Tea Party

... "one lump or two"...

For a few weeks, I am going to visit Mary in Aylmer, P.Q., and Catherine in Montreal.   

Both families are going to get together for a few days and have been planning some outings.   

We shall go see the butterflies, go skating ... and go to the Life of Pi, the latter being one of the clear choices for the older kids.   

Hebe, Rhiannon and I are going to stay home and play tea party.  Hebe has been practicing for the occasion.  Mary tells me that Rhiannon favorite part of “tea party” is adding a lot of sugar to water.  It appears that Hebe's favorite part is laying out the utensils.  Since I have always liked sugar, I will like the tea party.

Arta 

More on the Nederlands Dans Theatre (from Rebecca)



the slow moving girl in the red dress...

Yes, as per Arta's post below, it is true:  I took Alex, Duncan, and Duncan's friend Ben to see the NDT at the Silvercity Theatre here in Victoria.   They were all (sortof) willing [that is, given that the alternative would have been the opera the day before.  hahaha.]   We were running late, and arrived in the first 2 or 3 minutes:  the theatre was fairly full, so we, like Arta had been in Rigoletto, scuttled down to the front rows.



dancing on treadmills in Left, Right Left

Part of the challenge for this performance was that Ben and Duncan has a sleep over the night before ('sleepover' is code word for 'stay awake all night'), and so had Alex. 30 or so minutes into the performance, i turned left and right, and saw that all three of them were sleeping! ah well, i was reminded that Arta often dozes off too.

I woke them up at the intermission for yogurt and popcorn, and we returned for act II. This time both Alex and Ben stayed awake (but Duncan, who had back to back 'sleepovers' this weekend, was both out for the count AND snoring!)

We did spend plenty of time on the ride home discussing all four pieces.  Ben said his favourite was the one where they were dancing on treadmills.  Duncan was awake long enough to enjoy watching the dancers perform the first piece outside (like a kind of flashmob!)




Silent Screen

There is tons to be said about Silent Screen.  I like it that Meighan thought it was about nightmares.  It made me laugh that the dancer who introduced it said it was 'a very nice piece about a voyage'.  Hmm... the kind of voyage that leaves you a bit happy to wake up!  :-)   Gorgous and meditative, but also really bleak in places.  i sometimes found myself wanting to cry.  At the beginning... there were three dancers with their backs to us.  They were standing on the edge of a black and white video image of the sea, with waves rolling in (reminded me of Tofino, but it probably also works for the Dutch with the Sea).  Then they individually started to move.... the first woman, then the second man,... and only at that point did i realize that the third man was part of the scene projected on the screen... and he just walked away from us. and so it went.  Lots of space to read in things.


Secus

We spent alot of time discussing Secus. I loved the part in it where two of the men did a latin dance together (the kind you would expect to see done by a man in a tight black suit and a woman in a vibrant flouncy dress). It was so interesting seeing how the dance looked with the two men matched in size and strength, doing moves that were sometimes 'clearly' masculine, and sometimes 'clearly' feminine. It was a kind of unexpected beauty (in the sense that we don't usually get to SEE men dance together in that way). 


It was interesting the part that followed, where the dancers lined up in groups and exposed themselves to one at a time to the audience.  It was like the middle group (who started by lifting their shirts to expose their left rib cage) was saying "Look, we are all the same here".  The group on the right were taking turns showing us how they balance.  The group on the right was showing us how they all fall... and then it got more and more messy and complicated (with people mooning us, etc!)  We agreed that we didn't know what it meant, but it was wild.

Shine the Light

Shine the light?  I loved it.  But wow to what this particular ballet might mean. Who knows.  In costuming, it evoked some kind of Russian/cossack military thing.  I kept thinking at first about war, and PTSD.  Ben thought it was maybe about prison.  The scene with the woman whose dress stretched out across the stage was just amazing.  The piece made me think about memory. 

she who held the hand of memory?

Alex and I were obsessed with the guy with the long white hair and the shoes who just stood there on the stage at the end.  We stayed til the screen went black, wondering if he would ever start moving again.  He didn't. 

This is a ballet whose images will return to haunt.

Netherlands Dance Theatre

 ... Dalton, opting out of the theatre for a more interesting screen at home ...

I am almost afraid to type today, given that I read Rebecca had extracted a promise from her boys that they would attend this HD Live Event -- Netherland Dance Theatre.

Did they actually go?   

Yesterday, in our movie theatre, Rigoletto was full – only the front 4 rows of the theatre were empty.  I had misread theatre map when I bought my tickets on-line.  I thought I was buying seats two rows from the back.  Unfortunately, I was turned right around and selected seats two rows from the front—a little close for me and not that comfortable for Kelvin to walk down all of those steps to the front of the theatre.   I couldn’t have been madder at myself for my mistake. I tried to make things right,  acting  as Kelvin’s moving post onto which he could hold tight stabilize himself on the way down the theatre steps.  I would never choose me to lean on ... but he didn’t have many options.  All of that just to say that yesterday the theatre was full.  Today for the dance theatre there were 16 people in total – 3 were Ceilidh, Meighan and me.  Three other people were a young mother with her two toddlers, whom she kept asleep for most of the time. A seventh person was in our row and as soon as the dance started he stumbled over the three of us in a huge rush to get out of the theatre mumbling, “I am really in the wrong theatre.”

