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About Us |
In 2008 in Izmir, Turkey, (İzmir, Türkiye),
our family started the "Heartbeat Mime
Troupe". The main theme of our work is
altruistic love. A few
months later we started holding "Love
Seminars", informal discussion groups on topics relating to
altruistic love. In 2009 we began giving out hand painted "Love
Rocks." We have had volunteers who received training and worked with us
from Turkey, Romania, India, Mexico, Honduras, S. Korea & the US. The
purpose of our work is to increase love (both horizontally and
vertically, between people and towards God). In August 2009 we moved to
the San Francisco Bay Area, to San Leandro, near Oakland, California and
are continuing our work here for 10 months. |
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D&A
(Dennis & Alexandra McGee & kids)
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How did we start? In 2006
my mother was out jogging near her home and was hit and killed by an
absent minded driver. The shock of her sudden death gave me cause to
reflect on my own life and relationships. I became acutely aware of a
profound lack of love in my own heart. Though for many years I had
understood the importance of love on an intellectual level, from the
ashes of my mother's death I found a deep desire to commit myself in a
fresh way to spend the rest of my life in pursuit of love: to learn,
live and exemplify love. As I shared this vision with my wife, Alexandra,
and our children, we found a common desire to use our talents and time
in pursuit of love.
What are biggest questions in life? What do you think is life's most
important pursuit? Though faith and hope are essential, I am convinced
that love is the highest aim. Perfect love casts out fear. It never
fails. The first step is being willing to risk letting go of selfish
pursuits and to give up everything for love.
-- Dennis (Deniz) McGee |
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Why Pantomime? |
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(An early idea for our logo) |
Love must
be shared. Our pursuit of love resulted in an overwhelming desire to
communicate the truths of love to those around us. Everyone knows at a
deep level that love is important. Love is perhaps the most universal
theme of all art and communication. The problem is not a failure to
understand the importance of love in our heads. The problem is in our
hearts. First, we fail to understand the real nature of love. And then,
even as we begin
to understand the nature of love, we still fail to live in light of what we know. |
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We began
searching for universal vehicles to stir up a desire for love in cold
hearts. Pantomime seemed to us an ideal medium to express love's eternal
truths. |
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According
to research done by Albert Mehrabian, only 7% of interpersonal
communication is though the words we use. Some 55% is body language and
%38 is tone. Messages expressed through "body language" can be even more
influential than our words. The most famous pantomime artist in world,
Marcel Marceau, described pantomime as "the language of the heart" because through this art the performer speaks from his/her heart
directly into the heart of the viewer. Turkish pantomime artist Mehmet
Fıstık put it this way after some 35 years of performing: "Pantomime
stimulates the creative development of both the performer and the
viewer, because the only instrument of communication used is the
movement of the body." The viewer supplies the details from her/his
own storehouse of experiences. Pantomime allows for direct communication of
emotion. Pantomime is a gentle art form. It imposes on no one. Yet it
breaks down language and cultural barriers and overcomes generational
gaps. Just as everyone laughs and cries in the same language, pantomime
is a universal language. |
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The purpose of our
pantomime work is to stir up reminders of eternal truths that we know in
our hearts but sometimes forget. The noises and voices that fill our heads
can often silence the deeper truth of the heart. Pantomime quietly
brings these truths to the surface again. |
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What is pantomime?
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Turkish writer
Müge
Tuzcuoğlu describes the art of pantomime in this way:
"In Latin "pan" means "everything" and "mim" means "to imitate" A pantomime then is "one who imitates
everything, a mimicker." |
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