A Pretzel with Your Requiem?

     I was smiling as I peeled potatoes earlier in the day, thinking about recent events I’ve attended. One evening I went to a lecture at the Historic Asolo about the painter, Mark Rothko, given by brilliant Ringling Museum curator, Matthew McLendon.  On a subsequent night, I watched the powerful and riveting Dancing with Jenkins at Sailor Circus.  Key Chorale & Orchestra, The Sarasota-Manatee Dance Alliance and the Sarasota Young Voices Chamber Choir performed this unique joint production.

     Potatoes, Rothko and Jenkins are not the unlikely bedfellows they may first appear to be. It turns out that on many Sarasota evenings, a stimulating lecture or a special dance performance could easily follow my favorite mashed potatoes.

     McLendon's Rothko presentation re-sparked my contemplation of the artist’s shimmering canvases that seem to say, "Dive in."  The fact that the lecture was given in a restored 18th century European theater just makes this already fascinating evening, that much more extraordinary, but not atypical for life around this town.

     The same kind of wonderful marriage between performance and setting took place underneath the trapeze of the big top. For one evening only, fifty dancers from various local dance organizations worked together to create this exciting event. This is just the sort of collaboration the newly formed Sarasota-Manatee Dance alliance is all about.

     And for music?  The singers and musicians were moving, beautiful and cohesive, creating a fresh interplay of young and mature voices with the kind of rich sound only a live orchestra could provide.

     But the pressing question of the night for me was: How do you get fifty dancers with varying levels of experience, age, ego and dance exposure to create a gorgeous thirteen section, seamless work of art, with little practice and a makeshift dance floor?  Ask choreographer, Elizabeth Bergmann; clearly she’s a high-octane super talent who knows what she’s doing.

     When it was over, I grabbed a fresh pretzel from the vendor on my way out of the circus arena; my hunger mirrored my post-show enthusiasm.  Just like at the Rothko lecture, I could feel that the audience too, left Dancing with Jenkins, energized, connected and somewhat altered by their hour spent on the magic carpet ride of great entertainment. 

     If an event is good, that stage energy comes home with us and infiltrates our everyday lives. Even the side kick potato and lowly pretzel are newly savored and flavored by the buzz of creativity that fills us up after leaving such perfect worlds as can be found on an ordinary Sarasota night.
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