Geneva – Centre for the New Dialogue between Civilizations
Butterfly dance: Bringing the world together
Evelina Rioukhina, UNECE
“When people share beautiful things, they open their minds”
Shusaku Takeushi, Japanese choreographer and dancer
Centre of Geneva. The
famous Geneva Palace
expressing the cosmopolitanism,
with the
architectural expression of neoclassicism,
geniously performed
by the Florentine architect
Giovanni Salucci together with
architect Jean-Victor Noblet from
Vaud and Samuel Vaucher from
Geneva. This is the Palais Eynard.
I’m invited to attend an important
event. I enter this beautiful building,
and pass through its splendid
Salons. Amidst a large audience I
look at the first row: Mr. Pierre
Muller, Administrative Councillor,
Head of Finance and General
Administration Department, Ville et
Etat de Genève, Mr. Serguei
Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General
of the United Nations Office of Geneva,
Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. Between them the
former Director General and Under-Secretary General of the United
Nations, Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky, I look further – more than a hundred
other high guests and Excellencies from all over the world, before
them four musicians: three violinists one cellist. They begin to play. I
can hear staccato sounds plucked on the violins. The projector lights
up the screen showing images of Marc Chagall’s Window of Peace, then
of the Celestial Sphere, the chef d’oeuvre of the renowned Art Deco
American artist Paul Manship. And suddenly…the curtain opens and
a huge white figure appears to fly above the audience, above the Window
of Peace and the Celestial Sphere, a white man-butterfly, a synthesis
of the people, the arts and the music, linking them through the
magic of his dance, a dialogue without words.
No, I am not dreaming, I am not dreaming at all, this is exactly
what happened on the 4th of May in the Palais Eynard, the City
Hall of Geneva, in the rue Croix-Rouge 4, after 6.30 pm, at the inauguration
ceremony for the new Association “Comprehensive
Dialogue among Civilizations” (CDAC).1/
What really happened on this unforgettable night in the centre
of the City of Geneva, in the Palais Eynard? And what of the mystery
and power of this Butterfly dance? And why did this Japanese
dancer come to dance that night in the city of Calvin?
This is the story. It dates back to the end 90s, when the General
Assembly proclaimed the year 1998 the year of the Dialogue
among Civilizations. At that time Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky was
Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Having
throughout his career fought for peace and conflict resolution
through dialogue, he brilliantly implemented this idea of the United
Nations with practical action. The City of Geneva with its Palais
des Nations thus became the centre of the peaceful dialogue. The
year rebounded with tremendous events that helped to bring people
together, (and incidentally, this was also the year when a meaningful
bridge was built between the “rive droite” et “rive gauche”
of Geneva, between the international organisations and the city).
At that time Switzerland was not yet a member of the United
Nations, but the events of 1998 contributed greatly to the its membership,
which came about in 2002 at the time when Mr. Serguei
Ordzhonikidze, a high-ranking Russian diplomat (Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian
Federation, previously
Director of the Department of
International Organisations,
who had also worked for many
years in the Permanent Mission
of the USSR to the UN), himself
a strong advocate for peace and
convinced supporter of dialogue as a tool for peace followed
Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky as Director General of the United Nations.
It is not by chance that these two people sat together in the Palais
Eynard, continuing to implement by every possible means the
highest ideals of the United Nations and of human civilizations.
On this day Professor Petrovsky, together with the authorities of the city
of Geneva inaugurated the Association “Comprehensive Dialogue among
Civilizations”. Director General of the UNOG Mr. Ordzhonikidze on behalf
of the United Nations Office at Geneva welcomed the inauguration
of the Association for dialogue. The symbol of this dialogue will be
the Celestial Sphere, situated in the Court d’Honneur of the Palais
des Nations, itself an important landmark of the City of Geneva. The
Celestial Sphere in Geneva, like Chagall’s Window of Peace in New
York, serves as a vivid reminder that despite all cultural and religious
differences, we are inhabitants of one and the same planet of
the galaxy, the earth. The time has come to think in terms of Pax
Universalis rather than of other Paxes, and one of the contributors
to a Pax Universalis is an action-oriented dialogue, based on common
human values and the ideals of the United Nations. The
Sphere, symbol of PAX and dialogue, symbol of Geneva as the city of
dialogue and as the city of peace will soon be restored to its original
form. It should again rotate, following the rotations of the planet
earth in the sky, and it should be illuminated at night so that it could
be visible from many viewpoints of the city. Because of its symbolic
significance the restoration of the Celestial Sphere is an important
item on the agenda of the UNOG Director General, of the CDAC and
of the City of Geneva. Today the Maecenas World Patrimony Foundation
is financing the initial stage of the restoration; including the
restitution of the base, of missing figures. To restore the Celestial
Sphere will not be an easy task. To make it rotate and to illuminate
it at night will be also very costly. To cover it with special layer will
also involve considerable financial resources. However, the importance
of the project is beyond question. The total restoration of the
Celestial Sphere should be thought through again and minding the
significance of this symbol for dialogue and peace, this should perhaps
become our common goal for the future. (Separate article on
that subject, after further deeper studying of the real situation will be
written shortly and published in the future issues of UNS).
