Chookas

I cannot remember the last time I was in a dressing room preparing to go on stage and did not know the people around me. Usually everyone in the Biserk dressing room had seen everyone else's bottom a hundred times before and we just got on with it.  So last night I had to share a dressing room with complete strangers, male and female, whilst we all stripped in and out of sweaty costumes and underwear, leaning over to fix mascara, looking in the mirror at bar straps, knicker lines and hairstyles.  And the girls were pretty fussy too.

Lots of male torsos and bits and bobs.  Well readers I didn't know where to look!  I did really but of course I'm a lady foremost.

Now "Chookas" is an Australian term meaning good luck.  Where in England we would say Break A Leg.  I have no idea where the word came from as it reminds me of chooks running around on a farm, which is the last thing I am thinking about in the wings before I go on stage.  But whatever floats your boat.

Had a fantastic opening night last night. Which was a relief as we had a completely crap dress rehearsal (which always bodes well somehow) where we tripped on our props and we were dancing a bit like Mick Jagger - but in a bad way.  Then it all magically came together for the real thing.

Hayley wanted to know why I was not nervous. I was just so relaxed and happy to be out of the house doing my thing, I had no time to be nervous.  Imagine swapping dinner/bath/bedtime ritual (absolute bloody chaos) with dancing for an audience.  Also the older you get.....

Shop Names Part II

I drive past this shop all the time and it always makes me smirk.  "House of Recliners" on the corner of Toorak and Camberwell Roads.  Hilarious!  I swear they make these shop names up just for my own amusement.

Imagine the type of person who must visit such a shop.  I hate to be judgemental but we know the target customer is going to be male and probably lists watching television amongst his favourite activities.  I think Nachos would be on the list as well.  A cross between Homer Simpson and Joey from Friends.

The tagline on the shop window reads "Your one-stop motion furniture superstore".  Talk about a niche market.

Lighting Design

Bear with me whilst I explain.  The other day I had a laugh out loud moment where I was making dinner in the kitchen and recounting the events of the day in fast forward (I often do this just to remonstrate with myself how little I've achieved in terms of career and creativity - fun isn't it?).  I came home from teaching my morning adults beginner's class - WITH ONE PERSON, and was bemoaning the fact of lack of dance and career to The Accountant.

He was happy as he was working from home (i.e.laptop on the terrace, coffee on the side, gazing out at the sun and the trees).  We sat there we two, laptops side by side - he earning money whilst tapping now and then, me earning none but desperately searching between loads of washing, feeding Jonty, putting Jonty down for sleep, re-putting Jonty down for sleep and fitting in job-searching for week into 12 minutes.  And I wonder why I can't find anything to fit in with my routine.

I happened to mention that there was  vacancy at Ausdance - the CEO/Director for Victoria.  Well up leapt The Accountant, eyes shining and encouraging me to apply straight away.  Seriously?  Seriously I am a dance artist/housewife who has spent the last year settling a family into a new life and who - at a stretch - teaches no more than 4 hours a week.  Lately I have been in the studio more, choreographing and now performing a duet, but before that - not a lot.

So in the space of ten minutes I am contemplating coming home at 10pm and staying up until 3am to get the fifteen points on the selection criteria addressed.  For a job where I am not even certain I would get an interview due to the fact I know NO ONE in dance in Victoria.  However I should not have been that put off as when I checked the last two people to get these posts recently in the ACT and NSW were former parliamentarians.  Nothing to do with dance at all.

In a complete turn-around, I was nearly the oldest person at a production meeting for choreographers this weekend for Short + Sweet.  It was not a short or sweet meeting.  For two and a half hours I had to have a workshop in lighting in a small scale theatre and complete an intolerable risk assessment (I may or may not trip over in the dark on the way to the stage).  I can understand why they do this.  They do not want some undergraduate dancer/choreographer coming in with 30 lighting cues for a ten minute piece - complete with set, props, water, fire, mirror ball and haze machine.  The rest of us just want to get on with it.

So instead we all had to fill out our own lighting designs to give to the technicians ahead of our technical rehearsal.  I think it was the only time in my life where I finished a piece of written work way ahead of everyone else.  And I even knew what I was doing.  Now if I could only get my blue pants from riding up my bottom during the piece all will be well....

Strictly Commercial

Is it me or has the contemporary dance scene in Australia turned into one big highly commercial dance competition?  It really is exactly like the Strictly Ballroom film, except insert Contemporary Dance instead of the Ballroom bit.  I mean if you are a ballroom dancer, there is no need to be offended because they celebrate the bitchiness and the costumes.

So I am in this Dance Festival and there are awards and prizes. One of them is a People's Choice Award, where if you filled the auditorium with your friends - you're the winner!  Clearly I will not be taking any awards home this year even though my aunties and cousins are doing their best to support me.  But five people cheering in the audience will not cut it.

I was re-thinking my cheeky costume (it is SO boring dieting, especially when Mama needs her champagne on a Friday night), but now I am thinking I should be prepared to be a little risky - might get a few more votes!  Only problem is the piece might become a cross between European-style dance theatre and a lap dancer.  I always knew I was in the wrong business.

