Ok, I am now done being the Genie of Air (known in the program as the Luftgeist), a job that involved ducking swooping falcons and the magic wand of a certain singer. What a crazy life.
If you would like to see a video of our falcon friend, go to this newspaper article. There is even a few seconds of me on stage near the end. I'm the one dressed in blue.
The weather in Göttingen was so incredibly beautiful the last 2 weeks that I wanted to spend every moment outside. The town has a lot of parks-- my favorite was the one that has 18th and 19th century gravestones and is naturally where the punk kids hang out, juggling and listening to big band music ever so softly on beat-up transistor radios.
I took the Genie of Fire (Feuergeist), Caroline, back to Cologne with me-- she is sticking around Europe because we are going together to a übernerdy baroque dance conference next week. It should be so fun!! Just imagine: papers and workshops-- one even with the delicious title, "Erotische Szenen bei Jean-Georges Noverre". And our other Orlando dancer, Alan Jones, is going to teach a reel for 20 dancers that was done in Colonial America. Whoo-hoo!!
We had a rough train ride back to Cologne, though. We ended up taking the large Salamander masks and the costumes with us on the train because I will bring them back to NYC. It is completely impossible to fit such items in the aisles of a German train (and I defy anyone to find a train more amenable to giant suitcases and boxes), so we shoved everything against the wall near the train doors and hunkered down on the floor. It really doesn't get more bohemian than sitting on the filthy floor in a European train to guard bizarre animal masks (unless you are working at a Belgian opera house and staying in a room without a toilet seat-- close call). Caroline was able to stretch out, though:
To make up for such a disgusting trip from Göttingen to Köln, Jeremy and I had a barbecue in the park with Caroline, impressing her with the amount of people tossing around the volleyball and playing soccer, drinking beer, and grilling huge amounts of meat of a Tuesday evening. And, really, huge amounts of meat should be the cornerstone of the German Experience.
2 comments:
the falcon, always trying to steal the scene. I really can't believe he just lands places on cue. Is the music in the background of the video the music from the opera? Or just Germany's version of dramatic CNN-type music?
the background music is indeed Germany's dramatic CNN music-- thanks for making it clear to me why it sounded so bizarre.
What an opera if that were the music!!
They didn't feed the bird beforehand and the singer had a little piece of dead chicken leg on his glove-- this was because the first few times our falcon friend made some pit stops on the stage lights before landing on the singer's arm.
Post a Comment