Gina Lalli: Biography
Gina Lalli: Biography
Gina Lalli had a philosophical awakening at the age of eleven when she discovered a translation of the ancient text of India, the Upanishads. She grew up in an atmosphere of music, art and theatre and the all-embracing teachings of the Bahai faith. She left her home town of Binghamton, New York, to study the arts and theatre in New York City.
At age nineteen, in the midst of her studies, Gina saw a performance of Indian dance and music by a great Indian artist, Uday Shankar, and his company of dancers and musicians. She experienced a kind of epiphany as she saw the dancers enveloped in golden light and knew that her destiny was to learn and perform Indian dance. After preliminary studies in New York she journeyed to India three times to study with dance masters in Madras, Lucknow and New Delhi. Her studies included tabla and pacawaj (drums) and the veena, the classical South Indian stringed instrument. She then toured the United States and Canada performing the traditional solo dance suites of Bharata Natyam and Kathak. Before her third trip to India she started Yoga studies, both the postures and meditation, and continued to learn meditation with Swami Muktananda in his ashram in Ganeshpuri. She found the classical dance of India to be a form of meditation in movement, which expounds teachings on a non-verbal level to the observer.
Each time Gina returned from India, she performed her solo dance concert of "Classical Dances of India" in colleges and theatres from coast to coast. She also performed her program of Indian dances and stories for children, "The Land of the Sacred Elephant," in schools in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. While living in New York, her love of theatre led her to study acting at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School and also with Anthony Mannino, who followed the sublime teaching for actors of Michael Chekhov. Gina was also fortunate to study corporeal mime with the French master Ettienne Decroux for two years. She was then able to apply the analytical principles of mime to further understand the correct archetypal lines of Bharata Natyam and Kathak.
Then, at a turning point in her life, Gina discovered the greatness and depth of astrology. She studied Hermetic Astrology with Lynne Palmer and Jonathan Booth, both masters of the Brotherhood of Light School of Astrology that had its roots in the Temple of Solomon in Egypt. This school of astrology is considered to be a practice of the steps of initiation into higher consciousness.
After twenty years in New York, Gina moved to Austin, Texas, where she has continued to teach and practice both Indian dance and astrology. She has also had an active life in the theatre, acting on the stage and designing costumes for numerous plays, including every style from Shakespeare to The Wizard of Oz.
In 1991 she was cast in the role of Sidewalk Psychic in the one-of-a-kind film "Slacker".
In l973 Gina was introduced to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner by Robert Walker and Jan Webster in Houston, Texas. Again the course of her life changed as she felt that the body of knowledge which Steiner imparted gave a deep sense of completion to her search for meaning in life. She led a study group for five years in an intense study of the four basic books of Steiner, as well as many of his lectures on subjects that would naturally come up from a study of the four basic books. Gina Lalli also gave weekend seminars and individual lectures on these books: Occult Science, Theosophy, How to Know the Higher Worlds and The Philosophy of Freedom.At the end of the five years, the group disbanded and the first Waldorf School in Austin came into being. Gina Lalli has continued to lecture on Steiner topics, as well as astrology and the spiritual texts of India: the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and many more which, like Steiner's thought, bring spiritual awareness into the fabric of daily life.
Gina Lalli has helped foster the arts in Austin by serving as a panelist in dance and theatre for the Austin Arts Commission for seven years. In 2003 Gina Lalli was awarded a place in the Austin Hall of Fame by the Austin Critics Circle for her contribution to the arts and culture of Austin.
