Yesterday the ballet class instructor mentioned that she would be giving an open rehearsal of a dance piece, choreographed by a fellow instructor. The choreographer is Steve Iannacone. He was a member of a famous dance troupe founded by Alwin Nicolai.
There is a celebration of the centennial of Nicolai’s birth in New York this month. Steve has been invited to present an award and also present a dance piece. He asked Alicia Diaz (one of the ballet teachers I am working for) and her husband, Matthew Thornton to come along and dance an adaptation of a piece Steve had previously done for 17 or so dancers.
The piece is called “Garden of Earthly Delights.”
I rushed through my tasks yesterday and managed to get to this.
At first I thought they were going to dance to live music. The rehearsal preempted the beginning of a modern dance class. The congas were apparently for that. Dang.
Disappointingly the Iannacone piece was danced to recorded music. I suppose this is inevitable. I have seen more dance to recordings than live music in performances.
The piece was quite engaging. The music began with what sounded like an Islamic call to prayer. First one voice, then another.
Alicia and Matthew were hunched over and began twitching as the music changed to a sort of new age jazzy bassy guitar thing.
The dancers continue to awake and transform in pretty cool abstract plant looking ways. They move toward and away from each other. Entwining, then disengaging. At the end of the piece they are completely engaged in each other’s body in what looks like a new creature. I quite enjoyed this.
Today I’m planning to do as much cooking as I can bring myself to do, so that I can enjoy being with Eileen, Elizabeth and Mom on Thursday and not be stuck in the kitchen.
I’m looking at preparing the Mama Stamberg Cranberry sauce, the stuffing, and the pies. Also thinking of adding a dish that combines apples, sweet potatoes and squash, since I have some of these in my fridge.
I did decide yesterday to bite the bullet and perform the two difficult Bach organ pieces this Sunday.
The main reason this is a choice is that I don’t want to spend too much time away from fam practicing on Thursday and Friday.
I received email from my colleague and friend Jordan VanHemert asking when we could get together and do some chatting and practicing. I am afraid I have neglected figuring out when he will play at my church while he is on break from school. I will look at my schedule and email him today.
He wants to do this lovely piece for sax and piano by a composer named Decruck. He and I worked on it a bit last summer. I will have to work my tail off to do the piano part. But would love to do this, probably in January if he is still around.
My netbook seems to be dieing. Right now I have the fraying power cord taped to the computer so that it doesn’t shut off accidentally.
I am considering that when the choral/theater department sends me the money they owe me I might purchase another Acer netbook like the one I have with the money. I noticed that Miejers ( forchrisake) has them for $279.
When I purchased the one I am using, Eileen and I had to drive to Grand Rapids to get it. Heh.