Chapter Five

Now I wanna know how I ended up in dance appreciation 101 when this is supposed to be a phys. ed. course.

I forgot earlier to mention that throughout this semester, I'm supposed to view two dance performances and then review them. That's part of the grade for the course. How does this help me become more physically fit? I ask. I'm ashamed to admit, I tried to pull the "I'm a mom of three, soccer games, three jobs, blah blah blah..." card on the prof, but she wasnt buying. She did say "Well, I might make a substitution..." Wait. Stop right there. I know what that means...more work than just finding time to see two lousy performances and writing two or three sentances about it. What's that? There's something going on that's FREE? On thursday night?? Ok. I'm there.

So I attended this dance performance last night called Sundari, or something like that. Really, the title doesnt matter. I was already put into a bad mood by the three banshees that live in my home who, from time to time, I will admit to being my children. They were not attentive at all yesterday, and extremely disobedient. Then the mister was late from work, not that he could help himself, but it did add to the stress I was enduring. Top it off, I was sitting at soccer practice watching my normally overly aggressive son be very timid and getting clobbered by the other players. It was not a good night to have to sit and be objective about an amature modern choreographed dance production.

I'll start by saying, I couldnt do it. I couldnt make those poses. I couldnt grab onto a rock wall that had water spilling out of it and no real ledges, make a split and pull the lower half of my body away from it as if it were an easy feat. I couldnt choreograph a darn thing if my life depended on it. So there's my disclaimer. Oh, and I enjoyed the setting, the music and the costumes.

(dramatic pause)

Yes, that's right, there's a big BUUUUTTTT coming and it isnt of the gluteal kind. It was too phrenetic, and in case the meaning of that particular word is elusive, I'll define it from dictionary.com. Because I have to admit, I didnt know the meaning of that word until about a year ago when my father-in-law used it to describe something. I've since found multiple uses for it.

fre·net·ic or phre·net·ic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fr-ntk) also fre·net·i·cal or phre·net·i·cal (--kl)adj.
Wildly excited or active; frantic; frenzied.

I didnt quite get it. The music was soft and soothing: guitar and oboe, sometimes accompanied by a singer who sang in french and spanish. I could have sat all evening and listened to the live musicians and been quite content. There was soothing lighting, candles lit everywhere. At times there was a poor attempt at a soothing poetry reading...but hey, the poetry reader only read twice. I could tolerate it. And her voice wasnt annoying. Just the poems were kinda, well, lets just say they werent Emily Dickenson, that's for sure. But that was NOT why I drove thirty minutes all the way back to my univeristy at eight o'clock in the evening. I went for the dance. So, unfortuneately, I had to open my eyes to watch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a patron of all the arts, well, except maybe for opera, and I've had a subscription in the past to the pennsylvania ballet, so I'm not being critical because I hate dance, or don't understand it as an art form. I'm critical of what I saw from a visual standpoint. I guess that's because I am a "visual" artist. I just didnt know where to look first. There were four dancers all waving around wildly, it seemed, making crazy poses with their bodies to soothing Yanni-like music. What was the message I was missing? Was this dance supposed to represent something? Is there a statement here I didnt get? I couldnt rationalize the created atmosphere with the energy of the dancers.

I think I'm just going to have to sit and mull this one over before monday when the prof asks those of us who attended what we thought. I certainly don't want to dig my own grave on this one...