Edge.
Miss not
a step.
Miss not the abyss.
Dance with flames.
Dance with shades.
Grasp the throat.
Release the others.
Slide to Center.
Hiss a
Kiss.
-Sandra
Wasko-Flood 1992 
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