La Danse

My life seems to be entering an exciting new phase, and I have discovered that my *instrument* is The Dance...

The big news: My pal Chr., who fancies himself the next Mark Morris, is choreographing a piece on me. No joke! Well, actually, he's gonna be in the piece too, as well as another mutual friend of ours. (Well, someone's got to be there to help me with my balances and Swan Dives.)

Our first rehearsal is this morning. I have to get off the 'puter soon and purge my breakfast so I can look extra-cute in my pink rehearsal leotard and leg-warmers. Gelsey Kirkland, watch out!

We have seen two impressive dance performances in the past two weeks; one avant-guarde modern and the other ultra-classical. The first was a performance by Anna Halprin & Group-- Ms. Halprin is an 85-year-old (!) dancer/performer who was a very influential figure back in the '60s with other modern dancers in New York, part of the Judson Church movement-- dancers who used more "ordinary" movement in their works-- standing, sitting, walking, etc.

For this performance, her troupe performed this section of a piece from 1965 called "Dressing and Undressing, " where they basically... dressed and undressed repeatedly. Down to their birthday suits. It was quite amazing. The dancers in this piece were young and pretty. Um, yeah. Apparently, in the '60s, Halprin was almost arrested for the nudity in this piece.

The second piece they performed was with Anna herself and three older dancers. It was about hospitals and dying... very intense and angst-y. (I'm not doing these full justice with my descriptions, I'm afraid.) I have to give mad props to anyone still creating work at age 85! As a performer, Anna still had it going on.

So then, this past Saturday night we were at the Opera House to see San Francisco Ballet do "Swan Lake." Wow, was this breathtaking. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to see such excellence in dancing. SF Ballet has a beautiful production of this work-- the sets and costumes are utterly gorgeous... My dear balletomane pal, who must remain nameless, works in the SF Ballet Box Office, and had invited me out, so I got to sit in the Grand Tier, Row A, Center. From that amazing vantage point, I felt like I was seeing a Degas painting come to life.

No 85-year-old ballerinas, but I still enjoyed it.

There, Chr., I did the Dance Blog Entry... and now I think I'm gonna be late to your rehearsal! Please don't fire me.