He also painted many commissioned portraits, including Robert Graves, Noël Coward, Juliette Binoche, Richard Gere, Michael Douglas and Brigitte Bardot, and needless to say, Serafine had a far from unconventional upbringing.
She was born in a “hippy mudpit”, as she puts it, in New Mexico and was raised in electric New York City. She studied “world arts and cultures” at UCLA and “experimental animation” at CalArts, then went on to work in special effects in Paris and toured as a VJ around Europe.
“I vibrated with the magic of peaceful death and yodelled through the time tunnels of birth,” she told the Bulletin last week.
Serafine has spent the past 15 years living in Majorca, editing and teaching multimedia, feeling her way around raising her son and her awareness. She has since found deep healing in 5Rhythms, and a journey began that she senses will continue for the rest of this life, exploring the maps and pathways, sharing and teaching experience on the sacred grounds of the soul wilds: “especially intending to open the dance field to children, adolescents, prisoners of all kinds and roller disco freaks!!!!.
“After so many years of living in big cities - I was in Paris before I finally decided to make a permanent move here - I felt the need to get out of the city. I knew the job opportunities here were slim but I managed to find my feet and muddle through doing a bit of this and that. And during that time I came across 5Rhythms.”
It is a movement meditation practice devised by Gabrielle Roth in the late 1970s. It draws from indigenous and world traditions using tenets of shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy. It also draws from Gestalt therapy, the human potential movement and transpersonal psychology. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy and moves in waves, patterns and rhythms.
“I got involved with that until our wonderful teacher left and the whole group didn’t know what to do or how to continue until someone suggested I took over. So I studied and trained for three years and became the new teacher here on the island.”
However, along this latest phase of her journey through life, she has also become heavily involved with helping slightly troubled or confused teenagers and their parents. She has formed a group of between eight and ten adolescents and is helping them through their development from a child to an adult.
“I missed out on all that as a teenager. I did not really have anyone to depend on, no one who understood me and naturally I made plenty of mistakes. As I readjusted to growing up, I decided to use my experience to help teenagers here in Majorca who may be feeling lost or confused as they go through their teenage years.
“And it works both ways. The family environment and structure has changed so much over the years that parents do find it a struggle to cope with their children as they develop and grow, go through the process of becoming an adult; the teenage years are crucial to them finding the right path to follow through life.
“One of the main problems is that adults and teenagers don’t talk, especially openly and honestly about topics such as sex and drugs. What teenagers do is talk to their friends who, to be honest, don’t know what they’re talking about either most of the time; they don’t get the good advice that their parents or other adults should be providing.
“So what I do is provide a platform, which is not in school or at home, for teenagers to express themselves and have a proper discussion about whatever is on their minds and try to answer their questions. We also engage in a number of psycho-social activities. For example, we’ve got involved in upgrading recyclable materials into new objects and every six months hold a three-day filmmaking workshop. This was what gave me the idea for my new project - a film festival for teenagers.
“Through the film workshops, the teenagers in the group have not only found a new way of expressing themselves but also a new format with which they can use and explore their imagination, and I am hoping that will come through in the festival next month. I want to reach out to bored teenagers and inspire them. The festival will take place in the Santosha restaurant in Palma and the closing date for entries is August 9.
“Awards and prizes will be given in many categories, including jury favourite, public favourite, most hilarious, fascinating, gorgeous, curious, promising, and others. One special category is THEME. Teenagers can choose any subject matter or theme for their movie, or they can use this year’s festival theme.
“The theme will be: The Door. (Basically: You’ve been confined. You now open the door. Something has changed radically ... sound familiar?) Anyone who uses this theme will be considered for inclusion in an international movie featuring a selection of 20 five minute movies by professional and amateur filmmakers from around the world.
“We’re not looking for masterpieces, but direction will be very important and the idea is that the films are shot over two days with zero budget. I am hoping to get as many teenagers as possible involved, whatever their background or language. Having spoken to many teenagers during lockdown via our online community network we created and since lockdown was eased, many felt like they had been shut away while someone changed the whole world outside. It was not until they were finally allowed out of the door again that they discovered what this new world is and how we have to deal with it.
“During the lockdown, my group of teenagers has gone through one of the most amazing transformations a human goes through; it should not be brushed aside as a ‘phase’ by adults or parents. Teenagers exist and should not be left alone to deal with the transition, they need guidance and understanding as they begin to start practising being an adult. For some it takes longer than others.
“Apart from the mental differences, there are physical ones. Some teenagers grow and develop hair etc., much quicker than others, and this can obviously throw up fresh challenges and questions.
“What I do find ironic, for example, is the huge transgender debate. I know from talking to my own son Francis, who is 15, that he and his friends don’t have an issue with it at all. It’s the adults who don’t get it, and all the grown-ups have done is confuse teenagers even more. It’s a complex enough world that we all have to live in and we should all be doing our best to be responsible and help adolescents instead of ignoring them in the belief they’ll grow out of it.”
For more information visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfycz9qfDDa6akoEto6SVuYvyzou63vqI0-EJryUARtCwLPYQ/viewform
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