"The power of its sound to shake us to our very foundation, the unified stream of melody and the quite incomparable world of harmony. In the Dionysiac dithryamb man is simulated to the highest intensification of his symbolic powers; some-thing that he has never felt before urgently demands to be expressed: the destruction of the veil of maya, one-ness as the genius of humankind, indeed of nature itself."--The Birth of Tragedy, p. 21.

The video is the piece entitled "Cry" from Alvin Ailey's ballet, Revelations. The dance is set to a suite of three gospel songs: Alice Coltrane's "Something about John Coltrane," Laura Nyro's "Been on a Train," and The Voices of East Harlem "Right on. Be Free." Although Schopenhauer and maybe Nietzche would probably look down on the depictive/imitative qualities of these songs lyrically and perhaps melodically--I chose this particular video because to me it demonstrates the process of shedding of barriers and the slow taking over of the Dionysiac. The music seems to be working both within her and external to her--in moments she looks as if the music pulls her up off of her knees, thrusts her forward, and pulls at her limbs even as she tries to resist--like she is possessed by the music. The woman goes reluctantly but diligently through the motions forced by slavery/oppression (barriers created by man) and bursts of free, what looks like almost uncontrolled movement. To me this is the "destruction of the veil of maya," the forgetting of one's self and giving over to one's most primal urges--what Nietzche calls the nature of humankind. The self becomes utterly physical as the barriers (between man and man and man and nature itself) that are created by the mind melt away. Without these barriers, Nietzche notes that music compels us to express our true nature, and more so--to feel it and perceive it in the first place.

And just for kicks...if this isn't Dionysiac, I don't know what is...