Out To Go Back. (BLOG SUPERSTAR SIGHTING!)

(I've found them! Blurry but they're there. Kristi, Isaac and Blog Superstar Adrienne pose for my camera in the audience.)

It has been almost three weeks since I began my couch tenure and my outings have been few and far between. Over the past week, peppered in with the occasional deli trips, I have journeyed to the Skirball Center of Performing Arts twice. Every time when I walk by this theater I am reminded immediately of my time in Studio Company but never was the rush so overwhelming as last night when I went to see the current Studio Company perform.

Even though I had vowed to myself to abstain from seeing any dance to spare my emotional state, I knew that I wanted to show some support for this group of young dancers as well as my friend Adam Hougland who had a piece on the bill. Little did I know how much of an excursion this would end up being. By the time I had arrived outside of the theater, I couldn’t quite turn my head without seeing someone I knew which therefore led to the inevitable conversation of what the heck has been wrong with me. I should have pre-recorded something or just worn a t-shirt with the explanation on it because never have I been so bored when talking about myself. Seeing everyone from work, and there were many people, was a welcome blip on the monotony that has become my life recently even if it was a little exhausting. It put a smile on my face nonetheless. Before I made my way into the theater I turned my head and saw an old friend from Montana, Maureya and her mother Beth. This was by far the highlight of my past few weeks and a major comfort to have a little piece of home to talk away the intermissions with.

After mingling a little bit with some friends, I promptly took my seat and was overcome with a flood of memories. It was a little over three years ago that I had been standing behind the same curtain with my friends, awaiting the inevitable judgment on our looming future. Nothing in the world seemed quite as pressing as our first New York performance and we danced with all the fierceness of the world’s top dancers…or so we thought. Studio Company was such a special time in my life and I remember exactly what it felt like to be performing under that much pressure. A few people in the audience asked me if I missed it and I quickly said that I wouldn’t wish that pressure on anyone.

In hindsight, it all just seems so humorous. Stressing about making the presses in “Continuo,” frantically waving the “water” sheet on the side of the stage during “The Sorcerers Apprentice,” eagerly awaiting word from John Meehan about how we had done. Ah, innocence. The theater, which we performed in shortly after it opened, is probably a little more broken in now but I am sure the pressures are all the same. Sitting in the audience last night I was proud to see everyone perform so well before I crept my way back to my apartment.

Comments

[begijn]

I enjoyed the Studio Company performance in New Orleans.
I also attended a pre-performance "talk" with Mr. Peterson. Seemed like a nice guy, but also a stern task-master.
We saw his "Eyes That Gently Touch" and I really liked it (- until the end when the "coming together" of the three couples didn't seem to rise to the crescendo I expected.)
The six dancers that made up the three couples (Christine Schevenko and Owen Gaj, Mary Mills Thomas and Jose Sebastian, Devon Teuscher and Roddy Doble) were such strong dancers and even being so young, conveyed the emotions (as Mr. Peterson told us they should), very well.

I thought Devon Teuscher was a stand-out as Caroline in Lilac Garden, and wow, just wow - Joseph Gorak in Peterson's Nocturne.

Bravo/Brava!