Fairytales have been around forever. They help us make sense of our lives and navigate society with stories of hope, tragedy, and forgiveness. Using ordinary people as well as mystical creatures, fables can serve as morality tales that caution against greed and corruption or express the power of eternal love. And while we tend to think of fairytales as something in the past - from our youth, or from some kingdom far away and once upon a time - they still permeate cultures around the world.

After all, what is the movie Wall-E if not a modern-day fairytale that forces us to grapple with a frightening world of consequence for our current actions? Or Obama’s stunningly short rise to power, whose portrayal in the media closely follows the formula of ancient rags to riches fairytales found around the world. We are steeped in the magic and mystery of fairytales on a daily basis but rarely stop to consider how they can serve as tools for understanding our country and our time.

So to tackle the power and scope of fairytales is both a rich and daunting task. The Patricia Rincon Dance Collective presented its fourth installment of The Myth Project at St. Paul’s Cathedral (and will do so again on March 6^th and 7^th at the Encinitas Library) by taking a look at fairytales from across the globe and interpreting them with a visually stunning performance that refrained from mere dramatization and instead aimed to evoke the beauty and magic of these tales.

Rincon wisely set the work in St. Paul’s Cathedral, an imposing and inherently dramatic space that is the closest thing San Diego has to an old European-style church. Just by entering the cavernous chapel and passing the rows of wooden pews and towering pillars, one felt transported to a different time and place. And indeed the physical features of St. Paul’s – the long aisle, the vaulted ceiling, the organ pipes that climb up the wall - proved to be the main characters of the evening. Add to that, the glorious live organ music played by Martin Green that filled the space with passion and a sense of adventure. The lighting, not credited in the program, was also an effective element that added to the rich aesthetics.

Within the span of less than an hour, we were offered snippets from ten fairytales from AD 503 to 2009: An original story by Rincon gleaned from San Diego newspaper articles that chronicled the failing economy was more like a nightmare, really, and others were told through a combination of live readings (by Bridget Rountree and the Rev. Canon Richard Leave) and recorded voiceovers.

The audio was layered with sound effects and manipulated to a degree that made it essentially impossible to follow the actual stories being told. One could catch the word “witch” or “magic” or understand that a man had stumbled upon a the fountain of youth, but within moments it would fade or be droned out with competing voices. You could not hear any one tale in its entirety.

The standardized tone in the stories highlighted the commonality between them all, whether they came from Japan in the 9^th century or Turkey in 1812, or by Native Americans in 1928. Though we couldn’t understand all of the words, we could sense a familiarity within them that acknowledged how our different societies and cultures have a similar foundation, and shared lessons and values. But it would have been nice to have a clearer idea of what these stories were actually saying, with something more concrete to latch onto, rather than making us to float through it all in ethereal abstraction.

Another effect of the muffled storytelling was to keep the attention on the dancers – Deven P. Brawley, Keely Campbell, Kenna Crouch, Kristopher D. Ross and Justin Viernes, a graceful, energetic, and cohesive ensemble. Costumed in white, all with flowing skirts of mixed fabrics, the dancers glided through the small stage at the altar of the church and maneuvered cleverly through rows of pews on the stage. The costumes never changed throughout the evening, nor did the lush, lyrical movement style; and that also made it difficult to distinguish the various fairytales from each other. Everything merely blended.

The Myth Project IV was not a compilation of stories or a mere bibliography of ancient fables but rather the essence of them and a hint at their elusive qualities and universal appeal. Fairytales are alive and well today, if we choose to seek them. And if we do, we are still rewarded with mysterious, beautiful, and insightful stories that have educated and enchanted children, adults, and whole societies for generations past, and they will continue to do so for generations to come.

'The Myth Project IV: Tales from the Fringe' continues Mar. 6 and 7, at the Encinitas Library.

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