“Take a chance and stay,” I whispered back.  He continued his flight.

 ... Meighan joins us at the theatre with a pillow in case she gets tired ...

Afterwards I was telling the girls that this is the hardest theatre I have ever taken them to.  I have no idea how they sat in their seat for the 2 ½ hours.  They were fantastic!  They waited through the first half to get out to the concession booth – Meighan stocking up on her regular frozen blueberry yogurt and Ceilidh buying a large popcorn to share – a really large popcorn, enough for three people to share.

In the end we had some good discussions – about how Left Right Left gave us a sense of motion, and how the jerky movements were so unusual, and the costuming so generic.  The third part, Secus, was dissed by the critics but loved by us – our absolute favorite, including the mooning of the audience by 2 dancers – not once but twice.   

Ceilidh said once she figured out Light in Motion was about nightmares, she kind of liked it.

Rebecca made the call on the Phillip Glass music during Silent Screen.  Haunting.  The music almost overwhelmed the dance.  I don’t know if the girls heard it.  But on the way home, when we were discussing that this is the hardest dance piece we have seen, they said that The Nutcracker seemed hard at Christmas.  Now The Nutcracker seems easier in comparison for there it was easy to figure out who the Sugar Plum Fairy was – a lot easier than “reading this piece” as Ceilidh said. 

How cute is that!

 Boxing Day Special ... $10 ... 5 " high heels = an excellent bargain

As an added bonus, to the fun on the screen, Ceilidh got high heels at the after-Christmas sales which she wore to  the theatre to break in.

First she wore them down the winding stair case in her house. That was successful. No need to call an ambulance yet.  Then she wore them down the long isle from the ticket takers to theatre #5.

She is on a roll.  Carries them in a bag for part of the trip.  Practises with them for other parts of the day.  She reminded me of Catie Jarvis who went for the high heels when she was in Grade I or II and would not be dissuaded by Catherine from having a pair.

I couldn't help think of the vagaries of fashion when I was watching Downton Abbey last night. T he dowager said about her own life, when asked to comment on a new backless fashion of the 1920's, "Oh, my dear, in my time I wore the crinoline, the bustle and the leg-of-mutton sleeve. I'm not in a strong position to criticise."

None of us are.  As Bonnie Wyora said about the picture, " Ceilidh was born to wear high heels".

As was I born to wear them until old age and orthodics set in.

Arta

Southern Stardust Big Band

Greg came back from the lake to attend the Southern Stardust Big Band Valentine’s Dance last night. 

Dinner and Dance. 

Tim Oldham plays in the band – the same band that played at Tim’s wedding. 

Last night the food was good, but the band was the showcase for the evening.  They played 3 sets, 13 songs each.  Old tunes like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Ain’t That  Kick in the Head”, “Call Me Irresponsible”, “The Way You Look Tonight”,  and “This Guy’s in Love with You”.  When they played “Jalousie” I couldn’t help leaning over and asking Lurene if she knew the alternate words for that tune.  They are like the alternate words for Jingle Bells ...  Batman smells, Robin laid an egg.  No.  Lurene didn’t know them, so I gave them to her.  “Leprosy, oh I’ve got leprosy.  There goes my eyeball, into your high ball.”  I have no idea what decade I was in when I learned those words. I don’t know why that little ditty is on my list of memories that I keep, instead of the ones that fade for me.

Tim’s Aunt Janet had flown in from Toronto and was at the dance.  She has done community musical theatre all of her life, so she and Lurene had lots to say to each other.  Lurene is the musical director for Legally Blonde which is being produced this spring.  The female roles of the show are highly competed for.  But Lurene is still out looking for male voices to play some of the secondary roles.  Lurene made me laugh.  She asked me if I knew anyone who was interested?  “Richard?”, she asked.  And then she would sing some clips of the singing parts she still needs to fill.  I have seen the show enough to remember the tune from just a few words.  She didn’t have to sing all of the songs.  I can see Lurene has the whole score running in her head.

The wives of band members only have the choice of listening to the music of the big band.  But it seems everyone else there had come to dance to big band music.  The floor was always full, and mostly of old couples though some might qualify as late middle-aged.  And could they dance!  Wyona and Greg were once such couple.  If they sat down for a rest, it was only for the first 8 bars of a song and then they were back on the floor again.  There was one young couple there who could keep up with the rest of the oldies – two lindy hoppers and could they every go!  I whispered to Wyona, “Those lindy-hoppers think every tune is a lindy hop. And they are so cute – even dressed in costume with a short skirt on her that will twirl to more than a full circle when she would twist.  He was a tall man, but when he begans to dance he was down low and those feet were doing all the right steps.”  I finally stood up to watch and got a little closer during the third set when some of the really older folks had gone home.  The floor had cleared out a bit.  That couple had more room to show their stuff.  If I were 50 years younger I would be out taking lessons every Friday night and then dancing the rest of the night away – lindy hopping.

