Anaïs Nin: Unbound (formerly Anaïs, A Dance Opera), created by composer/lyricist Cindy Shapiro and director/choreographer Janet Roston incorporates music, dance and visual projections into a cutting edge stage production that explores and illuminates the riveting life of famed diarist and literary figure Anaïs Nin and her world of words, sex, passion and creativity.

Anaïs Nin: Unbound celebrates Nin’s story as one of personal and artistic triumph which continues to influence the world today. Sensuous, probing, compelling and thought provoking, the production is presented with one live female vocalist as Eternal Anaïs supported by six dancers who, with projections, tell the absorbing life story of Anaïs Nin. The dancers bring the controversial author to life in a production that shatters stage conventions in the same way Nin herself violated literary and societal expectations.

Cindy Shapiro’s lyrics and music, with Janet Roston’s intricate choreography and direction, and deeply engaging visual projections by designer Joe LaRue, weave Nin’s story, intertwining excerpts from her diaries and her groundbreaking erotica. The dancers and vocalist unveil the author’s journey of self-discovery which took her from a naïve young housewife into the café society of Paris, where she emerged as an important literary figure during the 1930s, through her life in the United States during and after World War II, to her death and its aftermath in the 1970s. These adventures of self-exploration led the author through numerous simultaneous relationships, bigamy, and grand deceptions which she kept track of using what she called her “Lie Box.” Nin believed in living her life as freely as a man and for that she was chastised after her death. Her legacy is currently being revived, she is revered as a multifaceted, multidimensional woman who created her own heat and became her own sun.

The music and lyrics by Cindy Shapiro, an artist-in-residence at Cité International des Arts and a Tides Grant recipient, blend classical contemporary layering with a rock sensibility. The choreography by Janet Roston, an Ovation Award-winning choreographer, is contemporary with sections inspired by vintage dance. Joe LaRue’s projections amaze and enlighten. The result of their collaboration is sonically compelling, kinetic and full of visual surprises.

Anaïs Nin: Unbound has the support of the Anaïs Nin Trust and Nin’s publisher, Paul Herron.  It is designed to tour easily with no sets, limited costumes and props and all music except lead vocal on track. The production premiered at the Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles, played to sold-out crowds and extended it’s run to accommodate demand. It was produced by Mixed eMotion Theatrix.