As I’m sure you all are aware at this point, the film about the founder of the Shakers, Mother Ann Lee, was released in late December to more or less universal critical acclaim. I am gearing up to go to see it next week with my ride or die AC, and of course we will be dressed in bonnets, dragging our sleek yet rustic wooden chairs behind us, like a weirdo version of whatever it is ladies did at Barbie screenings in 2023.
So I had two ideas about this movie, and the first was that someone should go to a screening of it at Sabbathday Lake, in Maine, where the remaining two Shakers live (correction: it’s currently three Shakers because a new one is in a sort of trial period, but this happens every few years and newbies rarely stay the course, sadly). The article would be reminiscent of a New Yorker Talk of the Town from a few years ago when Michael Schulman went to a performance of Doubt on Broadway with some nuns, which was very charming. I actually cold emailed Sabbathday Lake to see if they’d be up for it, but I didn’t get a response. I’m not totally surprised––ask me how I know that Brother Arnold is, ahem, prickly––but also, I kind of get it: it’s pretty rare that a minority religion gets a fair shake on the big or small screen, and it must be weird to see the woman you revere most portrayed by a chick from Mean Girls. Anyway, on the off chance they do email me back and want a collab, I’m going to delete this, just fair warning.
Second idea, and this one really has legs: I’m really feeling like Shaker dancing as portrayed in the movie should be the next big hipster workout craze. See this clip? It’s like, Ryan Heffington Tai Chi? I don’t know, I think there is really something there! The choreographer lives between Brooklyn and Hudson Valley (tracks) so she should open a studio in between those places which is coincidentally right where I live. Ha!
Itinerantdaughter's Blog 
Leave a comment