ENERGETIC BLISS with SHARON DYKERK-LONERGAN By Polly Guerin

In a world filled with the cacophony of city life, the stress of work or personal health concerns it is comforting to know that women seeking the resurgence of harmony in their lifestyle need go no further but turn to Sharon’s Energetic Bliss. Her mission statement says it all. “My belief in the healing arts is deeply profound, providing an Energetic “whole” – istic approach. I pledge to keep the power of gentle professional touch alive by providing an important service to women that can truly improve their quality of life by being the conduit, for their own self-healing.” Sharon is a woman determined to succeed in holistic healing with a subtle approach that underscores the philosophy of Energetic Bliss.


HOLISTIC HEALING Sharon has dedicated her life to the well being of others. She is a woman whose hands have a distinct therapeutic touch that is gentle, yet goes deep into sensitizing where a client’s energy centers need the most attention and revitalization. With soft persuasive hands, Sharon‘s gentle professional touch serves as a conduit that also helps women to heal themselves and clear toxins whether emotional, chemical or both. Her services are tuned into the needs of the individual and her uncanny ability to immediately attune to a client’s concerns makes her a truly sensitive practitioner.

THE SERVICES Sharon practices in disciplines including Reiki, Aromatherapy Massage, Hot Stone Massage, Polarity Therapy and Onnetsu Far Infrared Therapy. The wall in her salon attests to the fact that Sharon has honed her skills and authenticated her diverse practice. The serene salon has a skyline view with windows opening to the sunlight. A warm bed-like massage table, on which a client reclines, in a fully clothed session, provides a soothing experience that calms and restores disharmony in the energy fields of the body. You can almost feel the tension and the burden of everyday concerns melt away.

POLARITY THERAPY I can attest to the Polarity Therapy treatment as I was fortunate recently to experience it. Sharon’s featherlike touch scanned my body reaching blocked currents in the body’s energy field, and at one place in particular, she touched a spot that dramatically resonated to her touch with a gentle but almost electrifying reaction. I assessed this to mean that there may be severe blocking of energy in that area as well in other places. After the session I felt light and euphoric. I now realize that the power of gentle professional touch can truly improve the quality of life by clearing and balancing chakra/energy centers, relieve pain, activate the body’s natural ability to heal itself, relieve stress and release toxins or impurities, to name a few.

ENERGETIC BLISS, Natural Health Care for Women, focuses on your total well-being in treatments that soothe your senses, restore your body and replenish your spirit. Energetic Bliss is located at 121 Newark Ave., Suite 402, Downtown Jersey City, NJ 07302. Tel. 971.239.8479 or sharon@energetic bliss.com By appointment only. Visit her Web Site at www.energeticbliss.com

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN SINGERS ASSOCIATION By Polly Guerin

 It’s not every day that someone turns 200 and that fact givescause for celebration in the year 2013, which marks the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi, arguably the most influential musician of his generation. So it is timely and a fitting tribute to the great musical genius that August Ventura, author, film maker and Verdi devotee is preparing a documentary film entitled “27” about the people of the Parma, Italy and their unique relationship with the composer’s 27 operas. Mr. Ventura is a visionary, a man who brings to the audience a rare and provocative essay revealing the famed city of Parma, its celebrated opera lovers in the cafes and Verdi Clubs.

PWSA I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend an introduction to Mr. Ventura’s oeuvre presented by PWSA, the Professional Women Singers Association, held at the historic landmark Players Club. Founded in 1982 PWSA’s mission is to advance the careers of women singers and promote excellence. It also functions as a network of distinguished singers who support each other in their professional careers. Non singers may also join and PWSA has a "Friends" category. For more information go to their website: www.womensingers.org.  (image: PWSA professional performers)  Marguerite Roberti, the featured diva in the film may be a singer from a bygone era, but she captivates the audience with recollections of performing in the early 60s as well as insights into her own brave career choices.

RETURNING to “27” Mr. Ventura is a writer, historian, archivist, and is as passionate about his film as he is about Verdi operas. He has wedded history and opera in a film that offers a fascinating glimpse into Parma, Italy’s cognoscenti, the Club of 27, the Verdi Clubs, and the city’s famed "loggionisti” at the Teatro Regio. Most captivating are the images of the everyday people whose devotion to opera permeates their life, and as if Verdi was an elixir of love, even the street sweeper bursts out in operatic song. Ventura’s talk was capped by a live-Skype conversation with Margherita Roberti who now lives in California. For more information about the film, go to www.27adocumentary.com.

STRAVINSKY and His World Summer Escape (c) By Polly Guerin

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 Summer just outside the city is ready with a potpourri of events that sweep in on the cool weather promise to stimulate your senses at Bard’s tribute to Stravinsky during the Bard Music Festival.
Advance notice: Mark your calendar for music on the beautiful Bard Campus. Here’s the scoop!!!

STRAVINSKY and HIS WORLD The 2013 Bard Music Festival, scheduled to coincide with the centenary of the scandal at the premiere of The Rite of Spring, explores the full range of this great composer’s elusive and enigmatic personality and career. Through panels, lectures, concerts and cinema, audiences encounter works by Stravinsky—many of them rare---and by Americans he influenced, including Copland, Piston and Carter. Generally considered to be the world’s most influential figure in 20th century music Igor Stravinsky’s long life spanned continents, cultures, and eras. He also resembled Picasso in his gift for radical artistic transformation.

BALLETS RUSSES Success came in 1910, with the commission of The Firebird from Serge Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev encouraged Stravinsky to develop his ‘Russian’ vein commissioning further ballets such as The Rite of Spring, whose premiere prompted part of the audience to riot. Set in primeval Russia Stravinsky did borrow from folk music but transformed them radically. The Rite of Spring portrays a ritual in which a young girl dances herself to death to win the favor of the god of Spring. The ballet is a work of savage ecstasy, driven forward to its powerful, primitive rhythms. Stravinsky’s legacy and Russian Émigré cinema includes The Firebird and The Red Shoes.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR Sunday August 11 schedule includes SIGHT AND SOUND; FROM ABSTRACTION TO SURREALISM in the Sosnoff Theater. Sunday, August 18 brings together several programs including The Émigré in America (Living in exile in Switzerland and France where he pursued “classical” music aesthetics). In 1939, Stravinsky came to the United States and exerted a profound influence on American musical life. For details contact: BARD College Annandale-on-Hudson: In the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center fishercenter.bard.edu or 845.758.7900

ORESTEIA BY SERGEY TANEYEV marking the first time this towering work was staged outside of Russia it was performed boasting a strong and predominately Russian cast. Bard’s new and original production, with stage direction by Thaddeus Strassberger, closed with its last performance on August 4 to stand up ovation and applause. The voices were spectacular anchored by mezzo-soprano Liuba Sokolova as Clytemnestra, doomed husband, Agamemnon bass Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev and an equally excellent supportive cast as well a rich and spontaneous chorus, with many Bard students in the huge ensemble of peasants. The resident American Symphony Orchestra ,with music director and Bard College President, Leon Botstein, was in top form and enriched the performance with equal bravado.

Ta Ta darlings!!! I’m to Bard to visit Stravinsky and his World. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Visit Polly’ Blogs at pollytalk.com and click on the links in the left-hand column on Polly’s home page .