October 15, 2019
Hello and Good Evening! Hope you guys are doing well! Let me tell you about my Sunday. I took the train in to Manhattan around noon, was there 50 minutes later. Of course there was a parade going on on Fifth Avenue (like every Sunday, drives everyone crazy except the people in the parades). I walked over to 55th street and 6th ave and stopped at Joe & the Juice. I ordered a large juice and sat down by the window and read my e-book on the tablet – Little Women, have you read it?
Closer to 2:30, I walked one block west and waited outside NY City Center. I didn’t have to wait for long before Jessica showed up. Oh man, we haven’t seen each other in forever, not since our film premiere of Hastdans pa Hovdala. She and I were two of the four dancers who worked with The Equus Projects, who were in Sweden performing with young adults with autism. Anyway. It was so nice to see her! We had so much to talk about and update each other about. I’m so happy that I invited her to come with me to Fall for Dance.
So, Fall for Dance, program 5, started with Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. The overall piece was good, some beautiful duets and a bit funny here and there. But, the first duet was of disappointment. The whole duet was man lifting woman and she barely touched ground. Very impressive moves but it looked bad, like if they haven’t had any rehearsals together. Next piece was the duet with Sara Mearns & Taylor Stanley. Omg, I could watch this guy dance all day every day. We all completely fell in love with his way of moving. And Sara was one reason why I wanted to go see this program but that was unfortunately a bit of disappointment as well. Her roll was of a very modern style but she is just so ballet’y (she’s a principal at NYC Ballet). I’ve seen her on stage before (also walked next to her on the street once) and I check her instagram from time to time and she inspires me a lot, so my expectations was probably too high. The piece itself felt a bit cliche but was cute. The light and sound effect was awesome, Loved it!
After intermission there was a funny piece by Monica Bill Barnes and students from the Hunter College. They had a commentator and the whole piece was more of a sketch with some moves in it. It was funny. They talked about why dancers devote their whole life to something that is so hard and demanding and that just because you are old it doesn’t have to mean that you need to retire (Monica is 46 years old and still active). After the piece, J and I looked at each other and laughed, cause we had been talking about similar thing a minute before the piece started. The last piece was with Martha Graham Dance Company. One of the original pieces, Chronicle (1936). To me, that is dance, that is art and that’s what I usually enjoy the most. It was a very typical M. Graham piece, all women and long dresses and lots of jumps. I saw the company perform right before we moved to Stamford and just like then, I got very inspired. I just love dance history and with pieces like these you can get a feel for how it was when they first started to develop modern dance.
After the show, Jess and I walked over to Hell’s Kitchen and sat down at a tapas bar. And we talked and talked. Again, I’m so happy that I invited her:) We had a great time!