Day 3: Nighttime at the Pillow
After finishing my last post and giving the Education Director her desk back, I got in my car, drove 20 minutes to the closest town, and had a really nice meal at Chez Nous, a classy, low key eatery. I ordered a salad and the duck confit. And they had Conundrum, one of my favorite white wines, available in a half bottle. I sat there with my meal and my copy of the latest “New Yorker”, and two hours later, I was feeling a bit more sane.
It’s something I really had to do, although I probably should have stuck around for the Jose Limon company performance in the Ted Shawn theater. But I just had to get away. I’ve only been here two days and I’m feeling a bit trapped. So getting in a car, driving into town, and having a nice meal went a long way toward erasing my increasing sense of unease at the prospect of being here for two whole weeks.
I haven’t been saying much about the dancing I’ve been doing, and that’s just wrong. Unlike Richard’s Saturday class at Ailey, this week we are doing full-out afro-cuban, and each day we cover two orishas. Today we danced for Babalu Aiye and Yemaya. Yesterday was Eleggua and Oggun. Richard is our morning (9-noon) class. In the afternoons, from 2 to 5, we have traditional dances from the Dominican Republic. Our teacher’s name is Marily, a 50-something spitfire who complains about how we have such a hard time mastering the steps she is trying, in a rather disorganized fashion, to teach us. “NO ES COMPLICADO!” she insists, and we all look at each other with that, “Is she for real?” expression. She doesn’t speak English very well, but manages to communicate what she needs. She carries a whistle which she trills shrilly for our Carnaval-like processions with the drummers. She’s an amazing dancer and is throwing an overwhelming amount of information at us about different dances from different regions in the DR. Too bad I didn’t bring a recorder, because I’m certainly too lazy to write any of it down.
I stopped by the Campus Center (a “student hang out” cabin that is open all night, with sofas, a TV, and candy and soda machines), after coming back from my sojourn into town, to sit down and write this, and there were already a few fellow students there, talking about everything and nothing, and we made jokes and laughed out loud. Within 20 minutes, a sizable group had assembled. The drummers stopped by, and one of them, Nico (a talented guy with enormous hair who always wears dark sunglasses to hide what he calls his “raccoon eyes”) informed me that tomorrow we’d be dancing for Obbatala and Oya. I then proceeded to make a huge mistake, sputtering, “Didn’t we do Obbatala today?”
“No, that was Babalu Aiye”.
“Aren’t they the same?”
“Uh, no. Babalu Aiye is Babalu Aiye, not Obbatala.”
I had obviously offended Nico, but my snafu is understandable if you knew how the dances were taught to me. Some of the steps for these two orishas are quite similar, and as I have very little context for the orishas other than the dance steps I am taught, it’s not surprising that I got confused. But to a drummer, who lives and breathes the different rhythms and lyrics, such a mistake could only be committed by the Most Gigantic Boob in the World. So the drummers probably hate me now. Great, wonderful, terrific.
It’s something I really had to do, although I probably should have stuck around for the Jose Limon company performance in the Ted Shawn theater. But I just had to get away. I’ve only been here two days and I’m feeling a bit trapped. So getting in a car, driving into town, and having a nice meal went a long way toward erasing my increasing sense of unease at the prospect of being here for two whole weeks.
I haven’t been saying much about the dancing I’ve been doing, and that’s just wrong. Unlike Richard’s Saturday class at Ailey, this week we are doing full-out afro-cuban, and each day we cover two orishas. Today we danced for Babalu Aiye and Yemaya. Yesterday was Eleggua and Oggun. Richard is our morning (9-noon) class. In the afternoons, from 2 to 5, we have traditional dances from the Dominican Republic. Our teacher’s name is Marily, a 50-something spitfire who complains about how we have such a hard time mastering the steps she is trying, in a rather disorganized fashion, to teach us. “NO ES COMPLICADO!” she insists, and we all look at each other with that, “Is she for real?” expression. She doesn’t speak English very well, but manages to communicate what she needs. She carries a whistle which she trills shrilly for our Carnaval-like processions with the drummers. She’s an amazing dancer and is throwing an overwhelming amount of information at us about different dances from different regions in the DR. Too bad I didn’t bring a recorder, because I’m certainly too lazy to write any of it down.
I stopped by the Campus Center (a “student hang out” cabin that is open all night, with sofas, a TV, and candy and soda machines), after coming back from my sojourn into town, to sit down and write this, and there were already a few fellow students there, talking about everything and nothing, and we made jokes and laughed out loud. Within 20 minutes, a sizable group had assembled. The drummers stopped by, and one of them, Nico (a talented guy with enormous hair who always wears dark sunglasses to hide what he calls his “raccoon eyes”) informed me that tomorrow we’d be dancing for Obbatala and Oya. I then proceeded to make a huge mistake, sputtering, “Didn’t we do Obbatala today?”
“No, that was Babalu Aiye”.
“Aren’t they the same?”
“Uh, no. Babalu Aiye is Babalu Aiye, not Obbatala.”
I had obviously offended Nico, but my snafu is understandable if you knew how the dances were taught to me. Some of the steps for these two orishas are quite similar, and as I have very little context for the orishas other than the dance steps I am taught, it’s not surprising that I got confused. But to a drummer, who lives and breathes the different rhythms and lyrics, such a mistake could only be committed by the Most Gigantic Boob in the World. So the drummers probably hate me now. Great, wonderful, terrific.
posted by Clown Hair at
3:27 PM
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