How many times each day do we hear a "chicken or the egg?" type comment ?  Perhaps, so much that the phrase means little or nothing in passing.  But in the case of Terpsichore and the woman who would play her in the movie, that old saying has direct application and with its original intent.  I find it hard to differentiate the fable of Terpsichore from the daily life of Serena Pullen. 

For, I stumbled upon this person (Serena), who was already a dancer, musician and healer.  As to the general approach with all those duties? She knows that I lovingly joke of airhead, space cadet and other cultural definitions of an Aquarian.  I can legitimately do such joking, since I am also of the same birthright.  Fantasy, hope and general good wishes for mankind just happen to be required daily activities for such a person as Serena.

The general public might find it very hard to believe that Serena Pullen does, in fact, live a life that is quite similar to that seen in the movie.  A female muse of dance and music was what I found existing several years ago.  And she had worked very hard to accomplish that.  Thus, the thought of a fable such as Terpsichore came very naturally.  Adjusting the old image to modern times and integrating that image into a modern healing career was the challenge.  The original short story of "Terpsi" came from the challenge.   The screenplay for "Terpsichore" was later written as a joint project by Terry Hancock and Larry Blumenthal.  Larry gave that little touch of Hollywood glory to that modern day version of Terpsichorean intervention that would become the movie "Terpsichore".

A

The above was taken from a still photo of a real Serena performance that was done in an open air market in Santa Fe, NM.  It was a summer day of about 100 degrees.  Of course, here,
uh, it, er, has been slightly "enhanced".  A very similar image is used on the home page of her own personal site.

Serena can tell her own biography, to date:  Born January 23rd, 1975 in the middle of a Midwestern USA blizzard.  "Brrrr" as she put it !

Serena comments:

"Dancing:

Always into dancing...drove mom and dad crazy doing acrobatics over and on the furniture....

So, I have been a dance student for 25 years and I now love to teach also!
I started out with ballet...didn't like it...then did jazz and tap,then came the acrobatics and gymnastics...then modern dance....and some martial arts of course...was a cheerleader in high school (I know,I know but I also played soccer and ran track !)then capoeira and bellydance.....

I always found bellydance to be such an interesting dance form but classes were not around in good 'ol Huntsville , Alabama ...then, while in college in Tucson, AZ , I drummed for various bellydancers ....and THEN I found Katherine Ferguson from whom I took my first class!

Eliane Allegre has been my teacher for about 9 years now...she was raised in Marseilles, France...she is French Algerian and one of the most beautiful, joyful and loving dancers I have ever seen! She teaches bellydance out of her home studio near Madrid, NM on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm...

Music:

I can remember sitting on the stairs and playing on the stair above me saying "I want to be drummer!" I loved the rythms that you could make! I took piano lessons off and on growing up but never felt much of a connection with it. While in high school, I got back into drumming but this time on drums! I had a pair of congas that I had set up in my room. My friends and I would go to these tunnels and caves (Birmingham, Alabama) and play for hours among the echoes. When I went to college, I continued with my drumming and found the didjeridoo!

A man named Jack Bard worked in the math department at the University of Arizona. On his breaks he would set up a blanket with about 4 or 5 didjeridoos. As he played, people would approach him interested and he would let people try. I was immmediately hooked. I went through some hard times in my college years, so I spent countless hours playing didj in my room or in the desert or at Jack's house. The drummung continued too...I played for bellydancers! This was before I bellydanced...eventually, I began to learn bellydance from Katherine Ferguson.

The flute called out to me as well. I bought a used silver flute and took lessons for a very short time....I enjoyed just playing more than the lesson books..So in these college years, I acquired a four track recorder. Dennis the Red and I as well as our friends Robert McDade, Tamir Nolley (Sax) flute Bruce, Pete with the bagpipes, JaeJin kick ass guitarist and whomever else recorded all kinds of cool music. We made songs about satyrs, vanths, lykanthropes, ghosts and the wind as well as covered old scottish folk tunes about cliffs, sailors, dead children...the scottish were quite dark in those times! I started singing with these songs...Dennis the Red and I even travelled to Colorado and New Mexico doing our songs in restaurants for our meals....that pizza place in Taos was one of them!! So, with these folk tunes came an interest in playing the guitar. I bought a beautiful acoustic guitar with butterflies on it. I took it camping ALOT and I really connected with it..
I must also mention that during this time of music discovery, I spent much time with Tony Harris. Still to this day, I consider him one of the most talented musicians that I have met. Some people did not get his music, calling it "organized chaos", but there were those that instantly fealt the magik! I have tried to find him on the internet to no avail BUT I still have a tape of his. I need to figure out how to get it on cd and I will put one of his songs on this site for you to hear! Also, flute Bruce and I would regularly street perform ..he playing flute and I ,the didj...he was always very supportive of my musicianship. Robert McDade was also a big inspiration to me. He lived in his van that was complete with a recording studio inside that he had put together with electronic parts from thrift stores! We called him "techmaster" which he did not like...but he was! I have one of Robert's tapes too..recorded in this studio on wheels.

After college, as I went through Acupuncture school, two of my loves, music and painting, went on hold..well, SORT OF. I played briefly in a band called The Viridian Sky Visitors. I sang, played didj and flute and a sampler and drum machine. The band consisted of myself, Glen Neff(keyboards, voice), Ashanu(drums), harmonica, and Johnny one time flowing like a crazy man. Didn't last long. I also started doing solo projects with Glen Neff and briefly practiced with a Madrid bluesy band...wasn't really my thing although I LOVE the blues!

I got deeper and deeper enmeshed in the bellydancing which began to overshadow the music for a little while. Then, I started performing with Pedro Romero the accordianist. We started mixing in my dancing while I played maracas, tambourine, dumbek, didj. Yay the mix of dancing while plaing music!! I also started dancing with the band Qetesh. Paul, the drummer and I started doing a lot of street performance and he always encouraged me to play music as well. He introduced me to the Ali Akhbar Khan school of music website where they have all kinds of instruments for sale! In came the bansurai flute!
I now play bansurai flutes...I am collecting them in all the keys. The silver flute is still in my posession but needs to be repadded. I love the feel of a bamboo flute! I am also regularly playing didj, drums, zills, maracas, my voice, kalimba and anything else I can get my hands on! I use the guitar mainly now for writing songs. I write down the notes, tell them to Glen and he transfers it to the keyboard. I know that the guitar and I will have more time together again though!"