Rare Ritual Performance Meets Film at Nyack Library

Forty-three years ago, Shaman Ivan Szendro left his ruined Transylvanian village on the Hungarian-Romanian border on a rusty bicycle after serving among the rescuers during a devastating flood.  Ivan left unable to rescue anything but the ancient myth that was deeply embedded in the culture of his village.

At the Nyack Library on Thursday, March 14^th at 7pm, Ivan will combine performance and film to share the myth of Nagygec, his Hungarian village designated Piermont’s sister village in 2007.  Through live acting, he will present a chapter of the village’s myth, My Initiation, then will show excerpts from his award-winning film, Self-Made Shaman, the Hungarian of Piermont.  The event will also debut the first upward-reading book, Journey to the Up-Conscious.

Shaman Ivan believed that the one who keeps the village’s myth alive will help the village rebuild again.  He faithfully carried on the myth of the disappeared village, performing the story at NYU, theater festivals, the Pompidou Center in Paris, and at community centers all over the world.

“Ivan delivers his mythological presentation in an unprecedented intensity and beauty, shamanic perhaps – but very appealing for our consciousness today,” writes the Amsterdam newspaper Dagblaad about his performance there.

The fate of Nagygec and of its legend may have a happy ending, receiving $500,000 from the European Union’s Cohesion Fund.  The fund is directed at projects that improve understanding between ethnic groups and nations.

“I applaud your efforts to preserve the ruined Hungarian village,” says American Embassy Cultural Attaché in Budapest, Dmitri Tarakhovsky.

The Village of Piermont is getting a special show of gratitude for the village’s solidarity with the ruined Hungarian sister village.  Confirmed for Tuesday, April 2, the Hungarian Cultural Attaché of New York, Anita Demeter, will speak at Piermont Village Hall (478 Piermont Avenue, Piermont, NY 10968, 845-359-1258) at 7:30pm.