The U.S. Ambassador and Azerbaijan's Minister of Culture were in the audience tonight at the Musical Comedy Theater to attend Battery Dance Company's performance. Equally exciting for us was the fact that at least one hundred dance students from all of the schools and studios where we taught were there to cheer us on. BDC members were a little surprised when the t.v. cameras appeared back stage at intermission asking for interviews. As always, the questioners rolled around to, "What is your impression of Azerbaijani dance? How do you like our country?" I guess that all of those years under the domination of the USSR have left Azeris a little insecure. After our wonderful interactions in the workshops, our dancers had plenty to say about the passion and determination of Azeri dancers -- too much in fact! I had to interrupt with a reminder that we had a second act to perform!
The dancers had made special request that we reverse the program order and finish with Shell Games. They said that it was hard to give Shells all the energy that they would like if they knew they had 2 more pieces to perform afterwards. I agreed, and saw tonight how right they were. Shells was INTENSE and brought the house down.
The miracle of tonight's show was that up until the day before, the stage floor had been totally undanceable. A huge turntable in the middle with a 1/2" gap would have been a beartrap for dancers' toes. With the Embassy's support, masonite was purchased, nailed down, and painted black; and though dancing on it was a bit of an obstacle course. Especially bumpy areas were chalked out so that dancers could avoid them, but when in the middle of a combination of movements, and blinded by the side lights, the dancers weren't looking down to study the map under their feet.
Barry Steele, our production designer, gets our blue ribbon of appreciation for having made the show look professional and polished despite the very rough conditions. A glass of wine and some pilaf at the excellent Mugam Restaurant afterwards helped restore Barry (just in time to crawl into bed before getting up at 5:30 a.m. to load out for the airport on our transit through Istanbul and home to New York. Fond memories are already being teased in our brains from the past weeks of touring Turkey and Azerbaijan!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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