Rambling

Yesterday was a very full day.

I trashed somebody's document by accident (it is hard to not mess things up when the instructions and processes published and maintained by the company are wrong, out of date or incorrect).

I called the tech support people, and while waiting for the return call got a phone call from the security company for my sister's house that the alarm had gone off (about 15 minutes at top speed away). So, a mad dash up to Chelsea to make sure that nothing horrible had happened. Nothing had, but there are mysteries to be resolved. (So much for my plans to get on with my garden today.)

I had a long talk with my bank. As you know from an earlier post, I had deposited a substantial cheque to my account about a week ago, and then hit a shopping groove. I wasn't worried about the funds: it was a Government of Canada cheque. Then I discovered that my rent cheque had been bounced back (first time ever), because the branch where I made the deposit placed a hold on the cheque.

When I moved to Gatineau Quebec from Kingston Ontario I was going to transfer my accounts to the branch of my bank closest to me. I decided not to, for any number of reasons (mostly because they often outright lied to me about what could or could not be done--and I knew that because I had worked for this bank on and off since I was 18), and because in the age of electronic banking, it was not as necessary as it had been 50 years ago, when passbooks and statements were still all generated by hand.

The banker I talked to (same bank, Ottawa Ontario side of the river) about this return of my rent cheque said that this was a not atypical behaviour from the Quebec-side branches. A large percentage of the accounts they held were moved over to Ontario around the time of the last referendum, and these branches are starting to resort to bullying clients by making it impossible for them to do any business with the branch until all that client's accounts have been moved to that branch. (This explained a lot of the garbage I have been through with the Quebec branch I have been dealing with for over 11 years.)

Last night was the last in our dance series for the season: Les Grande Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. Both the almost-ex and I were really looking forward to this (and not only because of the cookies reception for the entire audience that was to be held following the performance). Past shows of theirs had been great. Last night's was a disappointment: the choreography was OK, the music (Shostakovitch Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra) for TooT was marvellous and the piece was mildy amusing, but the dancing was sloppy. Not what we had come to expect from this group. The second part of the program, Noces, had deeply annoying music and was essentially uninspiring. The audience was incredibly moderate in their reactions to both, and got 'bullied' into applauding more than they wanted to by the guy manning the stage lighting and the obviously formula curtain call routines the troupe had. (At one point it was kind of sad: the dancers knew that the audience did not want to clap any more, and they were almost all off the stage when the lights that had dimmed were turned up and the company was sent back out to finish the curtain call routine. I felt kinda sorry for them.)

While we were eating our cookies afterwards, we started talking about our subscriptions for next year. For the past couple of years we had been finding the series A events (which are presented in the premier venue, Southam Hall) very hit and miss. Some were spectacular (Alvin Aliley American Dance Theatre, The Forsythe Company), others (like La La La and Les Grand Ballet this year and a Belgian company Rosas from a couple of years ago) ranged from OK to boring/icky. The presentations in the smaller Theatre have been more uniformly engaging.

Our theory is that the A series bookings for Southam Hall are those most likely to attract a broad audience (over groups that would appeal more to the modern dance aficionados, like the B and C series); a triumph of brand recognition over substance. We are thinking of being a little more selective about which A series performances we get with the subscriptions (an idea prompted by the presence of Les Grand Ballet on next season's A series schedule). I even managed to get the almost-ex seriously considering a couple of classical ballet performances from the CANRIL Ballet series: Royal Winnipeg Ballet The Passion of Carmen and Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo - Monaco Le Songe (A Midsummer Night's Dream). We finished our cookies, and decided to think on for a bit before we made our decisions.

Taxes and Dances

I got my tax refund in the mail yesterday, and when I went to file the papers (before taking the cheque to the bank) I discovered my file cabinet had returns back to 1974 and no room. So, I spent the better part of the morning with my shredder, and I now have room for this year's paper work.

Last night we had yet another dance performance to attend (this has been a very rich month dance-wise), and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Compagnie Marie Chouinard "bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG vARIATIONS". Last time we saw this company and this choreographer's work was a couple of years ago, with her version of "Le Sacre du printemps", and we were thrilled by it. Last night's performance was wierder, but it did not disappoint.

