Mail is welcome.
gryffyn@there.net | index of journals | home
|
Of course, this entry will have little to do with Valentine's Day itself;
instead, I'm going to gush about my weekend. It's been awhile since I've been so successfully social as I was this weekend. Friday night, Todd and I met at the White Horse for some drinks and conversation. I am always amazed at how easy it is to talk to Todd; he knows me very well (7 years or so now) and we have some basic things in common (Franklin College English degrees being the most obvious, I guess). Conversations with Todd always flow all over the place - we're very tangential, each of us, and we like to interrupt ourselves and one another with a related story within a story until the topics stack up like Russian nesting dolls. And the nice thing is, we flow well enough that neither of us gets frustrated or annoyed by the tangents, although Todd is one of the most peaceful people I know, so I'd be surprised if a conversation alone would annoy him. Anyhow, it's revitalizing to be around someone who knows you well, even if you only spend a few hours in their company. The only other person I can talk to on such an easy, unconsciously-comfortable level is David, so I wasn't too surprised when I started to call Todd "David" once or twice. Todd and I promised to hang out more frequently than twice a year; I hope we do. Saturday morning I tried to dye my hair bright red, and succeeded in giving myself shinier hair and a bright red scalp. Sigh. After the hair experiment, I decided to try and get tickets for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which was in town this past weekend. When I called, I found out that the only show that wasn't sold-out was starting in an hour, so I dressed quickly and drove up to Berkeley. On my way to the ticket office, I met a nice woman who had an extra ticket for sale, so I helped her out by buying it (everyone wants to pay by credit card these days, and I happened to have $30 in cash). Joy and I hit it off well enough; she's an elementary school teacher in Oakland, so we discussed the situation there (they're desperate for teachers and will hire you while you work on your degree - it's something I often thought about doing). The performance was divided into three sections, and, of course, I left my program at home so you're gonna get the bare bones coverage here. My favorite section was the middle one, called "Twist" which featured lots of angles and funky lifts and kicks and all sorts of avant-garde, "modern" dancing. It was so good I was sniffling back tears as the lights came up at intermission. That piece premiered last fall. The following piece, "The Four Temperaments", was choreographed in 1946 by George Balanchine. I loved it. Performed in practice clothes (black leotards and natural tights on the women, white t-shirts and black dance pants on the men) since 1951, this piece has a lot of movements which we've come to recognize as "modern dance". The practice clothes gave it a grainy, black-and-white 1940's feel, and the movements, which were groundbreaking at the time, looked very "beat", very 1940's hip. It was a gorgeous contrast right after the extremely new moves of "Twist" right before it. One thing I thought to myself was, Wow, I could at least DO the steps to "The Four Temperaments", but I'd kill myself trying to do the extreme leg extensions and almost acrobatic movements of "Twist". I guess dance has gotten more specialized over the years.
| ||
| Previous
| Next List of Entries for this Month | Journal Index | Current Entry Home |