AMAHL and the NIGHT VISITORS special addition

James Sewell, the choreographer of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" always said I could do something different with the village people...so this year, with some American Sign Language (ASL)classes under my belt, I launch out! One of the villagers will be a little drummer girl who will be accompanied by Amahl's pipe, the hidden drum of the page, who ministers to the kings, and Amahl's widowed mother, who needs a little cheer in her life. The kings even get in on the act and give Amahl a lift when (s)he cannot manage the moves with cane. Hope you enjoy this little augmentation of the storyline and the only true dance segment without lyrics...but it will have its own little tale.... those who are deaf in the audience and understand ASL will know that part if I have "glossed" the sentencing correctly. Do you know what glossing is? It is restructuring the sentence structure for simplicity and the limitations of sign vocabulary...full sentences might be abbreviated to a shorter phrase with main ideas. In a culture of text-ers and internet, ( think how awesome those technologies are for deaf people?!) sign languages have always been their own code, perhaps the first shorthand, literally! (pun intended). I posted on article on AMAHL for the Houston Deaf Network, and have tried to inform that community, and those churches that serve such populations, to bring their congregants for a wonderful show.... a great outing for families, groups, troupes, Mentoring programs and senior citizens....a great intro to ballet and opera for our youngest, for it is under an hour!!!!made for tv, right?

I have also been haunted by the comments of a young lad, who in our post performance Q&A, "when's the sequel?" I thought that prospect delightful and can imagine many little rivulets of narrative that come bubbling up...who knows? I might attempt it, or at the very least a prologue or epilogue in years to come. What do you think happened before or after? If you haven't seen it, you will have to come first, and let me know how you envision the context or bookends of this sweet homespun tale.

HB at Miller

Having missed the era of Stanton Welch as a dancer with Houston Ballet, I have only my own bias as dancer from a different time in that company's stature, while I am still on its adult faculty. I will offer here no comment on his work, but will send kudos to him for his selection of the work of others. Having hobbled over to Miller to see some of the repertoire I couldn't get to this year, I experienced a delightful evening of dance in the usual cool of a May night in Houston! A brief entry of my thoughts of that night....
Having been in a book club, where we seem to be reading the first book of authors whose second and third books were even better, I was struck by the similarity of seeing the first work of Nacho Duarte. Interesting to see the seeds of movement vocabulary, his resonance with music solidly identified with country, and the weightedness that eventually moved over the balletically trained sextet of dancers. Houston Ballet has beautifully trained and nuanced professionals, and while Emily Bowen is exploding all over the map, and Kelly Myernick handles the material maturely,both are sharp tools in the dance-maker's pocket. The partnering and men's work was also seamless. The choreography was grounded in this earthy, bird-like, and tool yielding shapes, fenced in agrarian landscape. Lovely promise in that work of the better yet to come, indeed!
Then there's Twyla....man, that lady can craft! Saw this work "in the upper room" with her company and on ABT, although hearing Phillip Glass back then was a bit tedious, our ears have gotten used to its landscape and the context for pure movement it allows. This ballet not only stands the test of time, its innovations stills seems fresh and exciting. . In particular the work horses of Ms. Myernick and company, whose stamina astounds...this piece has got to be like running a marathon, and the exhilirating climax had me shouting. When exhaustion make guys pull in for 5 pirouettes, because technique kicks in with relaxation--- standouts were Oliver H. and Simon B.---its transcendence exemplified. That Twyla swing of the arms, and shake of the shoulder (due to her boxing phase) ain't so easy to look natural, and the attitude in the face and shrug of the shoulders should be a bit smug....those guys aced it! Hats off to you! Signature Twyla stuff--the jogging forward and backward, the tennis shoed set vs. the quick footed pointe shoe birds, flitting through, the lifts and the reversals and the insouciant nonchalance, all had their moments with this cast. Still an awe inspiring work even if it's as old as some dancing it.

Dance Matters

WHY DANCE MATTERS

..in a world of couch potatoes, we need to move...even if it's only our fingers reaching up to the heavens as we yawn in the morning like the tendrils of a paperwhite, we need to move! Toe tapping, fingers drumming, woodpeckers drilling, lawn workers mowing---we need to move! Dance unlocks spiritual depths, its images sear souls, dancers embody life as we know it. Where would I be without dance? I am pondering that question as I recover from a hip cleanout (40 years is a long time to be turning out!) in hopes of gaining a little more time in the profession. Who would I have been without seeing dance on television and taking that first creative dance class? That is a question I will never know the answer to...but how has it enriched my existence? Kept me in good health and shape, better than my siblings, I'll warrant. Given me a living as a classical ballerina ( a black one in a practically all white world) and given me expression as a dance maker. Revealed gems of history and culture to me, showed me how to love and to be disciplined and to stick to your dreams. It takes tenacious pursuit---to be a dancer. Every decision impacts its practice, from what I eat, to what shoes I wear, to how much sleep I get , to...who I am without it? To see it is the beauty we crave; to feel it is to feel the heights of joy and the depths of sorrow we cannot fathom. Dance is the persevering spirit that transcends the limitations of body and mind. It reaches into old men and makes them cry, it transforms teenagers longing to be understood, it lives in the play of our children. It is such a natural expression. I imagine life without dance as a stagnant pool, that muddies and dries up for lack of restorative replenishment. Dance has mattered to me and even if I don't get to be one of its performers or makers in a public way one day, I will still dance before the LORD as David did, regardless of what anyone thinks. It is not only an acceptable offering before the audience of ONE, but a fitting joyful response to LIFE abundant and free.

dancing a dozen...

Putting on twelve not- so -easy pieces-- 7 of which are not new to me, but are to most of the dancers--keeps everyone on their toes, needing to do their homework(keep working on movement during the odd off-time in the fluorescent light of a mirror-less studio). SUITE LOUIS is some of my most difficult and rhythmic compositions and am grateful when its veterans say they remember the rhythms, if not the steps. Trying to figure out the ins and outs of two casts in certain roles and adding in text, solos, and some of the new segments in a social commentary is an endless jigsaw puzzle. The new J-5 piece in tribute to the young MJ and his brothers is a refreshing delight...Of course, there are the lyrics I'd been singing wrong for years...if you can believe it, I was in the Michael Jackson fan club as a little girl, and these are the first 45s I bought---the songs of my youth. I learned how to groove to this stuff! It's fun trying to translate that into bodies a generation younger... all sorts of moves surprise me and I relish the movement memories my body holds that are unlocked by our sense of hearing! Then there is the assembling of audio and video clips from comedians I grew up on....Flip Wilson was (and still is) my favorite comedian who is family friendly, as was Cosby, though his was a bit bent; and of course the fruitless search for a clip of Richard Pryor minus an f-bomb in every sentence! Thanks to my loving partner ( a tough job --- being my husband and collaborator, God bless him!) and Flip Wilson, we did find one straight up comedy routine with few words and lots of movement---Richard Pryor was quite a mover! "Playing the Dozens" has really profoundly disturbing history and impact on our self promotion as Black people, and it is difficult to educate, question, and offer some comment in dance on its (d)evolving form of sparring. A challenge I might only scratch the surface on this go-round, tying all these strands together...Certainly the "I Have A Dream" speech is a wonderful balm in an age where rhetoric is cheap and lacks vision......well I need more days like today in terms of productivity and inspiration. Thanks for the prayers...keep them coming!