It wasn’t long until I could see that the older couples, for the most part, had been serious dancers for all of their lives.  Their moves were smooth and some of the couples, when they tired of holding their arms up, could just dance along together, feet in time, no need to get any hand signals from one another. Long time valentines. I imagined that the talk between them was so much fun, for I could see one laugh and then the other – as though they didn’t even see the 40 other couples of the floor who were doing the same thing, talking and laughing together.  The dance was 3 ½ hours long.  I didn’t get bored watching.

When the last note had been played and people were packing up to go home, I noticed the lindy-hop couple had changed back into their regular clothes – t-shirts and a pair of jeans.  Older women were taking off their dancing shoes – the sensible high heel with a strap across the instep, made for ballroom dancing --  shoes that have the perfect sole for gliding across the floor.  The only woman who didn’t need to change much was the one who had worn a perfect black fascinator in her hair all evening – she still looked queenly, regal as they walked out of the door.

The evening sky was not quite black even though it was near midnight.  The view from the Austrian Canadian Club was perfect – across the valley, over the lights of the city, on to the foothills and then the mountains lit up by all of the city light.  Greg said, “Only in Calgary can you be in the industrial section of the city and have the most amazing view of the mountains, ever.”

A perfect end to a perfect evening.

Arta

Rigoletto - Reprise

I don’t know how many times I have seen Rigoletto.  The music was familiar and in the case of the HD Live performance yesterday, about as technically perfect as I could wish for.  If I had been home listening to CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, I wouldn’t have known this production was much different than others.  But as I heard yesterday, the director tried to think of a setting that would bring a 400 year old opera into the American psyche, and he did just that by setting it in Los Vegas.  From the minute the curtain went up I was busy putting the visuals together with the sound – the high rise elevator of a hotel, the casino, that fancy Cadillac from  the ‘60’s, and the pole dancing – even the Duke took a whirl on that.

I laughed out loud when I saw the Sammy Davis Jr soft shoe routine, the glass of alcohol always in Dean Martin’s hand, and the Peter Lawford swagger.  Even the Don Rickle’s costume was too visual not to be missed — that argyle sweater.  I didn’t get tired of the Tuxedo costuming, the feather dance fans in the opening aria, the storm scene producing flashes of lightening with neon lights.  And I so wished Wyona had been there when one of the costumers talked to us and was wearing an appliquéd and beaded jacket that could have come from her closet.  I wondered if I would be stodgy – resent the updated look of the time and place of the opera.  I know you saw the opera, Rebecca and Bonnie – how did you like the updated look?

 I was speaking with Nora Robins, a library colleague, whom I met in the halls during the intermission when I usually take a brisk walk so that I will be comfortable in the second and third acts.  We were reminiscing about the Gilda costume – that wide peter-pan collar, the fine pleats that flowed out from the 3 inch belt and the row of pearl buttons that opened the bodice.  Blue, the perfect colour for innocence. “I know that dress.  I am sure I wore it in the ’60,” I said. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the now dated leopard cinch belt and matching high heels.”  Now that I think back – Gilda even had on a head scarf tied under the chin, a fashion statement that we wore all of the time if we needed to keep our hair out of the wind.

“And that Cadillac – three feet longer than other cars -- with a backseat that was almost a couch,” Nora reminded me.  The singers said they watched so many movies from the ‘60’s, trying to get the feel for the times.   

Summing up the opera.  The music was so exquisite that keeping my eyes closed and just listening would have been enough.  Watching the theme transported four centuries forward?  That was icing on the cake – almost made me forget I was at an opera.

Arta

Dance, Anyone?

Netherland Dance Theatre's MOVE TO MOVE

There is a three hour ballet on Sunday performed by the Nederland Dance Theatre.

The work is called MOVE TO MOVE.

Read the review in the Sydney Guide if you have any interest in going.

Or if you are like me, and  usually have no interest in dance you still might want to read the review.  I saw a clip of this piece while at one of the HD Live operas and knew that I was going to be "in" for it.  "There are four works in the programme and we see the audience arrive as well as dancers limbering up before the performance, the lighting and tech people and follow a dancer into the wings ."  Sometimes I like this part of the broadcast as much as I like the performances.

The review says "Technically the dancing is sublime and the dancers revel in the challenge of the different styles."

Arta

Art Books Architecture

Tonia's Wistful Voyages Website has a beautiful picture of the administration building that she took on campus.  She gives a detailed explanation about it.  I had the feeling I was in an art museum with someone giving me a lecture on good photography as I was reading her text.  If you have 60 seconds to spare, go take a look.  Thanks Tonia.  I think enjoying the picture was my touch with a random act of beauty today.

Arta