Tour post one

I am on a bus making the distance between Halifax and Fredericton with the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company. Touring with a company is an incredible experience – the sense of camaraderie you form with your coworkers is extraordinary, especially when the time is limited. After only five days of rehearsal we are taking our motley crue of a show on the road.

I have to admit, the show itself seems secondary to the experience right now. Relatively speaking it is a very small production – a children’s show based on an Indian Fable called ‘Wise Monkey and Foolish Crocodile’, set in a jungle on the fictitious Island of Jabbhuduip. I play the She Crocodile, the villainous Lady Macbeth character of the show who convinces her well meaning but foolish husband to capture his best friend, Monkey, so I can eat his liver, sweet from the fruits of the Banjian tree. The story, and furthermore the show, are a bit complicated. The set is humoungous – there are six individual large scale set pieces and countless pieces of foliage which we string into the trees to create the effect of a jungle. This is hihly unusual in my experience for a small scale small budget touring show – with no production crew setup and takedown lands on the dancers, and I am ignoring my far-below-CADA-standards pay for the absurd amount of work involved in such a small children’s show. For one because I need the money, and the gig, and for two because working with a company just feels so damned good. I have missed and needed this element in my life desperately after school ended. The Coquettes does give it to me in a way, but I would love to have a constant dance community again. Independent/freelance work is invigorating but I am sad that company work is dying as an art form, and that I am far from company standard. I love the idea of being in company again, if just for the people.
Then again, not having anybody tell me when and whose class to take is pretty great too.

Our first show was this morning at 9:30, which meant a 5:30 wake up call for a 7:00 am departure and 7:30 arrival at the school. Setup takes at least an hour and we wound up being half an hour late – but we were mostly too tired to worry. We wound up with more than enough time to spare and it went off without a hitch – barring a couple technical difficulties and a hilarious line glitch on the part of my husband the Crocodile.

The flight in to Halifax was largely uneventful. I have an interesting relationship with flying. I used to hate it, and was setting myself up to hate it yet again but this time found myself exhilarated as opposed to terrified. Maybe it’s the stronger connection I’ve felt with my namesake ever since going by my full first name instead of Amy. It’s interesting, there isn’t a day that goes by in which I don’t think about Amelia Earhart. I think about what happened to her while she was on the desert island she supposedly inhabited after her crash. I think about her resourcefulness that she surely must have possessed, her strength, her will, all those things. They’re a source of constant inspiration to me and although I joke (constantly) about it I am proud to share her name, although my parents’ sense of humour (and literalism) is not without it’s occasional drawbacks.