Monday, August 8, 2011

Summer 2010

In June 2010 I spent two days in Florence (Firenze), Italy teaching at Alambrado Dance Studio, and then all of July teaching technique, choreography, improvisation and partnering at Prodanza, a dance festival in Castiglioncello, Italy. Castiglioncello is a sleepy, seaside, resort town, which on Friday and Saturday nights becomes a hot spot with people cruising the cantinas, restaurants and nightclubs that line the seashore. Since I don’t drive and needed a way to get from the villa where I was staying to the dance studio, I rented a mountain bike. The seat was HARD and the handle bar low, but at the price (18 Euro or $23 a week) it was a good deal. It took a while to not be exhausted by the 20-minute ride up, down and over the hills or envious of the Italian bikers in their riding suits who would whizz by like colorful butterflies.

There is so much to savor in Italy:

• The freshness of the food (makes me aware how much processed food I consume in the States). I couldn’t eat enough nectarines, cantaloupes and figs.

• How people take time to be with each other.

• Inexpensive great wine (drank way to much of it).

• The wealth of history everywhere I went.

• The sea – At the end of a long day and bike ride, it was wonderful to plunge into the sea and be lulled by the waves.

• People working at the registrar in supermarkets are allowed to sit in chairs.

• People working in post offices do not have to wear uniforms. I was helped by a very sexy grandma in heels, which was jarring. I’m not used to thinking of postal workers as being sexy.

• In several public restrooms the water faucets in sinks are turned on by stepping on a pedal on the floor.

• Prodanza was started by Pola Chapelle (a former Cabaret singer with a wonderful husky voice)and run like a mom and pop organization – informal, slightly disorganized, generous and never dull. Pola is married to Adolfas Mekas who with his brother Jonas Mekas helped develop avant-garde film in America. I was delighted to learn that Adolfas had been involved in the
Fluxus Movement and knew George Maciunas (considred the founder of Fluxus). I couldn’t absorb enough stories or the lemoncello that Adolfas was mass-producing in the Villa’s tiny kitchen.

* Enjoyed meeting, working and performing with Amy Chavasse. An amazing woman, colleague and creative spirit. Also enjoyed working with the participants at Prodanza. A very focused and dedicated group.

What frustrated me:

• It is very hard to get a firm commitment about when, where or how an event will happen. I never received a contract for the two teaching jobs I did. It was all based on emails and phone calls, so I had to be patient, go with the flow and trust that everything will work out. Which it did, but not without some last minute turbulence and adjustments.

• The dance studio floor was HARD. No jumping.

• Not being able to speak Italian and fully communicate. Used a lot of hand gestures and bastardized Spanitalian.

• The HEAT. Totally understand why people take siestas!

• Being apart from Darryl for 4 ½ weeks was difficult. Helped that we skyped and video chatted practically every day, although sometimes I felt like I was in Midnight Express. Specifically the scene where the woman visits her boyfriend in prison and they are talking through glass and she lifts up her shirt and pushes her breasts against the glass while he tries to touch them… Was good to finally reconnect in Brooklyn. : )


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