The above-mentioned Maecenas World Patrimony Foundation
already financed the other important symbol of peace, i.e. the Window
of Peace by Chagall in the United Nations in New York. The restoration
was completed in 2001 and should have been inaugurated on
United Nations Day (in October). The tragic events of September 11
delayed its inauguration for four years and the inauguration ceremony
of the Chagall’s restored Window of Peace took place in October 2005.
For this event, the world-wide known Japanese dancer and choreographer
Shusaku Takeushi, inspired by the imaginative phantasy of Marc
Chagall, conceived a Butterfly dance which he demonstrated in the
name of peace in New York during the inauguration ceremony. The
Butterfly dance was accompanied by Beethoven’s 9th symphony. The
same symphony was incorporated by Chagall in his window with a few
notes scored on the stained glass. Shusaku Takeushi has proposed that
his Butterfly dance be performed in the name of peace in all countries
of the world, and not only in Palaces or public halls or theatres, but
also in public squares of big cities, of such countries as for example
Russia, China, USA, Canada, Italy, Ukraine to honour or to commemorate
special events taking place there. The dance was already performed
by group of dancers in the Red Square and other big squares of
Russian capital and other cities of Russia, it was performed in Rotterdam
and will be staged in Beijing next year. In solo it was performed in
New York and today in Geneva. It is his own dance embodying his own
philosophy, where the butterfly stands for “peace”, as fragile as a butterfly
and as powerful as the life-cycle of a butterfly, which develops
from a modest cocoon into a magnificent creature. His logo is the following “When people share beautiful things, people open their
minds”. He performs this dance standing on stilts, raising himself as if
flying like a butterfly. To show that when the soul is filled with beauty
or elevated ideas – and peace is the highest idea of humanity – it
elevates people. They are raised up and in this manner they are able
to fly like butterflies.
It is not by chance that that night he came to Geneva, which has always
been the city of peace, and henceforth has become the centre of peaceful
dialogue. He danced his Butterfly dance in honour of the inauguration of
the Association, and by the end of the evening, when he heard about the
project to make the Celestial Sphere the central symbol of the City and of
the UN and that it will turn following the planets (as was foreseen initially,
but the mechanism broke 50 years ago) and which will be illuminated and
therefore visible day and night from many points of the city, he danced
again, he danced his new dance, this time to the music of Tchaikovsky,
played by the four musicians of the “Quatuor Fratres”, one Russian, two
Swiss and one French.
This dance of Shusaku was dedicated to the Celestial Sphere, to
Geneva as the centre of dialogue and for dialogue as a guarantee
of peace. The music and Shusaku’s revolutions combined to
hypnotize the audience in their appreciation of the beauty of the
dance, the music and of the high arts as part and parcel of the
highest goal, which is peace.
Afterword: I decided to dedicate this article to the high idea and dance for peace and on purpose have not given details of the programme of the Association. Please see the site indicated in the note. Please note that among important activities previewed in 2006 include a Research Project “The Golden Rules of Dialogue”, Internet based Resource Centre on Dialogue among Civilization, CDAC International Forum promoting “The Spirit and Culture of Dialogue, tentatively end 2006, Geneva, Switzerland, amongst many other activities. These subjects will be covered in future issues of our magazine. All my thanks also personally to Mr. Michael S. Karlen, Secretary General of CDAC, who graciously provided me with documentation, photos and responded to all my queries for this article for UN Special.
1/ Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky, founder and Chairman, Mr Michael S.
Karlen, Secretary General, further information at
www.comprehensivedialogue.org or at the address: Comprehensive
Dialogue among Civilizations (CDAC),
Rue de la Servette 100,
CH-1202 Geneva, tel: + 41 (0) 22 734 48 05, fax: + 41 (0) 22 734 48 04,
e-mail: m.karlen@civilizations.ch. See also an article in the «Tribune de Genève» of 4 May 2006 “Genève peut répondre au besoin de
dialogue”.
© 2006 UN Special |