The Theater is Dangerous

I am speaking from experience.

And I don't mean dangerous like watching a woman who used to get money from the NEA smearing honey on her naked body (that was my 23rd birhday present, courtesy of Jeremy and Karen Finely).
I mean dangerous like having a critic sit next to you at a show, introduce herself, and then with an embarrassed laugh tell you that she wrote a "not entirely good review" about your show. Which you didn't even knew existed because you haven't read it. And now, the next day, you can't find this crazy review anywhere. The magazine she mentioned has a brand-new edition on the newsstands today, with no mention of your show. AND you didn't catch her name because it was super German and she said it so fast (even after the second time).

But I could care less about the review (not really). What was really awkward about the whole situation was that after this charming little exchange (my reply to this shocking introduction? "Oh, that's funny! Well, it's nice to meet you, in any case.") the show didn't start right away. I was left sitting-- with my heart pounding against my desire to be nonchalant-- in my seat next to this critic with no possible way of having a conversation, her apparent dislike of my choreography completely suffocating my meager supply of German-language wit.

Oh, yeah, and the show that night (when it FINALLY began) was beautiful in a cinematic, slow-moving way. Which gave me plenty of time to obsess between the meaningful and gorgeous changes in imagery.

The Geeks Greek-Out

On the first day of Karneval, we went to the science party! Now, when viewing these pictures and videos, it may be important to note that however Greekly our little group is dressed, the actual theme of the party is the eighties. But, as one of our Spartans sagely noted, they didn't say WHICH eighties...

• 

So Tough!

Artemis blessing the Spartan warrior.

Our friend Diego was supposed to be Winston from "Ghostbusters" but he ended up loking like a bizarre devil.

Jeremy is fiercely guarding the Sacred Relics of the Unknown German Band from 1983.

Ohhhh....

Ja!

My dancing in this video is disturbingly similar to that in the home-movies my parents made when Chuckie and I were kids.
Unfortunately, Jeremy didn't capture when everyone was pointing at me and singing "she's a maniac! maniac!".

Oh No! Carnival!

It's fast approaching, Ladies and Gentlemen--- called the "cool days (tolle Tage)" or, alternately, "the days where people drink for 10 hours at a time while standing in the freezing cold wearing flimsy costumes to get into a bar that is 100 degrees".

KARNEVAL!




I know ya'll don't know this most famous of Cologne Carnival songs, but just watch a few seconds into it to see the very typical Cologne hairstyle and mustache. Look familiar?

Also, the song is in Kölsch, not German. Jeremy and I know all the words to the chorus, but that is the extent of our Kölsch, besides "Kölle Alaaf" ("Köln Allein" or "Only Cologne" aka "Cologne is the Best!").

We are currently in costume preparation mode. For the Science Carnival Party, Jeremy's lab will be dressing like Spartans (from the 300 movie. Ick. I found that movie resoundingly horrible), and I will go as Artemis, goddess of the hunt.


Sheet costume, yay!

Sarah, what did you do this week?

Next week is back to the grindstone, but this week I was very Happy Homemaker-- all oddly giant biscotti baking, turtle scarf knitting, and reasonably successful table decoupaging (as I did the table, I thought of you, Stephanie Lynch!).

Oh, and Jeremy hasn't come home yet to see what I did to the table. I did get approval, but such a thing may be hard to imagine...

Show Wrap-Up

Oh, man! How I hate the days after the show ends!! In the middle of all the exhilarating rush and worry, I think about how relaxing it is after the show is over, but to be honest I just want to start it all over again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I am finding my groove.

Allow me to briefly take you step-by-step through some of the highlights last week:

1. The costumes were driving me crazy. As my friend Joy who makes my costumes in NYC will tell you, I am not abundantly skilled in knowing what "goes together". For one dancer, Corinna, nothing was looking right, and I ended up sewing 17 ribbons vertically on a pair of white bloomers (that only takes 5 hours) and then sewing on hot pink transparent material to make a ploofy over-bloomer. I thought I would go insane, but it did work out!!

2. I was assisted in this costume crisis by my friend Marco. We danced together in The Fairy Queen, and he had a break between gigs at La Scala (oooh, fancy!), so he came up to see me, help with the show, and then hop over to Brussels for some modern dance training. Besides helping with the costume, he also took notes during the dress rehearsal-- so important because I was onstage.

3. The tech crew at the theater did their job, but only under duress. Maybe it was a language problem (but I was speaking both German and English...), because they left in the middle of the dress rehearsal, and then were surprised when I told them the dress rehearsal was over. This meant that I had to come in early on the day of the premiere and design the lights without dancers and without the lighting guy ever having seen the whole show. When the dancers came in, we did a cue-to-cue (meaning the start and stop of each dance), and I was barking out orders like a first-class dictator (because we only had 20 minutes before they had to clean the stage).

4. Julia, one of the dancers, happily volunteered to alter her costume!

5. The musicians were supportive and enthusiastic, and I had such an easy time working with them. It really helped that my music partner, Beate Alsdorf, takes ballet classes, and understands a LOT about dance and performance.

6. My soprano was scarily graceful and had a fabulous stage personality. I really got too lucky with her--- plus she looked gorgeous in the full baroque costume.

7. And the dancers!! They both had very different stage personalities than mine, which I think helped the show a lot. And they worked so hard! They really did a great job.

8. After the premiere, I gave an interview in German to a journalist. Whoa. The adrenaline was really pumping...

9. I spray-painted our chairs gold (for the musicians' seats).

10. The day after the show finished, Beate, Jeremy and I went to Amsterdam for a baroque dance conference. I gave a talk about my work, and showed parts of the video taken during the performance. I was pretty nervous, speaking at an academic conference-- especially about modern/baroque choreography because that is anathema to a lot of baroque dance traditionalists. But I did it, and I think it was useful to have this different view out in the open. And several people at the conference were supportive. In fact, the guy who organized the conference said my work was "witty without being totally irreverent".

A little about the first performance....

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this 10 minutes before I go to the theater, but I wanted you all to know the first show went very well. We had 71 people in the audience (half full), which is pretty great for a Wednesday. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, and we even had a critic in the audience. The dancers were great, the musicians played their hearts out, and the singer was gorgeous. The adrenaline was pumping through all of the performers' veins!!

I'll try to give a real wrap-up next week. Tomorrow morning Jeremy, Beate, and I are going to Amsterdam, where I will give my lecture on how I make neo-baroque dance. After that, I am really looking forward to a couple of weeks of rest while we write new grant applications and send out the video to different theaters to try to get more performances for the show!

Recipe Time!

Pasta of the Mad:

Ingredients:
Box of mini Farfalle pasta
1 bratwurst
1 handful of sundried tomatoes (soak in water about 10 minutes)
some capers
last remnants of container of pesto
remainder of bag of shredded emmethaler cheese
olive oil

Preparation:
boil farfalle until al dente, drain
cut bratwurst into 1/4 inch slices, pan fry with tomatoes and capers with a bit of oil
mix contents of pan, pasta, pesto, and cheese
serve

fun fact: did you know grocery stores are not open on sunday in germany?

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