Day 3
So today, we woke up and had a lovely breakfast, and did some shopping – all before embarking on a 5-hour bus ride to Portland, Oregon! There were so many reasons to laugh and appreciate the company of fellow dancers! Once we pulled up to a very upscale Marriott, I realized how gorgeous the city of Portland was! After settling in, we all went for a swim, and some of us guys went to the gym!
I love staying in hotels where we have access to a gym full of equipment that we as dancers need to keep our bodies in good shape and performance quality. I also love being able to go for a swim after the intensity of the long days!
Day 4 Today was very intense, but tons of fun. We boarded the bus to head to Reed College where everyone got ready for this morning Lecture Demonstration. Luckily, I had the morning off so I was free to travel the campus with some of the other dancers who were off!
We relaxed in a common room on campus that happened to have an enormous hamster wheel that we all had tons of fun running on! I went back to the Auditorium (which had a weird kind of stage than we were not use to) and watched the Lecture Demonstration performance. It was nice to be sitting out in the front watching for once. It’s amazing how much you learn from watching your colleagues. Watching Arthur Mitchell’s “Holberg Suite” danced beautiful by Elsa, Shoko, and four of the guys made me very happy! There is a wonderful inseparableness and cohesiveness quality to this ballet.
After the Lec Demo, we took a break to rest our bodies and prepare for the evening performance. Some rested on the couch and replied to emails, while others took a run on the huge hamster wheel. It was just what we needed to get ready for the show.
Spacing rehearsal was a bit rough, with the unusual theatre situation but we managed. I had a lovely fall on to the stage during the tech for “New Bach”, but got back up and continued through the ballet. While getting into costume and applying makeup, we got a little sad that our new artistic director Virginia Johnson was no longer with us as she was at the last performance. Nevertheless, we declared that we’d give a great show anyway and went on to make the West coast premier of “Program A” which includes Robert Garland’s “The Joplin Dances” Lowell Smith’s “Fragments” Peter Pucci’s “Episode” Robert Garland’s “New Bach” and closes with “Mother Popcorn” also by Robert Garland!
The performance went well. There were some trying moments, but we pushed through and gave it our best. We hope the audience enjoyed the show and were encouraged to support the art of ballet more.
Off to Tacoma, Washington!
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