Also received yesterday with the 2007/2008 NAC dance season calender (http://nac-cna.ca/en/dance/index_0708.html), so part of this afternoon will be spent pouring over it. We will still get series A, B and C, but I love looking over it and starting the anticipation early.

Off to deposit that cheque.

La La La Whoda Thunk revisited

Last night was our next dance at the NAC, and as April 23rd was the almost-ex's 50th birthday I treated him to dinner before the performance.

While we were have our preprandial beverages (I really must write about my choice, Delerium Tremens, some time ... if only for the utterly divine and transcendant flavour and aroma, kick like a mule and the cute pink elephants on the glass it was served in), we talked a bit more about the last performance we saw. The music was extraordninary--clever homages to some of the most famous ballet music ever, teasing because it went beyond imitative while still leaving you in no doubt of what the inspiration was. Discussion about the choreography and perfomances, and we both felt that we wished we could see it again, as there was still much to consider, and by talking it through we both felt we could see different things than we had at first viewing. Maybe that is what it is about: exploration to see new things in the same piece in the same way you look at a Van Gough many times, and always for some while.

The performance of Un peu de tendreses bordel de merde!/A little tenderness for crying out loud! was in many ways less comprehensible than Amjad, but infinitely more enjoyed by both of us. We have no idea what it was all about, but were rivitted from the beginning (when we realized that the woman who, without a ticket who was in Brent's seat and tried to argue with him about it, was actually one of the dancers for the show) straight through to the end.

I got to thinking about my previous comments on Brent's and my feelings about modern dance, and I think I did us both an injustice with the "but we know what we like" gibe. Our conversation over dinner, and after last night's show, indicate that we both think about it a lot during and afterwards, and have both learned a lot more about dance than we knew when we started on this particular journey.

La La La Whoda Thunk

Not quite a year after we were married, Brent and I subscribed to a series of dance performances sponsored by our university. It was a series of mixed offerings: classical ballet, modern dance, and a Chinese acrobatic troupe (if memory serves). We discovered that we were both so-so on the classical ballet (I had more patience with it than Brent did) and that we both really liked the modern dance performances. We continued subscribing to the series. There were two great years where both the Grand Theatre and Queen's had dance series: 14 or 15 shows a season between the two. It was super, and I think it was those two years that really made us the modern dance fans that we are.

We are now separated, but still good friends, and since Brent moved to the National Capital region (I had moved here some 6 years before he did) we have gotten back to Modern dance; 3 series at the NAC each season. We are classic 'but I know what I like when I see it' fans of modern dance.

One troupe neither of us have ever really liked is La La La Human Steps. They are not the first universally acclaimed troupe that has left us cold, and probably won't be the last. The founder and choreographer of the troupe (Edouard Lock) has always struck both of us as a bit of a one-trick pony and someone with a propensity for taking a good idea and beating it well past death. We usually find that he is starting to annoy us less than 5 minutes into a performance.

Last night's La La La performance (Amjad) was a first for me, in that it held my attention and interest for nearly 25 minutes. (Brent lost patience with it a bit earlier than I did.) At one point I almost felt I could see where he was going and what he was exploring. Then the lighting (harsh, getting harsher as the evening progressed), the video (blindingly bright, and it glared right into our eyes) and the constant, seemingly irrelevant appearance and disappearance of banners along the wings got between me and the performance and caused me to lose my involvement in the dance, my appreciation of the dancers' skill (extraordinary!) and my fascination with the lines and spaces that were being created by the dance. (I often see dance as the carving of space into there and not there by the dancers.)

My heart will still sink when I see La La La Human Steps on the schedule for the next season, but we will still subscribe to all 3 modern dance series, and some day I may even find that Lock's choreography and staging don't annoy the pants off me. I always go to my seat eager to be pleased. Last night he held me for nearly 25 minutes. Who knows what will happen the next time La La La is booked for an NAC dance series?