{"id":17641,"date":"2019-10-30T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T09:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=17641"},"modified":"2019-10-21T11:13:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T15:13:17","slug":"elle-swan-one-bold-move-after-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/30\/elle-swan-one-bold-move-after-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Elle Swan: One Bold Move After Another"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There is no shortage of self-help gurus, motivational speakers and life coaches. Paths toward enlightenment include everything from mainstream religion to yoga to 12-step programs to meditation. A newcomer to Western North Carolina has combined bits of all of those to create something unique. And Elle Swan \u2013 professionally known as Bold Mama Elle \u2013 distills those approaches into an evening that’s equal parts entertainment and empowerment. Bold Mama Elle’s \u201cNaughty\u201d had its world premiere at The Wortham Center on October 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a performer, a psychic, and a spiritual teacher,\u201d says Swan. But her path \u2013 to her current emotional, spiritual and geographical place \u2013 has been a circuitous one. Growing up in Detroit and educated at Oberlin College, she worked as a music journalist. But in the wake of her father’s death \u2013 \u201cHe was dead three days before they found his body,\u201d Swan says \u2013 she went into an emotional tailspin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into a self-medicating spiral that lasted five years,\u201d she says. By the time she hit bottom, Swan was living on the street, addicted to drugs and alcohol. She eventually entered a six-month rehab program in Hollywood. \u201cI stayed there nine<\/i> months,\u201d Swan admits with a laugh, \u201cbecause I wanted to be sure I had it.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that program, after 45 days sober, she began traveling to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Beverly Hills. Swan would maintain that daily regimen of meetings for eight years, focusing on the 12th<\/sup> step. For her, that meant meditation and bringing the message of recovery to others. \u201cAnd then\u201d she says, \u201cI decided that it was time for me to trust life and move on.\u201d She stopped going to AA and developed her own philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t consciously incorporate much of the 12 steps,\u201d Swan says. \u201cI would say it\u2019s more quantum physics; it\u2019s more like Tesla and Einstein. I believe that the only moment is now; the future doesn\u2019t exist, and if it did, someone would\u2019ve found it by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swan built a new career as a public speaker, writing self-help books (Your Mind Over Habits<\/i>, Elle-Evations<\/i>) and guesting on television programs including Dr. Oz<\/i>. In 2012 she attended a yoga festival where saw a film that inspired her to do something new. She quickly learned to ride a motorcycle, then traveled to India and toured the Himalayas. That trip inspired the creation of Swan’s \u201cBold Moves\u201d program, which she describes as \u201cteaching how to climb the mountains within ourselves, facing the fears that block us from our highest life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April of this year, Swan \u2013 who was living and working in Sedona, Ariz., \u2013 decided to use music as a vehicle to spread her message of empowerment and personal freedom. That goal posed challenges, because she had absolutely no musical background. \u201cNothing,\u201d she says with a hearty laugh. \u201cI\u2019m a writer. I\u2019m an intellectual.\u201d She received inspiration that instructed her: \u201c’You’re going to do music,’ it said. And then everything started coming through me.\u201d She went online and learned how to use ProTools, and bought computer based music-making gear.<\/p>\n

The resulting recordings can be described as a soul- and gospel-tinged take on New Age music. \u201cI\u2019m channeling information that\u2019s coming through as music,\u201d Swan says. \u201cThis music, my voice, and the information are designed to break up the density in the human body. The lyrics in my songs inspire that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swan offers two albums \u2013 both recorded since that April epiphany \u2013 for sale on her web site. Treasure<\/i> sells for $150, and BEAM<\/i> is available for $125. Challenged to justify retail prices ten times the going rate, Swan has a ready response. \u201cIf you saw a blown glass vase at a boutique downtown and it was $500, no one would question that,\u201d she says. \u201cBut because it\u2019s a thing<\/i> and we live in a material world, it\u2019s been decided that it’s worth more than music, which is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets to Swan’s \u201cNaughty\u201d premiere were priced more conventionally. Combining dance, speaking and singing (to pre-recorded music), the one-woman show is \u201cdesigned to push the edge of personal and collective freedom,\u201d Swan explains. \u201cBy seeing and hearing and interacting with this hour and a half experience, people can remember what it looks and sounds like to not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, a meditating session inspired Swan to move to Asheville, a city she had never visited. \u201cBe bold and constantly say ‘yes,’ because life is on our side,\u201d she explains. Swan and her assistant rented an SUV and moved a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n

But while Asheville is Elle Swan’s new base of operations, she’s not staying put. Two days after the \u201cNaughty\u201d premiere, she took the show to London. Swan purchased one-way tickets, and no performance dates are currently booked. \u201cI’m just going to show up,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you say ‘yes,’ then you\u2019ll find out when you get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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