PS.  I do try to write blogs that do not offend people.  But it is really hard.

The Snip

You know the drill.  You are walking to school pick-up on a sunny afternoon with another Mum.  Your babies are in the pram gurgling away, your kindergarten children are toddling along on their scooters and bikes.  And the conversation abruptly turns to circumcision.  Sound familiar?  No?

Well it was not my usual entry into conversation either until last Friday!  Bloody hell.  All sorts of thoughts are going through my head - dance choreography, upcoming performances, costumes, props, dinner ingredients and even watering the plants.  But circumcision was not on the agenda.  Of course I took part in the conversation with my usual enthusiasm and gusto.  It was very strange.  I could almost write a song about it.

It seems in Australia at least that a lot of baby boys still have The Snip.  I thought that was just our parent's generation.  Barbaric yes, but then they didn't know any better. Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned washing in the bath?  Play with the boats, have a splash - wash your willy.
Is this controversial turf?

I certainly hope so.

I Don't Believe in Outer Space...

...is the name of the William Forsythe's new piece for his own company which has been showing here as part of the Melbourne Festival.  I took nine ladies to see this work on Sunday night.  I buttered them up with champagne first, sitting in the sun by the river in the heart of the city.  A gorgeous evening after a week of blustery spring weather.

Anyone who knows Forstythe's work will understand why I did not divulge too much information about his work before the show.  Especially since most of these ladies were either new to contemporary dance - courtesy of moi danse classes extroidinaire!  Or had no idea what they had embarked on but had agreed to come due to a) getting out of house at dinner/bath/bedtime routine b) champagne c) nice chit chat with ladies and d) a good chance to get out of mummy jeans/tracksuit pants and into Contemporary Dance Performance Diva Outfit - whatever that is!

Interlude - whilst I tell you that my outfit of choice for the night was an absolute bargain funky jumpsuit a bought in the UK on my last visit.  Too cool for school this one.  Strapless, blue with a print, and perfectly gathered at the ankles.  Strappy heels, little cardigan, lots of accessories.  I looked a treat.  The Accountant looked me up and down with a frown.  "What the hell is that?".  Oh the confidence boost of showing one's husband two minutes before being picked up.  I left the house with the words "....clown's costume...." ringing in my ears.

Back to Forsythe: It really was a rather extraordinary piece, with the usual juxtaposition of movement, acting, voice, props and music.  In fact it was complete chaos on stage at first, and then the piece settled into an abstraction of ideas and thoughts.  The movement was compelling, and no other choreographer asks so much and yet so little of their dancers.  Very thoughtful and courageous.  And when you are watching you realise that no one else would go to these places without having to use shock tactics such as nudity or swearing.  Forsythe does not need to do that.  He has us there already.

And I love that the dancers never wear costumes, but just rehearsal clothes or regular street clothes.  They could be anyone, but then they do something amazing with their bodies and you realise that they are not just anyone.  The ladies loved it.  Had never seen anything like it, and did not know what to think when it started, but then came out with all sorts of ideas and comments.

Ahh, the good deeds I do knows no bounds.  They are one of us now......

Geoffrey Rush

I thought if I called this post Geoffrey Rush it might get your attention. And it worked.  And here you are reading it.  A few blogs ago I mentioned how much fun I had when I left the house to be a Real Person for half a day.  I attended an audition for Short + Sweet at this very strange dance space called Ministry of Dance.  It is a cross between a warehouse and various rooms which look like the set of chat shows or a posh hotel reception.  It was huge.

I asked the Clipboard Girl "what the hell is this place?".  It is apparently the largest dance studios space in the Southern Hempisphere.  Like The Place in London.  Only Five times the amount of space.

As I was walking towards my audition studio (along a corridor as wide as our house) I briefly looked at a group of people on their tea break from one of the other studios.  Then they all filed back into work behind closed doors.  Clipboard Girl very smugly told me Geoffrey Rush was in there rehearsing.  So if I had paid more attention to the people - instead of marvelling at the decor and size of the space - I would have bloody seen him!

But all I could think was who on earth could afford to run this kind of commercial dance space.
In Melbourne.  Only the big musicals could possibly afford to hire these studios.  So if Lion King or West Side Story needed a rehearsal venue it would be perfect.  I don't think the budget for Biserk Dance Company would stretch to the hourly rate.  I would be able to afford to run up the stairs and plug my iPod into the stereo.  But then I would have to pack up and leave.

A very exciting weekend coming up.  Many visitors staying.  The youngest cousin is having his 21st Birthday Party (they grow up so quickly). So another big family gathering.  Rehearsing in earnest (well more like frantic creativity).  And to top it all off - going to see The Forsythe Company on Sunday evening.  William Forsythe is my absolute favourite choreographer - EVER.

I am taking a group of ten contemporary dance virgins with me.  I have explained that it will be very modern and edgy - not at all the Swan Lake they may be used to.  But we will have a bit of champagne first - and that's bound to take the edge off.  What a pity I didn't get loaded the last time I saw Merce Cunningham in Oxford.....