Thursday, February 15, 2007

Day one of hopefully many

Well, the first day was … exhausting. There are 28 people participating in the workshop and only 2 other men. The women run the gamut from the youngest being 16 to the oldest being my age. Surprisingly, I am the youngest of the men invited to audition (by 2 weeks). It seems to be a competitive group. I am surprised by the ballet’s apparent affinity for the Balanchine figure. The women are long and skinny, I would say that only 2 or 3 of them remind me of the dancers at Ailey, having muscle and balance, yet a strong grace in the way that they move. In observing the end of their Pointe class I found myself wanting to observe these few and following the eyesight of the mistress I thought I could discern her interest as well. They had such grace and authority executing the allegro combinations.

As for Men’s class, since there were only 3 of us, we took Men’s “strength and technique” with the other corps’s men. My arms no longer belong to me. My neck and traps feels as if it is one giant powerful knot resting on my shoulder. I have found that I can hold a plank for a respectable 3 minutes and am capable of cranking out 32 handstand pushups. Those days in the gym prior to my arrival here tapped into something. I felt lucky because of the 3 of the other men here I am situated in the middle as far as strength is concerned, and in the middle as far as flexibility is concerned. Which surprised me, I was not flexible at Ailey, the most flexible of the men in the workshop is small, and short, I would say at the most a generous 5’7” maybe in heels (a bit of a Queen, but in a cute affable way). The oldest and strongest of the men (as far as strength is concerned) has ok technique, he doesn’t have great feet and is a bit slow on his feet, he dances as if he is waiting for the music to push him forward instead of cresting on the waves of the conductor.

Ballet this morning was what I was used to. Live music (thank God!!!) and class really reminded me of the company classes that I was lucky to take with Colorado Ballet. The barre exercises were rote Balanchine (again I was lucky for the refresher in Denver). The dancers didn’t seem nervous, I would say that more than half of them were from the North-West and knew each other going into the workshop (usually from taking a summer seminar at PNB). I actually think I may walk away with a few friends from the experience.

Following orientation and ballet in the morning we broke for a quick lunch and I found a sushi stand where I scarfed some tuna and albacore. I have to admit that the albacore was a bit off-putting. I don’t think I had a very good piece, there were bits of connective tissue in it and I was left the impression that the piece of sashimi I was served was from the end of a loin and not a prime slice. But the tuna was a light purple, not the dark purple of Grade IV sashimi, probably a Grade III and was properly cleaved diagonally on the grain: superb slicing of the loin with a slight amount of marbling. It was indicative of winter tuna and all the things I love about the cold-water fish.

Following lunch the men were separated and we went to our class and the women went to Pointe. After which we had a discussion with some of the directors and dancers in the company where we could ask questions about what to expect from them and from Seattle. Very helpful in that Seattle has a good arts community but it isn’t famous like New York so the first hand knowledge was inexpendable.

Which brings me to now sitting in a coffee shop writing this and unwinding. I am still coursing with a bit of adrenaline from the day. And am in need of a bit of caffeine since I had to leave my hotel at 7 this morning to get to the school by 9. But for the price I got this is me not complaining.

My general impression of Seattle is that it’s a pretty cool place, I ducked into a Border’s and bought a Lonely Planet guide to help me figure out how to do stuff and am definitely digging this coffee house vibe. I ate dinner at a pub last night downtown and was saved that it was a bit of a dive. I didn’t want to be a lonely guy eating at a solo table on Valentine’s Day. That just seemed kind of sad so eating and chatting with the bartender was a great option. Tonight a couple of the dancers wanted to eat at this wine bar/café in Downtown so I think I am going to join them.

Today was not nearly as weird as I was worried about it as far as being in the same city as Ck and having not seen her yet. Last night at dinner I was looking over my shoulder feeling as if she was watching me eat dinner and again this morning as if she would be waiting for me to go into the ballet. I don’t know where those fears come from. This is a big city. I am only going to run into her in a week if it’s on purpose.

My initial impression of the city first hand is that it’s pretty fucking awesome though, the weather doesn’t get me down, everyone says it rains and the benefit of that is that it’s incredibly green and you run around in a gore-tex shell to keep dry. That doesn’t bother me; in fact I would say it would bother me more if it were always hot and dry. And like I said the permeation of the coffee shop culture is pretty cool. At orientation this morning everyone sat around sipping espresso and noshing on fresh fruit. People sat around chatting, there was some swapping of war stories. But there was no-one sitting in the hall-way trying to crank their leg over their head in an intimidating (and foolish) display of flexibility… well there was one girl doing that, but she looked like if she coughed she would break herself. She was T.B. skinny.

Maybe more tonight, I need to get a light post out there and get some humor off my chest.

Labels:

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

we're labeling our posts now?

10:12 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home