Last Friday, Jen and Achariya visited the Orlando Ballet’s rehearsal space to observe the company practicing for their upcoming performance of Romeo and Juliet. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with Artistic Director Robert Hill and principal dancer Chiaki Yasukawa. Achariya has a background in ballet, having danced ballet and modern.For her, it felt like a homecoming. For Jen, it was exploring an entirely new country. (Neither Jen nor Achariya received compensation for this blog post, but we are grateful to Orlando Ballet for giving two curious writers their time.)
Romeo and Juliet is playing at Dr. Phillips to live music from the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra on February 9 (8 PM), 10 (8 PM), and 11 (2 PM).
Orlando Ballet production of Romeo and Juliet (2014) – Photo by Michael Cairns
When we sat down with Chiaki Yasukawa, 17-year veteran of the Orlando Ballet, and Artistic Director Robert Hill, we weren’t quite sure how the conversation would go. Would we stick to ballet, or even this specific ballet? Would we go deep into Ms. Yasukawa’s history, or Mr. Hill’s previous experience? The answer was — yes. Our chat was wide-reaching, spanning this production of Romeo and Juliet, Orlando culture, ballets that Mr. Hill and Ms. Yasukawa have done, ballets that they wanted to do, and how dance can help us process this moment in US history.
The rehearsal that we were there to observe was Romeo and Juliet, Robert Hill’s original choreography to Prokofiev’s music, first performed by the Orlando Ballet four years ago. It is also, we learned, one of Yasukawa’s favorite roles — and the one that she is pleased will be her last as a principal dancer with the company. She loves the role because of the texture it gives her as a dancer — emotions vary between joy and grief, and in one notable pas de deux, Yasukawa has to master a range of emotions as she dances out ambivalence.
I have no witticisms today, nor reviews or ramblings. Just this image, which is my favorite of the local Pulse memorial artworks. And the most important.
I hope today finds you and your loved ones well and safe.
Disclosure: Steven Nedley and his lovely wife Gabby did not pay me to write this entry. They do, however, feed me, bless me with the honor of their company, and put up with my foolishness, so I decided to spread the word about Steve’s art show.
This Thursday in Orlando, my friend Steve is doing an art show! If you’re in Central Florida, come on out and support local artists!
Seriously, come out and see his art. It’s gorgeously detailed, and his characters range from sculpted adonis to Cronenbergian grossness. It’s just superb!
Basically my office of about 120 people did a giant potluck. We brought sausages, beer, potato salad, sausages, beer, chips, sausages, beer, salad, sausages, beer, condiments, sausages, and beer. At 3:30, we all knocked off to go hang out. Some people set up grills outside, we all chatted and drank, and it was pretty awesome. Most of my coworkers are people I hang out with outside of work, so it’s nice to be able to do that.
However, for about a week, I have been battling an entirely different kind of sausage party.
Allow me to explain. Some of you will read the first half of the next sentence and go ‘Ah-HA’ because you have experienced this yourself. It was sort of my first time.
I decided to try joining a dating website last week…
… it wasn’t awesome.
I went on a geek-oriented one and created a profile. I was feeling pretty okay for the first 23 hours and 58 minutes, and thought ‘Ah, no hits. Well that’s all right maybe it just takes a while.” At 24 hours, I got a notification that my profile was live.
Which was when the messages started.
This.
I spend most of my time alone, not talking to people, and suddenly people were approaching me most aggressively. I can handle catcalling, and have even faced off with inappropriate touchers at the gym, but this was too much. I had a panic attack and closed the account.
The next day I was telling a friend about my experience, and he basically laughed at me and dared me to try again. So I thought – I can handle this! I have run through fire! I have survived suicidal depression! I’ve walked away from five car accidents, and many other defiances of death. I have faced down angry drunks and fallen out of trees. I can totally do this!
I found a different site (not disclosing names just because other people might try them and actually have luck!) and tried again.
NOPE.
Go little legs, go!
My inbox became infested with dudes. Dudes demanding attention, demanding emotional validation, demanding responses. Being a polite kind of person, I tried to respond to as many as I could, even to say ‘We have nothing in common, but thank you!’ which was apparently seen as an invitation to ramble at length about how I should give someone a chance.
I lasted about 5 days before executing a scorched Earth policy and deleting my account. Waking up today to not find dozens of messages in my inbox was bliss. Especially not dozens of messages from people whose usernames included the suffix ‘-backdoorman’. I am relieved to say that I received no dick pics, had a few interesting conversations, and made a very few new friends, but otherwise am done. Several friends I have reported the same findings, of either no attention or way, waaaay too much. Nay, the dumpster fire of the great Social Media Dating Experiment of 2016 is done. I consider it a valuable learning experience!
Also this.
So now that that distraction is over, I intend to be more disciplined about writing and posting. Also, with Horror Movie Month coming up, I have to start thinking about what I’m going to watch! Plenty of stuff is on Instant Watch, and the Enzian’s got some great selections this year that I’m really looking forward to.
Thanks for sticking around! I really appreciate my readers – without you, I’m just a madwoman chattering to herself in the corner, after all!
EDIT: My friend linked to a very interesting story about a dude who created a female profile on OKCupid, just to see what it was like. His experience basically mirrored mine. Please only read if your faith in humanity is reasonably strong.
Have you ever tried an online dating website? How did it go?
Basically it was a small paper bag, filled with explosive powder, and the bag twisted into a fuse. He lit one and threw it into the woods across the highway.
Hola, folks! Now that Game of Thrones is a year away, I’m back to blogging and reviewing. Yay!
On Memorial Day weekend of 2015, I did a massive, MASSIVE amount of writing. For three days, I wore pajamas, ate snacks, drank coffee, and wrote the hell out of Virago. Since I was unable to do that this year (I volunteered at Megacon 2016), I decided to reserve July 4th weekend for my big writing jaunt.
In Florida, fireworks are legal. You can buy them at large tented stands on the roadside, or even at retail giants like Publix, Target, or Walmart. All you have to do is sign a waiver that claims you are using the fireworks to frighten birds away from your crops (I’m not kidding, you have to say you’re using them for agricultural reasons) and you’re ready for a weekend of explosive fun.
While I like the idea of July 4th weekend, a lifetime around people with lax safety standards has left me with a mistrust of fireworks. In delicious irony, the safest encounter with fireworks I ever had was when my dad’s best friend brought us some illegal Mexican fireworks, and by ‘fireworks’ I mean ‘IEDs.’ Basically it was a small paper bag, filled with explosive powder, and the bag twisted into a fuse. He lit one and threw it into the woods across the highway. The explosion nearly took out every window on the block, and our neighbor threatened to call the police.
And mind you, that was the safest encounter I ever had.
Subsequent encounters have left me with catlike reflexes and an aversion to loud noises, but luckily no scars. As such, I intend to stock up on food, snacks, maybe some wine, and then barricade myself inside. I shall don my jammies, fire up my laptop, and try to ignore the screams and pops from outside. I take no chances when fireworks are involved. No one should, as they can be quite dangerous.
I will also work on some upcoming posts. Another show that I absolutely love, Penny Dreadful, recently ended and I have MANY thoughts on that. Upcoming posts on that and other topics include:
In a Nutshell: Ferdinand Lyle from Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful”
