Here's
a view of the theatre at the Ward Center for the Arts, in Baltimore. It was
a lovely space, with lots of lights, nice marley on the stage, a beautiful
sound booth...and that's AJ up there in the center of the lights, shining
down on the world...
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To your left you see Darryl Harper, our gracious host and director of the Ward Center. He and the rest of the faculty hosted us to a marvelous dinner on Tuesday night, and for the first time in what seemed forever, I began to realize that this art thing can be lots of fun after all... To the right you see the magnificent Cliff Lowe. I say magnificent because he spent hours upon hours helping us get the lights right (sans Lighting Designer), was infinitely patient with AJ and my "Stan&Ollie" style of working, and all this during his wife's birthday and teaching Chemistry class! (Actually, I understand Cliff completely. He is an IATecher at heart...) |
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Then
there was the audiences--mostly high-schoo age children, many of whom were
"forced" to come watch the dance. If you're forced to do something
like that, it's a good thing if it's Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company that you're
forced to see. I saw a lot of sceptical faces when the kids filed in...but
the worst feedback we got was a couple of wolf whistles when Andrea came on
for Refrain in tule-and-tights.
I know some adult audiences that aren't that gracious...
It was a little strange to eat in the cafeteria (shades of harassment past) and unusual, to me, to see uniformed students...but they were unfailingly polite, and though they looked at us a bit strangely (AJ's hair is mild these days, but compared to what?) we never felt other than welcome.
And that, I believe, brings me to the end of my little travelogue. It was, in the long run, a positive experience, which is a little scary. To paraphrase my friend Metagnat, who described it oh-so-succinctly at the coffee bar, it isn't how a show or tour actually went that's important--it's how we remember it. By the time we had dinner on Tuesday, the stench of the subway, the frustrations of the sound at St. Mark's, my blistered feet...they were in the past. By the time I dropped off Tania in Philly and was on the way to Metuchen with Liyana, I realized that I was going to miss seeing these dancers every day. This is what keeps the theatre going, according to Metagnat. If we had accurate memories, we'd never have gotten past the opening night of the Bacchae...
But the greatest triumph is Chiao-Ping, coming back from her injury with style, determination, and attitude that still has audiences gasping in wonder. So we save her image for the last, and come back to our humble Madison lives better for having shared in her vision.
