David's Blog

The dancers were back to work on Monday after a well deserved two week break after our performances of Carmina Burana.  It seems that we have been working non-stop since early spring, and it felt wonderful to have some time to rest our minds and bodies and to attend to the many things that always somehow get left behind when we are working so intensely.  Some of the dancers traveled to their homes or friends and relatives and two of them took a trip to Spain.  It was good to have some time off.

We are now starting to prepare for our January 2010 concerts (it seems far away, but we only have six weeks to put it together!) plus other projects including our New Year's Eve stint with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  The concert will feature a revival of the 1999 Play Mas' and Food of Love from 2000.  We haven't done Play Mas' since it was originally choreographed, simply because I needed someone of African-American ancestry to fill the title role created by Willie Hinton.  This time around Brittany Edwards will perform that role, and it will be interesting and exciting to see how she interprets it and adds some of her own personal touches.  The last time we did Food of Love was 2005, so we half of our cast has performed it previously.  For the dancers, the chance to repeat something they have performed before is a great gift, since it gives them the opportunity to re-visit familiar territory with new strengths and awareness.

All of the music is this concert is great and has a very strong rhythmic base and it was lots of fun watching the dancers get back "in their groove."

David